Lions do not organize themselves into packs to improve their hunting success but to defend their territory from other lions , according to a University of Minnesota study published in the journal Animal Behavior . Its main author, ecologist Craig Packer, assures that these animals behave like real street gangsters . The discovery would explain why lions, unlike other feline species, live together and form social and gregarious groups throughout Africa and Asia.
Analyzing over more than three decades the behavior of 46 pride of lions that inhabit the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Packer and his team have concluded that the larger the size of the lion "band", the more successful are these animals and better areas of territory they control , which could help their conservation.
Researchers have also found that gangs with a higher number of adult females not only produce more cubs, as might be expected, but also tend to gain control of contested areas with neighboring gangs more easily. And to gain power, they add, nothing like having a new lonely female join the group. "The main difference from human gangsters is that the 'ringleaders' here are female," Packer explains. In fact, a pride of lions is usually made up of 21 females, their young, and a "temporary coalition" of 1 to 9 males.
