Learn About Lions in the Wild
Q:All cat species live single lives, more or less.But lions are social? How do you explain that?
Well, lions are not really social, though they live in prides. There have been many attempts to explain why lions join together, but none of them seem really convincing. To us, the reason why lions formed alliances with other lions seems rather straightforward. Let’s start with the females. In terms of lion evolution, these are animals that can tackle large prey. There is huge competition among the many African predator species for small and medium-sized prey. But only lions can take on buffalos, giraffes, hippos, and even elephants. But this takes teamwork, and likely it began with a lion female and her offspring. Lions who joined together survived better, and raised more cubs compared with lions who decided to remain asocial. Male lions who formed coalitions were better able to take over a pride of females in competition with single males. But all of this is not to say lions are really social. African Wild Dogs are always together as a pack, but lion pride members frequently split off individually or as small groups. It is as yet an uncomfortable sociality but a profitable one. Look to the European Union as an example?
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We have also published a number of research papers on lions and lion conservation which you can download for free.
