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thestudyofanimalbehavior · 11 years

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Agressive Social Behavior of Serengeti Lions

It's no peachy life for the Serengeti lion. They are known to hold a distinct social behavior unlike that of other animals. Not only are they the only felines to group together and form social groups, but they are also very aggressive towards each other, the males in particular.

This isn't anything new, in many social animals males are known to become aggressive towards each other in order to secure the 'king' role in the herd. But, David Quammen, author of lion book Monster of God as well as this article, has hypothesized a different reason behind their aggression motives. "Continual risk of death, even more than the ability to cause it, is what shapes the social behavior of this ferocious but ever jeopardized animal," he says.

The lions and lionesses form their groups in an attempt to fight off death, in all it's forms, of which there are many. There are countless reasons why many are better than few and why the lions' attempts to stay together are most likely for the best. Just like the elephants from the previous article I read, the lions' work is to ensure movement of their genes into the next generation.

Within lion prides, each sex has a responsibility. The lionesses mainly do the hunting as well as taking care of the children. It is the males that have to take on the greatest threat, other lions. The males main priority is to protect their pride and not allow other males to take it over. If they do, chaos occurs. In order for the new males in charge to be able to mate with the females, they must first have to kill their cubs (infanticide) in order to reproduce with the female again. They also don't want to run the risk of raising a cub that is not of their genes. The risk of death is what drives this social behavior.

Death comes up again and again as territory is invaded by unwanted guests. Lioness kills lioness, lion kills lion, lion kills cub, lioness kills cub, any situation can and has happened in order to protect, defend, and push their genes into the new generation. 'Dog eat dog' doesn't even begin to cover it.

All of the information/pictures for the above was found in the following article: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/serengeti-lions/quammen-text

The Short Happy Life of the Serengeti Lion

by David Quammen

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