IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Packer, C. | |
| The Ecology of Sociality in Felids | |
| 1986 Book Chapter | |
Perhaps no mammals are as conspicuously solitary as members of the Felidae, yet the felids include one of the most remarkably social of all mammalian species: the African lion. Because almost all cat species are strictly carnivorous and females are solitary in all species except lions, comparison of the ecology of female lions with that of other felids should reveal the conditions that have resulted in lion sociality. Until now, most reviews of felid sociality have ascribed group living in lions to the "advantages" of cooperative hunting of large prey. However, there has not been a convincing attempt to explain why cooperative hunting would be advantageous in lions but not in any other felid species. Furthermore, as shown below, the available data on hunting success in lions show that individual lions hunting in groups do not gain greater amounts of food than do solitary hunters. In this chapter I briefly contrast lion social organization with that of other felids, compare preference for prey of large body weight across species, and test previous hypotheses about the advantages of group foraging in lions. I show that although females in moderate-size prides have higher reproductive rates, group foraging does not confer obvious advantages in lions, and may even be disadvantageous under certain circumstances. I describe group dynamics in lions and suggest an alternative explanation for lion sociality. Since female lions do most of the hunting in the pride and it is the gregariousness of _female _lions that is so unusual among felids. I will be primarily concerned with the behavior and ecology of females. I briefly review gregariousness in male felids and contrast group formation in male lions with that of females. |
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