Book Review

[Dr Panthera]

"Lion" G.L.Smuts 1982
Butch Smuts gives us an excellent insight on the Kruger lions in this book, it was written in lay language and addressed the general population versus biologists, Smuts was researching zebras in Kruger in the late 1960's and started studying lions soon after, previous books were from East Africa ( Guggisberg, Schaller, Bertrand, and Rudnai) or the Kalahari ( Eloff) this book was about the Kruger lions a distinct and important population.
I particularly liked the following:
1- Smuts was the first to describe a detailed guide to determining the age of lions
2- He pioneered the techniques of darting , collaring, and measuring lions with determining their empty weight
3-He accurately measured the stomach contents of killed lions, with the most he found 30 kg of Impala meat in a male lion, other scientists gave adjustments of anything between deducting 7 kg and 45 kg , but he showed that the maximum reasonable amount for a gorged lion to be 30 kg
4-He also gave a great chart showing the growth rate of both lionesses and male lions from birth to age ten, in which it shows that males grow faster than females in years one to three , females attain their maximum size by age four, males continue to grow till age seven , old lions start to lose condition after age nine and they do so quicker than lionesses.
5- He provided the biggest scientific, accurate, adjusted weight data in big cats research, 388 different lions of both genders over age four, this is an inclusive , accurate large sample that averaged male weight at 189 kg and females at 126 kg, he included all lions over four...he did not select just the resident lions or the biggest lions ( 225 kg male, 152 kg female) or excluded nomads nor problem or sick animals, every lion measured included.
6- He predicted that the good rain seasons will shift the lions top prey in eaten biomass in the Central district in Kruger from ( giraffe, wildebeest , zebra, Impala, warthog in that order ) to become ( Buffalo, wildebeest,zebra, giraffe , and kudu in that order)
7- He described the lion-spotted hyena interactions in Kruger noting that hyenas there seldom form groups larger than three and eat mainly Impala and wildebeest calves and scavenge a big percentage of their diet, unlike their cousins in Savannah habitat where larger packs increase mean prey size and challenges to lions.
8- He also pointed out that most large mammals are larger in Southern Africa than farther north in the continent while conceding that excellent habitat in Tanzania and Kenya can yield some exceptions.
All in all it was a great and informative read and I highly recommend it. Reply