Lion Pride Picture
The lion pride provides
these big cats with a unique social structure which allows them to succeed
where as individuals they would have failed to survive. It proved so
successful that 10 000 years ago lions lived on every continent in the
world except Australia.

When the Lion Pride Feeds - John Milbank ©
It couldn't however
protect them against the inexorable spread of man into their habitat and
now in the wild they only occur in a small pocket in India and in
Africa south of the Sahara.
Lion Pride Facts and
Information
None of the other big cat
species worldwide have a pride structure so lions are unique in
that respect.
And one of the reasons it
evolved is that despite their immense strength they are reasonably poor
hunters having neither the speed of the cheetah or the stealth
of the leopard.
In
fact, even when they work as a pride only one in five of their
hunts are successful.
Male lions are driven from the
group when they are between two and four years old and they then have to
fend for themselves until they are strong enough to challenge
another male for domination.
If they can't take over a
pride by toppling the incumbent male, their chances of survival plunge
dramatically but success means that they don't have to hunt for themselves
anymore because the females do that for them and they eat first at any
kill.
In return they need to protect
the females and their cubs against danger which can take many forms on the
African savannah.
When they first take over the males will attempt to kill
any cubs sired by the ousted male in an attempt to get the females to mate
with them sooner. They don't always succeed though, especially if the
lionesses stand together against them.
Social bonds are reinforced
between members with vocalizations, cheek rubbing and grooming which helps
foster peaceful relations between members.
Related Lion Pride Content:
From this website:
Lion
pride pictures
gallery containing photos of cubs, a lion chasing hyena and more...
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