IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Giraldeau, L.-A.; Gillis, D. | |
| Do lions hunt in group sizes that maximize hunter's daily food returns? | |
| 1988 Animal Behaviour (36): 611 | |
Presumably adaptive nature of lion, Panthera leo, group sizes has resisted the hypotheses of behavioral ecologists for over a decade. Caraco & Wolf (1975) hypothesized that the lions foraged in group sizes that maximized individual daily food intake: the optimal group size. They rejected their hypothesis because Schaller's (1972) data revealed that lions feeding on wildebeest, Connochaetes taurinus, and zebra, Equus burchelli, did so in groups two to three times larger than the optimal size. Recently, however, Clark (1987) formulated a simple Markovian Dynamic Programming model that predicated the correct foraging group size of lions hunting zebra on the basis of maximization of survival given current bodily reserves and gut capacity. Clark's (1987) hypothesis, therefore, is the first that can account for lion foraging group size. The recent development of the concept of stable group size, however, leads us to question both Caraco & Wolf's (1975) rejection of their rate maximization hypothesis and Clark's (1987) test. Caraco & Wolf's test has come under criticism for flaws in both its theoretical predictions and its empirical observations. |
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