Will lions kill all their cubs?

In the 20 19 global wildlife photography award, there was a photo of a little lion struggling to jump behind the lion, which made many viewers laugh and became the most interesting animal photo in 20 19. The photo is photographer Sarah? Skinner shot it in Sawudi, Chobe National Park, Botswana, Africa.

Some works on the list of comedy wildlife photography awards

Sarah Skinner was filmed in Chobe National Park.

Once this photo was released, it caused great repercussions on the internet all over the world. Netizens said it was very interesting, but for the lion, the next second seems to be less interesting.

But according to Sarah, Skinner said in an interview that at that time, because the lion went straight ahead and was not caught by the little lion behind him, the little lion closed his eyes.

This popular photo is undoubtedly funny, but you know what? It is this photo that hides the survival logic of the whole lion family and the lion's defense of gossip.

Whether the young lion can survive depends largely on the attitude of the lioness. After the release of The Lion King, many people may have seen the live-action version. Although the whole story is very simple, it is an animal version of the prince's revenge, but from the animation to today's live-action version, most viewers are still shocked by the vivid pictures inside, and at the same time have a lot of understanding of the whole life habits of lions.

But movies are movies after all. It has its narrative logic and artistic considerations in it, which is naturally different from hard science knowledge. For example, Simba the little lion, Mufasa the old lion and even Scar the villain are all impressed, but few people remember the name of Simba's mother Sarabi. Obviously, in the eyes of movies and audiences, it is not that important.

Lion king stills

But in real life, the role played by the lioness in all aspects is obviously much more important than that of the lion. The lioness is the core member of the pride and the most gregarious.

According to the Zoological Society of London, African lions like to stay with lions, but Asian lions don't like it very much, but both Asian lions and African lions like to live in groups. Most African lions are composed of three adult lions and twelve females and cubs, but some larger lions can accommodate more than 40 members.

proud

The lioness almost never leaves her natural pride after birth. She is the most basic and important part of the pride. On the surface, it seems that the lion is responsible for enclosing and defending the territory, while the lioness is only responsible for it? Have a baby and cook? Yes, but in fact, the size of the lion's territory is entirely determined by the lioness. All a lion needs to do is enter the lions. But the Super League, which is composed of more adult lions, can expand its territory by adding more lions. But for every lioness it owns, its respective territories do not intersect, and it will not be because of * * *? Husband? And merge their respective territories together.

Children are the flowers of the motherland, so are lions, especially female cubs, especially Phalaenopsis in flowers, which can be called the future of lions. How far can a lion grow in the future? On the one hand, it is influenced by factors such as prey and environment, and another important reason is the number of female cubs.

As we all know, male cubs will leave the pride when they grow up to a certain extent, while female cubs will not. They will continue to live in the original pride, so almost all females in the whole pride are related to relatives and friends.

Most lionesses have their own children at the age of 4. The gestation period of a lioness is about 4 months. When the cubs are about to be born, the lioness will stay away from the lions and find a place to give birth alone. In the first six weeks of the cub's birth, the lioness will hide the cub and raise it alone, so as not to let any creature near it. Because the newborn lion is only about one or two kilograms, it is the most helpless and easily influenced by external factors, leading to premature death.

In six weeks, the lioness will return to the pride with her cubs. Influenced by the males who mate with her almost at the same time, most females among lions tend to be pregnant and give birth at the same time. What is the so-called? Young, young, young? All lionesses, including those who give birth, will treat all the cubs in the lion group as their own and contribute all their strength, including breastfeeding. Among lions, it is common for aunts and grandmothers to take care of their cubs.

Most of the lion's survival skills were acquired in The Lion King in his early years. We can see that Mufasa often educates Simba, but the lioness Sarabi doesn't seem to teach her children much. This is just the opposite in real life. This is one of the fastest growing stages in the year when the lioness brings her cubs back to the pride. At this stage, they need to learn various survival skills, including communicating with other individuals, hunting and growling.

What is the most important thing about a lion? Master? It's its mother or aunts. A few lions in Africa will help with education, and even less in Asia.

Simba and Mufasa

The lion's main learning stage is in childhood. Among lions, he can learn the skills of his elders through observation and imitation, and he can also practice the skills he has learned through chasing and fighting with his companions. The whole process lasted until the lion began to hunt for the first time. When his first hunt was over, did it mean it was smooth? Graduation? Become a lion who can fight side by side with mom and grandma.

In the later life, if there are no accidents, these little lions will gradually mature and become the backbone of the lions, and have their own children to inherit these survival skills.

African lions like to inhabit savanna or semi-arid open areas. They usually surround their prey with ambushes and short-range pursuits. Most of the prey they hunt are large prey, such as antelope, zebra and wildebeest. According to the Smithsonian National Zoo, lions can kill prey weighing up to 450 kilograms, but sometimes they also prey on smaller animals, such as mice and birds.

In documentaries, we can often see the scene of lions hunting. The female lion is the most important member, and the male lion occasionally takes part in the action, especially in the case of large prey.

Lion hunting scene

Lions first chase their prey at a speed of 60-80 kilometers per hour. When they are about to catch up with their prey, one of them will pounce on the prey's back to slow them down, and then other lions will come from all directions to help. Finally, the lion will bite its prey by the neck, kill it or suffocate it.

Let's take a look at this popular champion photo again. The action of the lion cub is exactly the same as that of the lion when hunting, which shows that the lion has mastered the hunting ability as early as the young lion period, but with the increase of weight and age, the lethality will become more and more serious.

Lions don't kill all their cubs. In many articles, lions are advertised as a fierce killing machine. No matter how far they are, they will kill all the male cubs, but in fact they are not. The lion's killing behavior is not limited to male cubs, and it will not kill them all, but has a purpose.

For lions, they have been fighting all their lives. The purpose of fighting is not to expand territory, but to mate. For them, leaving their offspring is a great event, and it is worth fighting for all their lives.

The lioness will not be in estrus from pregnancy to 2 years old, but once the cub dies or disappears for some reason, the lioness will return to estrus in a short time. It is precisely because of this that when a group of lions completes the replacement of new and old lions, if there are a large number of cubs, it means that a large number of lionesses will not be in estrus. This is unacceptable for a lion who has just become the lion king, so it must kill or drive away all its cubs. For a lion, it can't raise children for other lions.

The lion killed the cub.

The little lion in the photo is pouncing on the hind legs of the adult lion. From such behavior, we can easily see that this should be a father-son relationship or an uncle-nephew relationship. So the content of this photo is the lion's strongest defense against gossip. The lion's attitude towards its cubs is not to kill them all. At least, he won't kill his children. As the cubs grow up, he will play the role of the next father.

Some people may say that this is just the attitude of the male lion to the female lion cub. If it is a male cub, will it bite and kill people to prevent it from becoming an opponent in adulthood?

The inheritance of the lion throne is not based on inheritance as in The Lion King, but on? Fist? Speaking of which, in fact, in the lion family, your own son? It is possible for a lion to become his own opponent, but the fact that the lion has to go through the vagabond family law makes this less likely to happen.

When the little lion was a minor, like other little lions, he was obedient to the lion king, so the lion king without hostility would not kill his son. It has long been proved that even he is famous for killing people? Bad boy? The league, its boss, Englalarik, is often photographed with his children and enjoying family life in the comfortable time after he entered the pride group.

Bad boys union

When the little lion grew up, his personality gradually emerged. If he can show enough obedience in front of his father at this time, he can stay in the pride until he is fully mature, but most sub-adult lions are not so quiet. They gradually become irritable in their daily lives and often have conflicts with their fathers.

At this stage, the lion king gradually realized his son's disobedient character and slowly burly figure, so he made a move. Subadult lions are still not strong enough. How can they be rivals of father and uncle? So they were kicked out.

Lions' wandering is a process that lions have to go through all their lives in order to keep them away from inbreeding. The main force of stray lions is the above-mentioned sub-adult lions that have been driven out of the pride, and a small number of them are defeated but not dead adult lions.

If a large number of sub-adult lions are expelled from a group of lions, they will form an alliance on the spot. Generally, the biggest and strongest brotherhood is the leader, and other brotherhood supports it unconditionally.

If a lion group is very small and only one sub-adult lion is driven out, then it will form a stable group with other unrelated lions in the same situation. Lions know very well that only by forming an alliance can they capture prey more efficiently and compete for territory.

A fight between lions

In fact, letting lions wander is just a way for lion species to avoid inbreeding. After all, the females in the whole lion group have an indescribable blood relationship with themselves.

Most animals in the world have their own survival rules, such as hyenas. The way they avoid inbreeding is to let the male hyenas in the group leave and accept the male hyenas who run away from other groups in order to make a big difference. The way for tigers to avoid inbreeding is that male offspring will settle as far away from their original place as possible.

Hyenas and their cubs

At this stage of wandering, these sub-adult lions constantly hone their skills through hunting and fighting. In the process of wandering, they will take the initiative to find lions that can enter the house. They have their own judgment on this matter.

For example, a wandering youth league composed of three lions will definitely not attack the lions guarded by five lions, but will look for an alliance below three lions as an opponent. Of course, it does not rule out that some lions are very big and can fight four with three.

As a charming cat, the lion enjoys a high reputation all over the world and often appears in some literary works or film and television dramas. However, it is precisely because of this that some false rumors are widely spread as common sense. In fact, when we go back to animal science, we will find that there is a set of survival logic behind most of the things that lions do, just like the actions that the little lion makes when playing in the first photo, and it is also the posture that it kills all kinds of prey in the future.