Hi All,

There are instances which we humans find astonishing and are left in awe, these instances becomes tales and legends.
Legends are what attaches us with these animals as we try to see parallels in our lives.

These legends gives us insights of the majestic and mysterious animal lives, and their behaviour. 

This forum is about the tales & legends of lions.

Please share the source of information, and as much detail as possible.


Thanks

Good Day Everyone,

I'm new here, and I have followed few threads and found these very interesting. 
I came here having fews questions, and reading the threads raised more questions for me. 


This can a thread about the questions about Lion behaviour and their overall lives.


First question:

There are instances when a lioness mates with a lion from outside the ruling pride. What happens when ruling coalition lions find out about these sneaked mating? Have there been any recorded or observed cases where the coalition lions have found out about these mating or what happens to litter born out of these mating, do coalition lions accept them?

To insert a url you simply have to paste it. Like this:
https://m.patrika.com/jabalpur-news/indi...p-3957226/

But if you want to insert it in a text like this then first select the desired text...




...& click/tap on this shown button:


Paste the desired link in the bar & press "insert".

---

If you've downloaded some PDF etc. & want to attach that, then see below the reply typing box for this:


Press "Choose files" which will take you to you device memory. After you're done press "Add Attachment".

That's it!
Post the reply & the attachment will be shown below the post.

For any kind of confusion, feel free to ask...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...O956-iE4Eo  
  
Bird beaks did not adapt to food types as previously thought
January 22, 2019
University of Bristol
A new study has shed some new light on how the beaks of birds have adapted over time. 
 
A study, led by the University of Bristol, has shed some new light on how the beaks of birds have adapted over time.

The observation that Galapagos finch species possessed different beak shapes to obtain different foods was central to the theory of evolution by natural selection, and it has been assumed that this form-function relationship holds true across all species of bird.
However, a new study published in the journal Evolution suggests the beaks of birds are not as adapted to the food types they feed on as it is generally believed.
An international team of scientists from the United Kingdom, Spain and the US used computational and mathematical techniques to better understand the connection between beak shapes and functions in living birds.
By measuring beak shape in a wide range of modern bird species from museum collections and looking at information about how the beak is used by different species to eat different foods, the team were able to assess the link between beak shape and feeding behaviour.
Professor Emily Rayfield, from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, and senior author of the study, said: "This is, to our knowledge, the first approach to test a long-standing principle in biology: that the beak shape and function of birds is tightly linked to their feeding ecologies."
 
Guillermo Navalón, lead author of the study and a final year PhD student at Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, added: "The connection between beak shapes and feeding ecology in birds was much weaker and more complex than we expected and that while there is definitely a relationship there, many species with similarly shaped beaks forage in entirely different ways and on entirely different kinds of food.

"This is something that has been shown in other animal groups, but in birds this relationship was always assumed to be stronger."

Co-author, Dr Jesús Marugán-Lobón from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, said: "These results only made sense when you realise birds use the beak for literally everything!

"Therefore, also makes sense they evolved a versatile tool not just for getting food, but also to accomplish many other tasks."

The study is part of a larger research effort by the team in collaboration with researchers from other universities across Europe and the US to better understand the main drivers of the evolution of the skull in birds.

Dr Jen Bright, co-author from the University of South Florida, said: "We have seen similar results before in birds of prey, but this is the first time we studied the link between beak shape and ecology across all bird groups.
"We looked at a huge range of beak shapes and feeding ecologies: hummingbirds, eagles, parrots, puffins, flamingos, pretty much every beak you can think of." 
 
Guillermo Navalón added: "These results have important implications for the study of fossil birds.

"We have to be careful about inferring ecology in ancient birds, which we often assume based solely on the shape of the beak.

"Really, we're just starting to scratch the surface, and a lot more research is needed to fully understand the drivers behind beak shape evolution."
This research was funded by The Alumni Foundation, University of Bristol; the Spanish MINECO and the RCUK BBSRC funding.

Post any images, accounts or studies related to Semi/Domesticated Bovines.



Jiju Atheena‎

Nikon D 7100 +Sigma 70-200 mm f 2.8 lens
@ 70 mm , F 4.5 , 1/800, ISO 500 ,
Date 10 AUG 2017 
Location : Alathur , Palakkadu, Kerala.
( Full screen view recommended )

*This image is copyright of its original author

Raja preying on domestic bison

Kaziranga Tiger chasing down domestic cattle

In 2017, the Cat Classification Taskforce of the Cat Specialist Group revised felid subspecies, including for the lion, and they recognised 2 subspecies: the northern Panthera leo leo for lions in Asia and northern parts of Africa (including the northern part of Central Africa), and the southern Panthera leo melanochaita for lions in southern parts of Africa (including in East Africa), but there's a problem, if you look closely at their map of lion subspecies in Page 72: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...=y#page=72 
   

They put a question mark over Ethiopia in Northeast Africa, and said "There have been several recent molecular studies, which confirm that there is a clear divergence between the lions of eastern and southern Africa and those from the rest of range (e.g. Dubach et al. 2013, Barnett et al. 2014). Barnett et al. (2014) identify five phylogeographical groups, which have differentiated genetically from each other over the last c. 80,000 years. However, two of these groups are partly sympatric in southern Africa, making their recognition as separate subspecies inappropriate. The divergence of the other three groups, which range from Central and West Africa to India, has been very recent (c. 50,000 years ago or less). Asian lions, which have frequently been recognised as a distinct subspecies have only colonised SW Asia within the last 20,000 years. However, this is far earlier than the suggestion by Thapar et al. (2013) that lions were introduced to India from East Africa from the 17th Century by the Mughals. Mazák (2010) analysed craniometric variation, although some populations were poorly represented, e.g. West Africa, and found a broadly similar pattern of variation with the main differentiation in skull shape being between lions in southern and eastern Africa and those in the rest of the range. Bertola et al. (2011, 2016) have confirmed this basic pattern of differentiation into two subspecies based on genetic data; one from south and east Africa and one from the rest of the range. The contact zone is somewhere in Ethiopia. On the basis of these recent studies, we recognise two subspecies, although morphological diagnoses are currently unknown: 

Panthera leo leo (Linnaeus, 1758). Distribution: Central and West Africa and India; formerly throughout North Africa, SE Europe, the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, SW Asia. 

Panthera leo melanochaita (Hamilton Smith, 1842). Distribution: Southern and eastern Africa."

To put it simply, according to the CSG, using the work of Bertola et al. on lion genetics, the ranges of the northern (P. l. leo) and southern (P. l. melanochaita) lion subspecies meet at Ethiopia, and thus classifying Ethiopian lions (formerly Panthera leo abyssinica or Panthera leo roosevelti in honour of the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who used to go hunting in Africa: https://archive.org/stream/smithsonianmi...3/mode/2up) is difficult.

If you remember, Ethiopian lions at Addis Abeba Zoo had earlier been in the news for their genetic makeup, like in National Geographic, after Bruche et al. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...8-5#page-2) determined them to be "genetically distinct": https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2012...-is-found/ 



A lion discovered in Bale Mountains National Park, National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/an...video.aspx



However, as per Bertola et al. (https://www.nature.com/articles/srep3080..._evolution), they're not alone, and this appears to be a reason why the Addis Abeba lions, despite being in East Africa, were found to be different to wild lions in that region, such as Tanzania: 







According to Bertola et al., the Horn of African country of Ethiopia, part(s) of Somalia or Somaliland (from where Panthera leo somaliensis or Panthera leo webbiensis was described: https://web.archive.org/web/201707281311...ra_leo.pdf), and possibly northern parts of Kenya and Uganda (from where Panthera leo nyanzæ was described: https://archive.org/stream/smithsonianmi...5/mode/2up) in East Africa, and the southeastern part of South Sudan, are where the northern and southern lion groups overlap. In addition, the ranges of the 2 groups are depicted as being close in the northeastern part of D. R. Congo, from where Panthera leo azandicus was described: https://archive.org/stream/bulletinameri...3/mode/2up

A lion in Somaliland / Somalia in the Horn of Africa, photo by Feisal Omar of Reuters: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-self...of-china-1 



Northeast Congolese lion (formerly Panthera leo azandica) at Virunga National Park, photo by Adrian Treves: https://savevirunga.com/2012/07/02/1-000...irunga-10/ 



Ugandan lion (formerly Panthera leo nyanzæ) in Murchison Falls National Park, adjacent to Virunga Park, photo in Mariana Tourist Hotel: https://marianahthotel.wordpress.com/saf...onal-park/ 



Another northern Ugandan lion in Kidepo Valley National Park, just south of South Sudan, photo in Ultimate Expeditions: https://ultimateexpeditions.com/kidepo-v...ional-park 


South Sudanese lion at Boma National Park, photo in Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/570760952752139229/ 



Counting northern Kenyan lions, by the Lion Recovery Fund: https://www.lionrecoveryfund.org/project...de-survey/ 

Help us to find well written and informative posts of members to feature in our Top Posts of the Month section.

1. What is this?
- Well in order to stand out the best quality posts written by our hard working members we have created a section Top posts of the month in which we create one thread every month and keep adding those high quality posts which are written in that month. These good quality posts takes lot of time and effort to produce and therefore they deserve special attention of our members and audience.

2. How we can help and why?
- You, as a member of WildFact community can help us find them. Sometime we mod miss these great posts for obvious reasons. Having you guys as our eye help us to scan these posts easily and we can put them in respective thread of the month.

3. Okay, I want to Help, But what is the process?
- Thank you, Below are the steps you can follow to nominate the best post of the month and help mods in choosing them:

a) Click on "Report" button below the post you want to nominate. 


b) As soon as you click the "Report" Button you will see the pop-up. Click on the drop-down box for "Report reason:"... or not. 
"Post of the month" is already the default reason.


c) Click on "Report Post" button to send it for processing.


Thats it! You are done. You will see the acknowledgement and thank you message as shown in the below image. 


Wonderful, you have learn all the step needed to nominate a post.

4. Should I know something else?
- well you can nominate posts as told above but select the post from that month only and don't select normal or ordinary posts, Since we want special post in this thread therefore choose those which have originality, research and great information. The final rights to select or reject a post is reserved to moderators panel. So don't feel bad or offensive if your nominated post is not approved.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/worms-fr...a_A06azCjc  
  
These Worms Unfrozen After More Than 30,000 Years Are Now The Oldest Living Animals On Earth
Published July 27, 2018

@Kingtheropod Post Body Mass of Bengal tiger in Modern Records: Revised (2019)

Excerpt
Hello everyone, I have decided to make a new revision of the body mass of Bengal tiger in modern records. This list included the weights of 30 male tigers, with a few others not included. The average body weight is 492 lbs (223 kg).....

Read the full post CLICK HERE

Mod Note:
If you find other informative post. Please report to mods.
Click on "Report" Button select "Other" and write "Nomination for Top post." in reason box

Official trailer of the new version of "The Lion King" scheduled for release coming summer ( @Spalea ):


The film director is same as in Jungle Book, hopefully the film will be not so darkish, at least Africa is a land plenty with sunshine....