Wild Ungulate Prey Size and Feeding Group Demographic Structure Affect Interactions and Per Capita Food Intake of African Pride Lions in East African Maasai Steppe.

ABSTRACT: The African lion (Panthera leo Linnaeus, 1758) has evolved complex associations in which individual survival is an interplay of cooperation among pride members. Although feeding behaviors of African lions are widely known, our understanding of how age and sex classes affect per capita intake of other individual members in a pride remains unclear. This study used long-term population monitoring data collected from 2004 to 2023 to assess how prey size and feeding group composition affect different age/sex class interactions and per capita food intake of African lion cubs, subadults, adult males, and adult females. The results indicate that African lion feeding group composition and interaction patterns at carcasses were affected by prey size. Cub per capita food intake was reduced by

SUBMITTER: Tomeka TO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12304429 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature