Book Review

[Dr Panthera]

Book Review: "Prides: The Lions of Moremi" Pieter Kat and Chris Harvey

This is another hidden gem of a book, devoted to the study of the Okavango lions in Botswana from 1995 to 2000, the book describes the uniqueness of the Okavango lions and how they differ from the Kalahari lions and other lion populations in southern Africa.
* The book provides great description of lion society and how in fact, the social structure of lions, is less developed than other social animals, lions did evolve from a solitary origin and this solitary inheritance is evident in their behaviour and explains a lot. The members are held together by bonds of familiarity rather than familiality
* The authors describe the intelligence of lions, their ability to deceive each other and their prey, their ability to count, and their problem solving skills
* The book focuses on the reproductive biology of both males and females and provides answers to the reasons of forming prides and male coalitions, infanticide, cub abandonment, multi-pride male coalitions, pride switching for males, the issues of paternity, female estrus biology. Staying a nomad versus owning a pride for males, sexual behaviour of nomadic males and females.
* The authors describe different coalitions and far from being "always related...brothers and cousins" , it shows the pros and cons of teaming up with strangers of different origin, age, and size and how the roles of each male is different in functions like mating, confronting enemies, and hunting.
* The authors describe situations where nomadic lions and rival males have joined pride males and females over large kills with practically no observed hostility!! And how pride males permitted old evicted males of feeding with the pride ( respect for the elderly?)
* The book highlights the different predatory behaviour of different prides, the authors call lion prides the most formidable living terrestrial carnivore and explains how hunting is learned and perfected in different ways from time to time and from a pride to another, for example it describes predation on sub-adult elephants during the dry season and switching to buffalo,zebra, and wildebeest when the migratory herds return, it shows how one pride , the Santawani pride was "giraffe-specialists" that routinely killed adult giraffes and buffalos and they totally ignored baboons, they would not even scavenge dead baboons,whereas the Mogogelo pride have brought baboon hunting to an art.
* The authors mention the local importance of lechwe , roan, and eland as secondary prey for Okavango lions
* The book describes interactions between lions and co-predators : spotted hyenas, Wild dogs, leopards, and cheetahs.
Competition with hyenas seems negligible and even when hyenas outnumbered lions 15 to one they did not attempt violent carcass take-overs. Reply