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A few observations of some young lions

Category: Lion-watching | Date: Apr 25 2008 | By: admin

Here’s a photo I took recently of two members of Nempakai’s pride. This pride was mentioned in Antony’s post on on the Lion Guardian blog, on the 19th of April. I thought I might point out some interesting features. 

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The “handsome spots” are a feature of younger lions. They lose these spots as they grow older, and become more tawny.

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 The noses of cubs are almost completely pink for at least the  first year. They become progressively more black as the lion gets older. In Tanzania it was found that lions generally had completely black noses by the age of about 6 years.

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This was a short (and sweet?) post today. More tomorrow….Thanks

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8 Responses to “A few observations of some young lions”

sheryl, washington dc, on 25 Apr 2008

Thanks! I knew about the spots but not about their pink noses.
Some cats keep their pink noses, such as fishing cats and clouded leopards - any idea why that is and why some do not?

s.

Seamus, on 25 Apr 2008

Sheryl,
I have no idea why other cats retain pink noses. I do know that the rate of pigmentation is different in different populations of lions within africa. My colleagues in west africa told me of lions that had a very different pigmentation rate. Its a rough guideline to age only.

sheryl, washington dc, on 25 Apr 2008

Thanks for responding so fast. I’ve never considered how you can tell the relative age if most wildlife other than looking at their teeth or some other attribute. Very interesting.

s.

Theresa Siskind St Petersburg FL, on 25 Apr 2008

I didn’t know, either. Fascinating!

sauwah, on 25 Apr 2008

so i have heard that is how a man can tell the age of a lion. sadly, trophy hunters do shoot any lion ( especially the males with great manes) if his nose is black. If his nose is black, most likely the lion is at least over five. since the so called lion expert, Craig Pecker , who works on lions in Tanzania , endorses trophy hunting on lions, recommends killing of lions that have black noses. his reason was since the lion is over five, which means he at least has a litter of cubs and a pride, therefore by taking him out of the gene pool will not be a loose. But as we all know that cub morality rate can be 100% at times. Research has been done on new ruler’s or rulers’ taking over a pride ( killing all cubs from the previous male). It estimates that for every one pride male’s death, at least 12 other lions will be also killed indirectly or directly. Old females and mothers/mother of the cub will be also killed by invading males if the mothers refuse to submit. Dereck and Beverly Joubert have witnessed too many dead lionesses and dying cubs by invading males and the consequences of trophy killing on pride males.

Seamus, on 26 Apr 2008

Sauwah, I believe you are referring to Dr Craig Packer, not “Pecker”. He is commonly referred to as an expert because he really is an expert. Here is the link to his group’s site:
http://www.lionresearch.org/who.html

I think your somewhat Freudian slip might in fact be a reference to “cub mortality”. While it is true that entire litters can die at times, this has no relevance to the argument of whether or not it is demographically sustainable to take past-prime males out of a population. Parameters of Packer’s model account for the effects of infanticide.

I met with Derek and Beverley a few weeks ago, here in Kenya. I have great respect for their films and their insight into southern african lion conservation.
http://www.wildlifeconservationfilms.com/
However, if you would like to challenge Dr Packer’s findings, then I would ask that you supply references to peer-reviewed publications that prove your point. Insinuating that one of the world’s foremost authorities on lions is not an expert requires that you explain yourself.

sauwah, on 30 Apr 2008

I heard about the pakcer’s work all right. he has been working on lion research in tanzania since the seventies, right? and now he is working or researching on the man eating lions in the southern part of tanzania near the selous area. I am bad in typing as well as spelling. hell, it’s my opinion; yet i do know others who are in the same line of business as packer do disagree with him. no one can demand me to explain myself. it’s a blog. and i do live in a free world. and since i am a no body, i can state my opinion period.

Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project » A comment on the nature of blogging, on 04 May 2008

[…] also posting it as the starting point for a response to Sauwah’s contribution to this blog on the 25th of April […]

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