IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group Library

IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library

View printer friendly
Bygott, J.D.; Bertram, B.C.R.; Hanby, J.P.
Male lions in large coalitions gain reproductive advantages
1979 Nature (282): 839-841
Cooperation between two or more individuals has been shown to yield short-term benefits in several vertebrate species, and various hypotheses have been developed to explain the evolution of cooperative behaviour. However, until now there has been no evidence to show that such cooperation actually does confer lifetime's reproductive advantages on more than one member of the coalitions concerned. Long-term studies of wild lions (Panthera leo L.) have now provided such evidence. We show that, compared with singletons and pairs, male lions in groups of three or more can more reliably gain tenure of female prides, retain tenure for longer, mate with more different females, and produce more surviving offspring; thus each individual has higher fitness through cooperation.
	PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here