The Cyclic Game Of Thrones II - Lionesses

Masai Mara National Reserve

When I started to travel, I also began to realize that every society isn’t what it seems to be on the travel brochure footnote or global happiness index. There’s a lot that goes on under the generalized pictures painted by all guides and literature which have their own agenda and filters. I recon that’s why most of us get hooked on travel cause we want to work things out, to see for ourselves, to be surprised, to learn. When travelling for wildlife, you not only get that but you get a lot deeper in it cause you’re spending days on end with locals in the not most hospitable environments and while you’re learning all about the host’s life, you’re also figuring out similar misinterpretations and generalizations about the other creatures of that area who played no role in painting the wrong picture of themselves in the eyes of the world. When our generalizations have been so off the mark for ourselves, can you imagine how off target they have been for voiceless animals?

Ask anyone who the king of the jungle is, even google and the answer will be The Lion. Poor Lion doesn’t even live in a jungle. Wouldn’t survive a week there. See what I’m saying? Growing up, I was given the impression that Lion society is one where one male has a harem which does all the work for him. Literally nothing could be further from the truth. Male and Female Lions have completely divergent lives like I wrote in “The Cyclic Game Of Thrones” where the focus was mostly on the males. Well, it’s the females who actually run the pride cause they’re the permanent members. Most males stay a couple of years and are chased off by younger usurpers. It’s the females who run the pride’s territory while a group of males may have access to and be mating with one or multiple female prides at a time. The males within a coalition have their own pecking order over mating rights and ultimately the choice to breed with a male or not depends on the individual female. There are many instances where females have chosen males who are not from the coalition in close proximity to her pride. Yes, Lions too are known to sneak around and go against the family for love. As for the males, some coalition members may or may not back an individual’s claim to mating rights based on what they see as beneficial to them individually. So yeah, politics all around just like in any society.

The Lion pride’s social structure is hierarchical with related Lionesses at the core and usually controlled by the most experienced females who mainly decide hunting and cub rearing division of labour. The pride raises their cubs communally. We ran into three cubs of the Black Rock pride that were with two Lionesses. One of whom, was nursing them as well. As chance would have it, the other females returned to them while we were there ( Pics : 13 – 16 ). It was very interesting to observe how these little cubs smelt the return of the Lionesses before they were even visible in the tall grass. They ran towards their biological mothers and it was so easy to see who was whose child with all the love and leaps exchanged between the mothers and their cubs when they got back to the area where we found them. So, when the pride moves, the so called Kings don’t have much of a role in deciding where and when. In fact, the males have their own territory to patrol which usually overlaps the pride’s territory. The males are busy keeping other males away to sire as many cubs as they can within their coalition’s territory while the females are trying to socially advance their stature within the pride that they are in. The genders have very divergent goals and are indulging in very different politics within their own gender groups.

Females usually will have nothing to do with the power play of the males and if one group of males is ousted by another, they will accept the new gene pool the change provides for the next generation of the pride. In some cases, we see females leaving a pride when there’s a change of males in the territory. They do that to protect their cubs as the new males kill cubs of the previous sires. These females may form breakaway prides which are also formed due to resource scarcity at times when the pride grows too big. Politics within the pride females is also another reason for the formation of breakaway prides. Exile of individuals male and female from their coalition or pride and their joining other groups is also not uncommon.

Lion life, like I said in “The Cyclic Game Of Thrones” is just that but it’s not so just for the males of their society. It’s that for all within their society. Pretty much like any human group or society as well if you think about it, just look around. Amazing isn’t it how we’re wired and behave so similar despite our so called differences in species, ability, intelligence and skill. Its beautiful yet mind boggling and watching the creatures of this planet is such a satisfying hobby really. Lions are feared cause they eat meat. They’re surviving out there just like the rest of us and it’s your own kind who’ll probably end you if you’re a carnivore in this planet and that’s pretty much true for us as well.

It’s quite the price to pay for social living for all of us at the upper end of the food chain if you think about it. Well, that’s just how it is I guess.