How to Understand the Social Behaviors of Lions

Any grouping of lions will form into one of the standard social situations of its type. Pay close attention to the numbers of lions in the group you are observing. Lions, unlike most other cats, are social animals. They can travel in prides that are made up of females (5 to 10), young cubs, a handful of males (2 or 3), and the alpha male. The majority of the time the males of a pride are brothers. Careful observation will tell you which of these lions are the dominant ones in the group. Most of the time the females in the group are related, and bear the cubs of the males in the prides. If the alpha male is ousted by a newcomer, the new leader of the pride will often kill all existing cubs; this makes the females of the group receptive to being bred.

Smaller groupings or pairings of lions are called nomads. These lions are often young adult males who have no pride of their own, and occasionally lions are seen as solo wanderers as well. When a male cub is old enough to be separated from his mother, to survive on his own and is seen as a potential threat to the ruling male, he is often driven from the pride and forced to find his own pride, join up as a male in another pride, or exist as a nomad. Lions who exist as nomads may be accepted into a pride, and lions who are part of a pride may be banished from the group. Since nomads exist outside of a pride, by definition they won't appear in captivity. The place to observe these are in the wild.

It is the role of the males to protect the females and their cubs from outside males. You can see this by careful observation of how the male lions will react when someone new comes into their territory, whether it be another lion or a human. Nomadic males or males from rival prides will often attack and kill cubs from a pride; it is up to the males of the pride to mark their territory and keep others away from the females and young. Both male and female lions will defend the pride and individuals against attackers.

Observe the lion that is making noise, and see how other lions react. Lions have a wide range of sounds, from growls and purrs to snarling and roaring. A lion's roar can be heard from miles away, and is often used to announce the presence of a pride and to make it perfectly clear who the territory belongs to. Like domestic cats, the meanings of sounds vary with inflection. The sounds they make depend on their mood and what exactly they need to communicate, so hearing the different sounds may take some time.

Body language is frequently used to establish and reestablish roles within a pride, but these encounters rarely end in physical fights. Bared teeth, flattened ears and snorting are all signs of a dominant lion facing off with one lower on the hierarchy of power. Submissive lions will duck or crouch before a more dominant individual, backing away or stepping aside. To show complete submission, they will often roll over and expose their soft, vulnerable belly. The alpha male is the one that will never be subservient to anyone else in the pride, which is a hierarchy.

For animals with a reputation as a fierce predator, lions are capable of the most tender of moments. It's not uncommon for mothers to groom and wash their cubs, or to greet other females with much the same behavior. Licking the face and neck of another lion is a friendly greeting, as is rubbing heads to say hello. These gestures are most common among females and their young, so if you're looking for examples of tenderness, it's the best place to start.