lions

lions behavior

• Lioness hunts and males wait

• Live in prides of 3-30 individual (pride size dictated by prey availability)

• Females may stay or leave as a group and form another pride

• Young males disperse from their birth pride and form “coalitions” until they are old enough to take over a pride – then they rule that pride for 2-3 years

• Territorial male gets to end of reign and when new one comes in, they kill the cubs from other generation

  • This is because… lactation produces anestrus (if male comes in and females have cubs… that female won’t have estrus and he can’t procreate)

lioness reproduction

• Gestational length: 110 days

  • Cubs remain with mother for 2 years

  • 1-4 cubs per female

  • Sexually mature between 3-4 years - conceive for the first time at 32-33 months with most lioness having given birth by age 4 years

  • Mating occurs every 15-30 min for several days but lasts only about a minute per time

lioness estrus

Onset of estrus is response to within-pride mechanisms:

• Estrus in pride mates as well as loss of cubs from

  infanticide at pride takeover

• Polyestrous - estrus lasts 4-7 days with an interval b/w

  periods of 2 weeks and up to more than a year

• Have postpartum estrus but do not conceive if litter

  survives

  • But if there is loss a new one can be produced

    within 4 months

lion reproduction

• Sexually mature around 26 months but unlikely to breed before age 4 or 5 due to lack of opportunity (not large enough to take over a pride and its breeding rights)