A lion is a large cat that lives in groups centered on females and their young.
Females cooperate in hunting and raising the group’s cubs.
Lionesses share hunting and care of cubs. Females may remain in their birth pride, while young males leave and may travel together. Long-term observation reveals how these relationships shape life in a pride, beyond the moment of a hunt.
In a 2014–2016 study in the eastern Panhandle of the Okavango Delta, northern Botswana, two Airstrip Pride females produced six cubs around January 2015. Two female cubs were recorded surviving to subadulthood by the end of the study. In the Kubu Pride, two of six males aged about three years dispersed from their natal pride.
Among five lions, three males and two females, GPS-tracked in the same area during 2015–2016, individuals that did not normally associate shared home ranges but rarely occurred near one another at similar times. Two males began associating in June 2016. Across the entire study period, all five spent little time within 3 km of villages.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Habitat loss, declining prey and conflict with people threaten lions. Better livestock protection can reduce retaliatory killing.