GARTH IRVINE – Zoo Keeper, Calgary Zoo

As a child I was fascinated by the society of lions. I was in awe of the role of the male lion in the pride. It truly appeared he was there just to be beautiful & be waited on by females around him. I’ve learned through my schooling & through my role as a lion zookeeper at the Calgary Zoo that life as a male lion is not as easy as it seems.

Lions are the most social of all cats. The pride is based on the relatedness of all of the females which is the pride core. Also in the pride are related sisters, aunts, nieces, mothers & grandmothers. A female will likely live in the same pride her whole life. There is a dominance hierarchy within the group of females. An individual’s status may change from time to time, but overall life for the females is relatively calm.

If a pride gets too large & times are good, some of these females may set out to start a new pride. It is true the females due the majority of the hunting & it is also true that the females provide much of the food the male eats. The females may hunt in a group to bring down large prey like wildebeest or zebra or they may be more opportunistic when alone & take smaller prey which they eat themselves. All of the females in the pride breed & the females will collectively look after the cubs. They nurse any of the cubs & all cubs are treated like their own. This is an advantage in securing the transfer of their genes to the next generation as they are so closely related.

The male’s life is very different--not much stability here! About the time the male becomes sexually mature, if he lives that long, the resident breeding male makes it very clear his presence is not wanted & he is forced out of the pride. He will often leave with a brother or two & they will travel together & hunt cooperatively. Their goal is to take over a pride of their own. Chances are they will have a nomadic life for a few years, just waiting to reach their physical prime. At this time, the goal is to overthrow the reigning male in a pride which may be done alone or with the help of a brother.

If they are successful, & these fights may be to the death, the victors become the protectors of the pride & their role is to defend the territory. If you have been to Africa you may have heard or even felt the vibrations of the deep repetitive territorial lion vocalization. These vocalizations let the members of the pride know where each other are & let other lions -particularly other males know - that this territory is occupied & will be defended.

One of the first things a male will do when he is the new breeding male is to kill the entire nursing young. He will not eat the young, just remove them from the picture. Nursing young suppress the reproductive cycling of the females & those females will not be ready to breed again until the cubs are weaned. If the cubs are gone the females are ready to breed very soon. It may seem unusual but the females do not get involved nor try to protect their young.

This may seem brutal & personally not something I wish to witness, but there is good reason. The male’s tenure is never secure & there is hard to say how long it will last. He needs to pass his genes along & with luck have his cubs grown before he is ousted out of the pride. If he is very lucky he may have several years & see many of his offspring make it to breeding age. If he is not so lucky he may be driven out or killed before his own offspring have been weaned. This may be his only chance to breed & can vanish with the arrival of a stronger male or males.

The resident male is the protector. He protects the territory from other lions & protects the pride kills from other predators. Hyenas will try to steal kills from females but are unlikely to if a male is there to protect it. The male lion will kill any hyena he can get hold of.

Life as the King of the Beasts is not an easy one. Lions fail in their hunting attempts much of the time. One of the leading regulators in the lion’s numbers is the availability of food. Starvation kills many cubs & young inexperienced hunters. Young animals that have left or been driven out of a pride may exist largely as scavengers. Many people on safari don’t wish to witness a kill but I feel incredibly lucky to witness that part of nature. I find that as I learn more about these animals & their somewhat brutal life, I am rooting for them & really want to see them succeed in a hunt & in rearing offspring.

 

Check out upcoming departures with Carol Petersen, Garth Irvine and Peter Llewellyn. *Trip Departures*