Main content
Lions
Cub mortality is extremely high, with only one in eight surviving to adulthood. Survival prospects are excellent after that.
Cub mortality is extremely high, with only one in eight surviving to adulthood
There is a number of reasons for this:
- First of all, teething is painful, and weakens the cub so that many die during teething.
- Mother lions can become absorbed by some activity, and will forget for a while that they have cubs to care for.
- A new male taking over a pride will kill all of the cubs, so that the pride contains only cubs of his siring.
- Finally, cubs are at the bottom of the feeding hirearchy, and only get food when the adults are filled. Indeed, many cubs starve to death when food is scarce.
An interesting exception to this is that male lions will frequently let the cubs share his food, while the females make the cubs wait their turn.
