African Lion

FALSO

FALSO

Mamíferos

Activity patterns. Lions usually hunt at night, but there are exceptions. Major hunting peaks usually occur between 02: 00 h and 04: 00 h, but in Etosha, most hunts occurred from 21: 30 - 22: 30 h. In Botswana’s Chobe National Park, Lions seem to be most successful on moonless nights. Hunting levels may be increased during storms, when noise, wind, and waving vegetation make it difficult for prey to detect Lions. They will sleep and rest, usually in compact groups, for long periods when satiated. They avoid exerting themselves during the heat of the day. Although a terrestrial species, they are good climbers and will sometimes drape themselves along branches of trees to take advantage of cool breezes and avoid flies or dangerous animals. Resting periods are interrupted by short periods of intense activity when hunting or exhibiting aggression. Their roar can, under optimal conditions, be heard from as far as 5 km away, appears to serve to demarcate territory, and may be individually distinctive. Prides often indulge in communal roaring. They also use scats, urine spraying, and scrapes for demarcation.

Habitat. Lions have a wide habitat tolerance. They are not found in dense lowland forests of West Africa and the Congo Basin, but will penetrate deep into desert, especially along avenues of watercourses. They are common in semi-desert areas. They will drink when water is available, but are not dependent on it, getting their moisture requirements from their prey and even plants (tsamma melon in the Kalahari Desert). Optimal habitat appears to be open woodlands and thick bush, scrub, and grass complexes, providing ample supply of food in the form of medium to large-sized ungulates, some shade for resting in the heat of the day, and the barest of cover to facilitate stalking of prey. Range up to 4000 m in Ethiopia. The Lion formerly ranged from North Africa through south-west Asia, where it disappeared from most countries within the last 150 years, west into Europe, where it became extinct almost 2000 years ago, and east into India. Lions survived in the central Saharan Desert on the edge of the Air Mountains until about 60 years ago.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Mostly sedentary but some populations follow migratory prey seasonally. Some individuals nomadic, especially males and subadults. In the arid savanna of Etosha National Park Lions move a mean 13 - 2 km in 24 hours; in the S Kalahari an average 15 - 2 km (range 11 - 34 km). In contrast, Serengeti Lions averaged 4 - 5 - 6 - 5 km in 24 hours. Pride home range size varies from 25 - 226 km?, but can be considerably larger in low prey density areas, e. g., Etosha National Park, with up to 2075 km ®. In some areas there is an overlap of home ranges but in others ranges are largely exclusive, and actively defended, meriting the term territories. Whether ranges are defended appears to be dependent on the local movement of prey species. Average emigration / mortality of pride Lions in Etosha National Park was 17 %. Core unit of the Lions’ matriarchial society is the pride, which consists of a group of related females, none dominant, and their cubs. Pride size, measured by the number of adult females, varies from a minimum average of 2 - 2 in very arid environments to an average of 4 - 6, up to eight in year-round high prey-density areas like the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. Maximum pride size was 39. Subspecies persica has on average smaller prides of 2 - 5 females. Prides are “ fission-fusion ” social units. Membership is stable, but pride members are often scattered in small subgroups throughout the pride’s range, and each member spends considerable time alone. Female pride members display several cooperative behaviors unique among felids, giving birth in synchrony, raising cubs communally, with allosuckling of cubs and cooperative hunting. Males, for the short time they are living together with females, concentrate their energy on defending their tenure over the pride (s). In Etosha males only participated in 4 % of 461 hunting opportunities, in the Serengeti in only 3 %, but more recent studies show that males elsewhere are efficient hunters, tackling especially large and dangerous prey like Buffalo. Prides often divide into smaller sub-groups when foraging. In some regions there is a complex division of labor among lionesses. Some, often larger and heavier individuals, repeatedly play the role of “ center ”, and others the role of “ wing ”, chasing the prey towards the “ center ”. A single male or coalition of up to seven males holds tenure over one or more prides, and effectively excludes strange males from siring cubs with pride females. The average tenure is only 2 - 3 years. Only in exceptional cases do male Lions breed with related pride females. Coalition males in preand post-tenure periods hunt and scavenge cooperatively. Larger coalitions of 4 - 6 males can maintain tenure more than twice as long as 1 - 2 males. Coalitions of more than four males are always related, but pairs frequently consist of unrelated males. Despite maternal defense, infanticide is common when males take over a new pride. Most females with dependent cubs lose their cubs within a month of takeover, and pregnant females lose the cubs shortly after giving birth. In this way, males assure paternity during their short reproductive lifetime. Females show a burst of heightened sexual activity for about three months following a takeover, attracting other males and encouraging competition. This ensures that the fittest coalition is able to gain tenure. Females remain infertile during this “ testing ” phase, and afterwards, when tenure has stabilized, tend to breed in synchrony. Litters born synchronously have a higher survival rate and tend to show a sex ratio biased towards males. Sociality in Lions may have evolved to increase hunting success on very large prey, defense of young and kills, maintenance of long term territories, and insurance against individual injury or incapacity.