Riveted
A lion pride consists of a few adult males, related females and cubs. Females form the stable social unit in a pride and do not tolerate outside females. Membership only changes with the births and deaths of lionesses, although some females leave and become nomadic. The average pride consists of around 15 lions, including several adult females and up to four males and their cubs of both sexes. Groups of female lions typically hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates. In a pride, lionesses do most of the hunting. In typical hunts, each lioness has a favoured position in the group, either stalking prey on the “wing” then attacking or moving a smaller distance in the centre of the group and capturing prey fleeing from other lionesses. An adult lioness requires an average of about 5 kg of meat per day. Pride lionesses often synchronise their reproductive cycles and communal rearing and suckling of the young, which suckle indiscriminately from any or all of the nursing females in the pride. Lionesses with cubs of their own are more likely to be tolerant of another lioness’s cubs than lionesses without cubs. Females have a typical weight range of 120 to 182 kg.
