There are only three types of cat society known:
- Housecat colonies.
And their rescuers. Wildlife biologists suspect that feral cats form colonies because of something having to do with their domesticated roots — the African wildcat (Fluffy’s ancestor) never socializes in groups.
- Coalitions (male cheetahs).
Things get tense when two groups meet — read the lengthy note at the YouTube page to fully appreciate this drama, which ended without bloodshed.
- Lion prides.
A brief introduction.
The other thirty-plus feline species are all solitary, except at mating time.
Why are lions ultra-social?
34. No one really knows why lions form prides.
The reason seems obvious — team effort improves hunting success — but it doesn’t stand up to close inspection.
Study after study shows that teamwork during a hunt is important — for wolves, wild dogs, and hyenas.
But not for lions.
Sure, coordinated hunting does happen sometimes, but members of a pride successfully hunt alone, too.
They can be scattered over such a large area that the lion’s roar must be heard for miles to call everyone together again.
Something more complex seems to be going on with the cats (is any cat lover surprised by this?).
It probably has to do with lionesses — the core of any pride.
Lionesses in a pride are always related.
If food is plentiful, other female cats (and many other mammals) will let their grown-up daughters live nearby, but that’s usually a case of two adult strangers tolerating one another when they accidentally meet.
Only lionesses have this continuing close social bond.
Males are not so lucky.
Like all other cats (and most mammals), Sonny Boy gets the heave-ho when he reaches sexual maturity and must find a territory for himself (either singly or, taking a cue from cheetahs, as part of a coalition).
The brothers Tau and Banda do not have an easy time of it.
Most male cats at this point in their lives establish and defend a hunting range for themselves that includes as many female territories as possible.
Not lions. Their goal is to meet females. Period.
This means pride takeovers — a brutal business that also involves infanticide, banishment of younger lions, and the death of lionesses that try to protect their young from the new “king.”
The end result, though, is a stable family group of females who mate with different physically fit lions every two to two and a half years (the typical length of time between pride takeovers).
So — survival of the fittest, then?
Well, it’s definitely that but studies also show that reproduction in solitary cats is just as effective.
If prides existed merely to give lions a reproductive edge, other cats would have them, too. No other cat does, including species that live out on open plains — another suggested (but not yet confirmed) reason for the existence of lion prides.
Experts continue their studies; the lions go about their business; and maybe some day H. sapiens will finally figure out why those lions have found such a unique way to live.
That isn’t the only secret lions are keeping from us.
35. Two other mysteries are the mane and that tail tassel.
These don’t seem too mysterious — until someone reads up on them (say, for a book on fangly wild cat facts) and discovers that they can be explained in different ways.
The mane
Yellow, brown, or reddish, the mane starts growing in as a young lion matures; once full, it then darkens over time.
Mane thickness and length vary from lion to lion, with some individuals sporting a majestic rug at one extreme, and at the other, lions with pitifully thin, patchy ruffs of straggling hairs.
Charles Darwin felt that a lion’s mane is there to protect its neck and shoulders during fights. Some online videos of lion fights support this, but experts point out that the mane isn’t necessary — lions usually go for the back and hindquarters.
Instead of self-defense, these experts argue, the mane’s condition signals its owner’s fitness for both mating and fighting.
That certainly ties in with the mane’s connection to puberty. Another hormonal connection might be that lionesses occasionally develop some mane-like fur for reasons that absolutely no one understands.
Careful field work in the Serengeti has shown that (unmaned) lionesses prefer mates with dark manes.
The drawback to having such “fur coats,” though, is overheating in summer temperatures.
Not to worry, reply the experts; handling heat stress again advertises the lion’s fitness.
Others are of the opinion that lions lose that extra heat through other parts of their body. These people are studying the extinct cave lion, which ice-age humans drew as male and as not having a mane.
To the researchers, this means that the cave lion must have had a thick coat, though I don’t see it in the cave art.
With no way to get rid of excess body heat, they say, cave lions wouldn’t grow a mane.
It seems counterintuitive to me. Wouldn’t the lion be more efficient at hunting and siring cubs if it wore the “fur coat” during ice-age conditions and ran around in “short sleeves” now, when it’s warm?
It’s a fascinating topic and debate will continue as new discoveries are made and clearer insights become possible.
The tail tassel
Easy-peasy — lions use it for jackal fishing!
Cave lions AND modern lions have this big tuft of hair on their tail tip.
It first shows up when a male or female cub is about six months old, sometimes atop a bony knob protruding from the tail.
Almost certainly it’s used as a signal and perhaps also as a way to identify individuals.
However, all cats do this.
The rest of Family Felidae just flicks their tail, revealing light-colored fur underneath (which shows up nicely in dim light).
Why did lions, out of all the other cats, have to evolve a tail tassel?
Jackal fishing…
Is it because they live in prides and need to communicate in special ways, or could there be other reasons?
Jackal. Fishing.
Speaking of counterintuitive…
36. Lions might be the only big cat with a complete roar.
This will be a very short fact because I am only quoting a single source (Kitchener et al.), but it goes against everything we think we know about big cats, a/k/a the roaring cats.
The boffins recorded various big cat vocalizations and then analyzed the sounds with sonography and other acoustic tools.
They found that only the lion has a complete structured roar.
Here — decide for yourself with this YouTube compilation of roaring lions!
For comparison, here is:
- A tiger
jump scareroar:
- A leopard “roaring” (the technical term is “sawing” — jaguars do this, too);
Yes, we’ve seen this in other posts, but it is a classic!
More than a hundred years, seven lions (and friends):
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Sources include:
Freedman, E. 2023. Why do lions have manes? https://www.livescience.com/animals/lions/why-do-lions-have-manes
Kitchener, A. C.; Van Valkenburgh, B.; and Yamaguchi, N. 2010. Felid form and function, in Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids, ed. Macdonald, D. W., and Loveridge, A. J., 83-106. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Macdonald, D. W.; Mosser, A.; and Gittleman, J. L. 2010. Felid society. Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids, 125-160.
Nagel, D.; Hilsberg, S.; Benesch, A.; and Scholz, J. 2003. Functional morphology and fur patterns in Recent and fossil Panthera species. Scripta Geologica, 126, 227-240.
Packer, C. 2014. 19. The Ecology of Sociality in Felids. Ecological aspects of social evolution: birds and mammals, 460, 429.
San Diego Zoo. Wildlife Explorers. 2023. Tale of the tail. https://sdzwildlifeexplorers.org/stories/something-roar-about#:~:text=Tale%20of%20the%20tail,each%20other%20during%20a%20hunt
Sunquist, M. and Sunquist, F. 2002. Wild Cats of the World. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=IF8nDwAAQBAJ
University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences. 2023. Lion Research Center FAQs. https://cbs.umn.edu/lion-research-center/all-about-lions/frequently-asked-questions
West, P. 2005. The lion’s mane. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-lions-mane#:~:text=Figure%203.,and%20claws%20of%20other%20lions.
Flight To Wonder 