Lions of Sabi Sands

[Tonpa]

It is but its location specific, they found that in Etosha but in the Serengeti things were the opposite, not sure if there's any paternity studies for the greater Kruger. 


In Etosha 
"Paternity analysis
Resident pride male tenure was known during the birth year of 34 of 43 cubs present in the Etosha population ). Our genetic data confirmed that a pride male was the sire of 20 of the 34 (59%) assignments. The remaining 14 cubs were sired by a male that was not a resident of the natal pride and were considered to be extra-group paternities (41%). For these fourteen extragroup assignments, all pride males mismatched the candidate cubs at two or more loci. Paternity was analysed in 22 litters in the study population, and EGP (extra-group paternity) occurred in ten. Four (18%) of the 22 were mixed paternity litters, where multiple males sired cubs in the same litter, and each mixed litter had at least one extra-group sire." - Lyke 2013


In the Sergengeti 
"For each of 78 cubs parentage determination was unequivocal and in each paternal implication the father was a resident male for the pride. In all cases but one, the mother identified by DNA fingerprinting was one of several pride females implicated by behavioral observations. (The exceptional cub was born within the same pride to another female.) In 23 of 24 litters a single male was the father for the entire litter despite the fact that females often accept multiple copulatory partners during estrus. In general, DNA fingerprinting verified maternal associations and mating success of resident males and also appears to provide a robust measure of parentage even when the candidate mothers or fathers are closely related." - Gilbert 1991


The reason for this is coalition size differences between the regions, there were more single dominant males in the prides studied in Etosha vs Seregeti. Would be interesting to know how many single male prides in the greater Kruger have mixed paternity offspring.

"In the Etosha lion population, of the five prides where EGP occurred, two had only one resident male, and two shared three males between them. This suggests that the males may have been unable to monopolize the sexual encounters of all females within their prides. All prides where EGP was not found had more than one resident pride male. While paternity studies of the Serengeti have not demonstrated EGP, all prides reported in the Serengeti have at least two adult males. The Selous population, where EGP has been suggested based on relatedness estimates, also has prides with only one resident male and prides that share males (Spong et al. 2002). These findings provide evidence that pride structure is an important determinant of EGP in some populations" - Lyke 2013 Reply