Study

Factors affecting the hunting success of male and female lions in the Kruger National Park

Funston, P. J.; Mills, M. G. L.; Biggs, H. C.

Journal of Zoology, 2001

Peer-reviewedfield observationwild

What they did

Hunts by male and female lions were observed and scored for success, habitat, prey species and group composition, in a woodland system with denser cover than the open plains where most earlier lion work was done.

Studied in: Panthera leo
Sample size: hunts observed across the Kruger lion population

What they found

Males hunt substantially more than the standard account allows, and hunt successfully. Male hunts are concentrated in dense cover and at night, where stalking to close range is possible, and target large prey such as buffalo more often than female hunts do. Females hunt more often in open habitat and in groups.

What it means

The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.

How the authors put it

The view that male lions do not hunt reflects where and when earlier observations were made rather than a real division of labour.

How NatureHQ reads it

This is a sampling-bias correction and a good example of one. The classic lion studies were done on open plains in daylight, where researchers could see — and in the open, in daylight, males hunt little, because a large conspicuous animal with a mane cannot stalk across grass. Watch in woodland at night and males hunt regularly and well. "Males do not hunt" turned out to describe the observation conditions rather than the lions.

Limitations

Night and dense-cover observation is harder and success may still be under-recorded.
Kruger woodland differs from Serengeti plains in ways beyond visibility.
Scavenging and kill appropriation are difficult to separate from hunting in some records.