Pride’s prodigy gets it dead right

The lioness Jodha and her three cubs haven’t hunted in three days and their last meal wasn’t exactly a large one. What unfolds during her next hunt is something that researchers have not documented before. It’s a rare instance of a cub aged under two years and on the cusp of adulthood coordinating the kill for Jodha. This rarity has been documented in the paper titled, ‘The Role of Food and Mates in Shaping Asiatic Lion Societies’ by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) experts Stotra Chakrabarti, Kausik Banerjee, and Y V Jhala.Radio-collared for research, Jodha provided regular insights into the lives of her pride — herself, her semi-adult daughter Saumya, and her two younger cubs still dependent on their mother’s milk.“We learned about her favourite hideouts, witnessed how she often left her cubs under the watchful eyes of their older sibling, Saumya, while she scoped good ambush points for food,” Chakrabarti wrote in the paper.Medium108412993 Moving in for the killJodha’s group had disappeared into a sea of very tall and extremely itchy vegetation covering a semi-dry catchment of a dam. The catchment is one of her favourite hunting grounds — wild herbivores come here for fresh water and the vegetation on its banks offers her a perfect hideout, where she can lay in wait and strike at an opportune moment. On a moonlit night, beeps from Jodha’s radio collar get stronger, indicating that the group is just some 20 feet from the research team. Bhikhu, the tracker, then points to a nilgai herd advancing towards the water.Medium108412994 Chakrabarti and team decide to observe the kill from atop a machan. “This elevated position helped us stay away from a potential hunt yet gifted us with visuals that we had not anticipated! We could see exactly where Jodha and Saumya lay, keenly observing the herd, while the cubs played with each other,” Chakrabarti writes in the paper.Dinner is served!Jodha leaves the scene half-crouched and positions herself near the far bank of the catchment, while Saumya circles around the herd. The paper records Chakrabarti’s first-hand account. He writes, “To our surprise, Saumya broke cover and charged! The herd scattered into smaller groups, but Saumya kept pursuing a sub-group of two mothers and their calves towards Jodha.Medium108412995 Within seconds, the scene erupted with a deafening growl while we stood in awe on top of the machan witnessing a tawny blaze grabbing and struggling with one of the nilgais. Saumya had precisely cordoned the herd to Jodha’s ambush quarters, and she did what she did best. Dinner has been served!”Researcher says that this is one of the rare incidents where a cub who is yet to get to adulthood has helped the mother kill a prey. “This is a rare incident of cooperative and coordinated hunts,” says the paper.Medium108412996 Territorial talks: Roar or scent?Why do African lions roar more and why do their Asian counterparts use olfactory territory markers? The answer lies in their surroundings, say researchers.The plausible explanation of olfactory cues being preferred by Gir lions over vocalizations to maintain territorial boundaries is perhaps the higher availability of shrubs and trees that act as “scent-posts” compared to the grasslands of Africa, the research paper by Chakrabarti, Banerjee and Jhala states.Olfactory markers include urine sprayed on trees or the ground, scrapes on the ground and tree barks. The researchers say long-distance roars will not be as effective in the wooded system of Gir compared to the open grasslands of Africa, where a roar can travel for kilometres without interference.It has also been found that Gir lionesses do not roar as frequently as their African counterparts to reduce unwanted attention from adult males.Lions in Saurashtra hold an average territory of 120 sq km inside the Gir sanctuary, while they hold more than 800 sq km outside the protected area.A group holds its territory for two to three years after which a new group takes over it.Lions now range over 15,000 sq km of human-dominated landscape, including the Gir protected area, the Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary, and areas outside the protected zones.Medium108412997 In kingdoms of coalitions, alphas command a lion’s shareLions are known to form coalitions with other males to hunt and to rule. Coalitions of Asiatic lions are smaller — four males — compared to up to nine in the Serengeti-Ngorongoro ecosystem.The research paper states that males form coalitions with siblings, cousins or unrelated males. About 50% of the coalitions in Gir are made up of unrelated partners. These coalitions function as a unit in hunting, challenging resident males to take over their territories, and defending acquired territories from invaders.A coalition inside the Gir sanctuary and protected area holds an average territory of 120 sq km and over 800 sq km outside the protected area.The paper states that males with coalition partners can maintain territories almost thrice the size of those of solitary residents and even remain in tenure twice as long as the solitary lion.Researchers speak of a stringent coalition policy among Gir males. In every coalition, a consistently dominant partner reigns supreme by acquiring 70% of all mating events and taking away more than 45% kills. Subordinate males can only acquire mating events when the dominant individual is not around; they can be displaced from courtships when the dominant partner arrives. On the other hand, social units of African lions are egalitarian with no reproductive or feeding hierarchies between female pride-mates. Also, the competition for food and mates among coalition partners is seemingly relaxed.