The Mane

[Shadow]

@BorneanTiger  What comes to your posting about lions mane and that study, which @Tshokwane had shared. That text doesn´t actually deny it, that the mane could give some protection in fight. It is more about it, what is the primary function of the mane and how it develops etc. And it certainly looks like it, that mane has developed at least mainly for another purpose than to be kind of body armor.

Then again it´s common sense, that especially thick manes have to give some protection against swipes etc. Not total, but some. Question is that how much and can it be sometimes even life saving protection. I don´t mean that another lion couldn´t get death grip and suffocate another when getting a good bite, but maybe sometimes thick mane can cause attacking lion to not get the best bite right away.

One thing to think about is approach of that study. I mean it how they assumed that if mane would be for protection, then attacking lions would attack especially to mane area and there should be most serious wounds etc. One could ask the question, that have lions learned with time to attack instead mane covered areas more for instance to spine, what we see often to happen. Then after attacked lion has been immobilized it can be left to die or finished easily.

We people have no fur. We can imagine easily what would happen if a cat would scratch us. I bet that we all would love to have long fur covering skin if we would have to handle an enraged house cat for some reason and no time to get some thick clothing etc   In some issues we have to remember common sense too, when reading studies. 

I see it so, that it´s not possible to say that mane wouldn´t give any protection. Question is about it, that how much? Some people for sure overestimate that protection. But if saying that it would be meaningless, then I see it as underestimation. And as I wrote already, that study didn´t deny that mane could protect. It just isn´t the primary reason for it why male lions have manes. Reply