Lions of Sabi Sands

[Duco Ndona]

(03-08-2023, 10:26 PM)Cath2020 Wrote:

(03-08-2023, 12:33 AM)Duco Ndona Wrote: Lions don't get sexual education, so they dont really connect childbirth with sex. Nor do they have a concept of time. 
So whichever coalition that happens to be around to when the cubs are introduced isn't going to count back the months to see if they could be the father. 

Its more likely going to depend on whether or not they are willing or able to form an emotional connection with the cubs.

She may luck out and every male ends up accepting the cubs. 
Though most likely the cubs end up having the scent of the male that they are first introduced to. Resulting in the other males rejecting them when they come around. 

I am not optimistic about their chances.

Your continual use of 'sex' in relation to animals sounds a bit inappropriate and out-of-place.  In addition, you have used 'horny' even.  These words are used for humans on an informal level (wouldn't even use them on boards such as these in reference to people.  It's because we are not on THAT familiar terms around unknown posters, and feels weird all-around), and we wouldn't usually use these words for lions or any other animals.  Most would use terms like 'mate', 'estrous,' 'in heat, etc.'   It's also part of anthropomorphizing animals unobjectively. I remember someone else calling you out on this, too. 

Potato Potato. Sex is sex, regardless whether its called mating or otherwise and horny is just what people call the state of sexual arousal. (Which is different from estrous btw as that refers to the entire fertile period of a lioness and not just the aroused moments before mating.) At best its a semantic argument. 

As for anthropomorphizing. That is something entirely different as I never stated that they desire to live like a human would and form typical human families etc.. It would be different if I used terms like honeymoon or marriage like some documentaries tend to do. But we are talking here about such basic emotions or activities that there isnt much of a species barrier there. I agree we have to be carefull with using terms like love though. 

Quote:Studies have shown male lions know subconsciously about how long a pregnancy should take and if the lionesses do not time their births very well, the males might not be fooled.  I'm not sure how savvy these 2 lionesses are to be hanging out so easily with 3 different coalitions and expecting all of them to believe they are 100% the sires, but that is essentially what they will try to accomplish.  They could very well have played a winning game if they know the males' characters and timed it quite convincingly.  Will be exciting to see how it all ends up once the cubs make their arrival.

True, there probably is some instinct that tells a male lion to care more for specific cubs that might be his based on how the seasons have progressed. But its not like they can consciously count back the weeks and figure out things that way like we can. 
In normal circumstances this is enough as takeovers don't happen that frequent and the time between a take over and the first cubs showing up can vary immensly. So being a month off is not that big of an issue. 

But in the current situation with the ximhungwe pride. Its just not accurate enough for them to work it out. Reply