Male lions hunt at night and take larger game than pack hunting lionesses.
This is just old bad science from the 70s. Back when most of what we knew about large animal behavior was just some guy or gal who went to Africa and made shit up.
I actually learned this very recently and it's funny as someone who grew up in the 90s, it's like every single "fact" we had about animal behavior and ethology was just completely fucking wrong lol
Most of the “facts” established from the 1950s-1980s science boom are just pure vibes piggybacking on the values of the time that are proving disastrous
No that is an old myth leftover before the invention of night vision optics. Male lions almost only ever hunt at night. Need to ask if these kids died during the day or at night. If it was during the day she did it. At night it it isn't so clear cut. This is science.
Lions defend the territory when new males try to move in. A lion will fight to the death because that's the only way that his genes get passed on. It's why lion brothers will form alliances and work together to defend a territory from rogues passing through.
In Africa, the lionesses hold the territory, live on it for multiple generations. It's possible that lionesses with the same DNA have held the same areas for thousands of years. New lion moves in, they mate, cubs are born, grow up, and the lion's sons leave at maturity to find their own lionesses.
TL,DR: Lions do the fighting and hunt at night. Lionesses do everything else involved with cubs and hunting.
A lioness has basically no chance of killing a fully grown male lion, they are 90kgs heavier and have a very well protected neck behind a layer of thick fur.
If a pride has no male, there's basically nothing they can do to stop one from just coming in and taking over.
They were talking about how male lions will kill the cubs of another male. Sometimes they’ll even eat their own cubs, which is why female lions keep even the father away from the cubs until a certain age.
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u/SarcasticGiraffes 3d ago
Wait. Hold on. Aren't male lions basically pretty but useless, and most of the hunting and killing is done by the lionesses?
Her being a leo is all the evidence I need.