Foraging dynamics of lions in a semi-arid environment
Abstract
Direct observations on the foraging activities of lions, based on 920 attempts to capture prey and 156 kills, on the plains of Etosha National Park, Namibia, revealed a regular nocturnal pattern of mostly coordinated group hunting. Lions scavenged rarely and killed mainly prey animals weighing less than 50 kg, which contributed to 73% of the observed kills and 50% of the estimated biomass consumed. Capture success increased with lion group size and was also greater during coordinated group hunts. Lions hunted most of the prey that they encountered, showing a preference for large prey species. Average food acquisition ranged from 8.7 kg/day per lioness in the dry season to 14 kg/day per lioness in the wet season. During the dry season, coordinated cooperative hunting was essential and lionesses most often formed groups of 2, thereby acquiring higher daily food intake than groups of other sizes. In the wet season, lioness groups of all sizes obtained more than the estimated daily requirements, and lionesses did not uniformly forage in the smaller groups capable of greater food acquisition.
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Lions hunt more successfully when wind orientation favors stalking, enabling them to approach downwind of and closer to potential prey.
“Lions generally hunt more successfully on darker nights when it is easier to hide [23,36], and when wind orientation favors stalking [38], enabling them to approach downwind of and closer to potential prey.”
From Effects of Vegetation Structure on the Location of Lion Kill Sites in African Thicket (2016) · cites this paper as [38]
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BackgroundEffect of ecological factors on fine‐scale patterns of social structure in African lions
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“Our study species springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) is a medium-sized antelope with many natural predators including lion (Panthera leo) (Stander 1992), spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) (Trinkel 2010), black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) (Klare et al.”
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“Lions are opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush hunters that prefer hunting grounds with good vegetative coverage (Schaller 1972; Elliott et al. 1977; van Orsdol 1984; Packer et al. 1990; Scheel and Packer 1991; Stander 1992; Scheel 1993; Stander and Albon 1993; Packer and Pusey 1997).”
BackgroundImplications of diet composition of Asiatic lions for their conservation
Meena, V., Jhala, Y. V., Chellam, R., & Pathak, B. (2011) · Journal of Zoology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00780.x · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Midlane, N., O'Riain, M. J., Balme, G. A., & Hunter, L. (2015) · Biodiversity and Conservation · doi:10.1007/s10531-015-0858-z · Cited by 41 · see citing works
“With the assistance of a ZAWA scout, we completed surveys at three to five points per night, when lions are most active (Schaller 1972; Stander 1992), beginning 45 min after sunset, and ending by 02h00.”
Nutritional and Behavioral Effects of Gorge and Fast Feeding in Captive Lions
Altman, J. D., Gross, K. L., & Lowry, S. R. (2005) · Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science · doi:10.1207/s15327604jaws0801_4 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
“Stander (1992) observed a more frequent rate of feeding (95 of 145 nights).”
BackgroundPrey selection of lions Panthera leo in a small, enclosed reserve
Power, R. J. (2002) · Koedoe · doi:10.4102/koedoe.v45i2.32 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
“For those that were witnessed (n = 6) during daylight, the largest lioness consistently occupied a central position in all hunting, whilst the two smaller lionesses were wings that encircled the prey as described by Stander (1992b).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialContinuous cycling of grouped vs. solitary strategy frequencies in a predator–prey model
Lett, C., Auger, P. M., & Gaillard, J. (2004) · Theoretical Population Biology · doi:10.1016/j.tpb.2003.10.005 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Group hunting in harbour porpoises ( Phocoena phocoena )
Ortiz, S. T., Stedt, J., Midtiby, H. S., Egemose, H. D., & Wahlberg, M. (2021) · Canadian Journal of Zoology · doi:10.1139/cjz-2020-0289 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Generalized Social Dilemmas: The Evolution of Cooperation in Populations with Variable Group Size
Broom, M., Pattni, K., & Rychtář, J. (2018) · Bulletin of Mathematical Biology · doi:10.1007/s11538-018-00545-1 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
“For example, in cooperative hunting, prey is equally shared between the hunters regardless of the effort they put in Packer et al. (1990), Stander (1992), Creel (1997) and Bednarz (1988) and, therefore, the hunters are tempted to put in less effort.”
BackgroundOliver, J. S., Plummer, T. W., Hertel, F., & Bishop, L. C. (2019) · Journal of Human Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.03.009 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
“Tall grass provides ambush opportunities for lions across Africa (Schaller, 1972; Elliot et al., 1977; Orsdol, 1984; Stander, 1992; Tappen, 1995) and grassland microhabitats at Kanjera may have provided concealment to acquire less vulnerable bovid adults.”
BackgroundInfluentialEvolutionary ecology of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) in Etosha National Park, Namibia
Brand, R. (2007) · OpenGrey (Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique) · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Weinrich, M. T., Rosenbaum, H. C., Baker, C. S., Blackmer, A. L., & Whitehead, H. (2006) · Journal of Heredity · doi:10.1093/jhered/esj018 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“In many social carnivores, group foraging has evolved because it allows the capture of prey that is normally difficult, if not impossible, to catch by a single animal [e.g., lions (Panther leo; Stander 1992); cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus; Caro 1994)].”
BackgroundBodendorfer, T., Hoppe-Dominik, B., Fischer, F., & Linsenmair, K. E. (2006) · Mammalia · doi:10.1515/mamm.2006.037 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
KLINKA, D. R., & Reimchen, T. E. (2009) · Journal of Mammalogy · doi:10.1644/07-mamm-a-200.1 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
“These efficiencies are similar to those observed for other large mammalian predators, including African lions (15–38.5%— Schaller 1972; Stander 1992), hyenas (33–44%—Kruuk and Turner 1967), jackals (33%—Kruuk and Turner 1967), and North American wolves (39%—Darimont et al. 2003).”
ResultInfluentialMeena, V. (2009) · Journal of Threatened Taxa · doi:10.11609/jott.o2095.158-65 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Trading public goods stabilizes interspecific mutualism
Archetti, M., & Scheuring, I. (2012) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2012.10.022 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Hunt, R. M. (2011) · Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History · doi:10.1206/358.1 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Lions (Panthera leo) solve, learn, and remember a novel resource acquisition problem
Borrego, N., & Dowling, B. (2016) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s10071-016-1009-y · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Haas, S. K., Hayssen, V., & Krausman, P. R. (2005) · Mammalian Species · doi:10.2307/3504539 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Lions in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park: modelling the effect of human-caused mortality
van Vuuren, J. H., Herrmann, E., & Funston, P. J. (2005) · International Transactions in Operational Research · doi:10.1111/j.1475-3995.2005.00495.x · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“In the semi-arid Etosha National Park (Namibia), lions encountered more prey per night during the wet season than during the dry season, and thus the average food intake per lioness was higher during the former (Stander, 1992).”
Background9. Complexity in Vertebrate Societies
Kitchen, D. M., & Packer, C. (2000) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9780691207018-011 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Evolution of optimal Hill coefficients in nonlinear public goods games
Archetti, M., & Scheuring, I. (2016) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2016.06.030 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Mbizah, M. M., Valeix, M., Macdonald, D. W., & Loveridge, A. J. (2019) · Ecology and Evolution · doi:10.1002/ece3.5456 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“As the pride grows, it becomes large enough that all members can more readily cooperate to kill very large prey (Schaller, 1972), and this offers the best per capita return on investment for each member (a metric pio‐ neered by Caraco & Wolf, 1975; see also Stander, 1992).”
BackgroundEvaluating how many lions a small reserve can sustain
Power, R. J. (2003) · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Prey selection by a reintroduced lion population in the Greater Makalali Conservancy, South Africa
Druce, D. J., Genis, H., Braak, J., Greatwood, S., Delsink, A., Kettles, R., Hunter, L., & Slotow, R. (2004) · African Zoology · doi:10.1080/15627020.2004.11657223 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“In many reserves, wildebeest constitute one of the species most often killed (Berry 1981; Stander 1992a; Hunter 1998; Funston 1999; Peel & Montagu 1999).”
BackgroundResultBig cats as a model system for the study of the evolution of intelligence
Borrego, N. (2017) · Behavioural Processes · doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2017.03.010 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
A description of commonly observed behaviors for the kori bustard (Ardeotis kori)
Lichtenberg, E. M., & Hallager, S. (2007) · Journal of Ethology · doi:10.1007/s10164-006-0030-z · Cited by 17 · see citing works
MICROHABITAT USE BY BLACK-FACED IMPALA IN THE ETOSHA NATIONAL PARK, NAMIBIA
Matson, T. K., Goldizen, A. W., & Jarman, P. J. (2005) · Journal of Wildlife Management · doi:10.2193/0022-541x(2005)69[1708:mubbii]2.0.co;2 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Midlane, N. (2014) · Open University of Cape Town (University of Cape Town) · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Dannock, R., Pays, O., Renaud, P., Maron, M., & Goldizen, A. W. (2019) · Behavioural Processes · doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.021 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Management-Induced Niche Shift? The Activity of Cheetahs in the Presence of Lions
Bissett, C., Parker, D. M., Bernard, R. T. F., & Perry, T. W. (2015) · African Journal of Wildlife Research · doi:10.3957/056.045.0197 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“Lions are typically less active during the day with most hunts occurring at night (Schaller, 1972; Eloff, 1984; Stander, 1992; Hayward & Slotow, 2009) and one explanation for the diurnal activity of cheetahs has been temporal avoidance of superior predators (Caro, 1994; Durant, 2000; Hayward &…”
BackgroundSteinegger, M., Sarhan, H., & Bshary, R. (2020) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.08.018 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“Efficient larger groups have rarely been described (apparent exceptions: Etosha lions, Panthera leo, Stander, 1992b; sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus, Herbert-Read et al., 2016).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialWaterman, J. M., & Fenton, M. B. (2000) · Ecoscience · doi:10.1080/11956860.2000.11682581 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“…the number of individuals that can be supported (Rannala & Brown, 1994), and differences in resource abundance account for differences in group size and mating systems exhibited by of populations separated in space (Davis & Murie, 1985; Jeppsson, 1990; Stander, 1992; Travis & Slobodchikoff, 1993).”
BackgroundSomething in the wind: the influence of wind speed and direction on African lion movement behavior
Wijers, M., Trethowan, P., du Preez, B., Loveridge, A. J., Markham, A., Macdonald, D. W., & Montgomery, R. A. (2022) · Behavioral Ecology · doi:10.1093/beheco/arac087 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
How to Model Optimal Group Size in Social Carnivores
Suter, H. F., & Houston, A. I. (2020) · The American Naturalist · doi:10.1086/712996 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Climate variability, human wildlife conflict and population dynamics of lions Panthera leo
Trinkel, M. (2013) · Die Naturwissenschaften · doi:10.1007/s00114-013-1034-5 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“However, during the 1980s, when pride sizes were still large, Stander (1992) found that springbok was the preferred prey species of lions in central Etosha, whereas zebra and wildebeest were rather avoided.”
BackgroundInfluentialBerger, J. (1993) · African Journal of Ecology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2028.1993.tb00539.x · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Mutirwara, R., Radloff, F. G. T., & Codron, D. (2017) · Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry · doi:10.1002/rcm.8003 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Cooperation and cognition in wild canids
Berghänel, A., Lazzaroni, M., Cimarelli, G., Marshall‐Pescini, S., & Range, F. (2022) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101173 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Kurokawa, S., Wakano, J. Y., & 井原, 泰. (2018) · Games · doi:10.3390/g9040100 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Social Strategies of the African Lion
Palmer, M. S., Borrego, N., & Packer, C. (2023) · Fascinating life sciences · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-29803-5_2 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Estimating lion's prey species profile in an arid environment
Beukes, M., Radloff, F. G. T., & Ferreira, S. M. (2017) · Journal of Zoology · doi:10.1111/jzo.12474 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“…the most common methods for defining lion diet estimates include stomach content analysis (Smuts, 1979), scat analysis (Mukherjee, Goyal & Chellam, 1994; Breuer, 2005), spoor tracking (Eloff, 1984), continuous follows (Schaller, 1972; Stander, 1992), and opportunistic observations (Mills, 1984).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialEffects of humans and large carnivores on the survival of black‐backed jackals
Kamler, J. F., Loveridge, A. J., O’Donnell, H., & Macdonald, D. W. (2020) · African Journal of Ecology · doi:10.1111/aje.12742 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“For example, jackals have reportedly been killed or consumed by lions (Panthera leo; Schaller, 1972; Stander, 1992), spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta; van Lawick & van Lawick-Goodall, 1970), brown hyaenas (Hyaena brunnea; Mills, 1982), leopards (P. pardus; Schaller, 1972; Estes, 1991), cheetahs…”
BackgroundAfrican Large Carnivore Population Changes in Response to a Drought
Ferreira, S. M., & Viljoen, P. (2022) · African Journal of Wildlife Research · doi:10.3957/056.052.0001 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
A global assessment of large terrestrial carnivore kill rates
Emerson, L. D., Wittmer, H. U., Elbroch, L. M., Kostoglou, K. N., Bannister, K. J., Psaila, J. J., Whisson, D. A., & Ritchie, E. G. (2024) · Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · doi:10.1111/brv.13143 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“Large terrestrial carnivore kill rate review access to larger prey and greater hunting success (Kruuk, 1975; Stander, 1992 a ; MacNulty et al ., 2014), reduced food losses to scavengers/kleptoparasites (Vucetich, Peterson & Waite, 2004; Smith et al ., 2012), higher net energy gains from hunting…”
Vitet, C., Duncan, P., Giménez, O., Mabika, C. T., & Chamaillé‐Jammes, S. (2020) · Ecosphere · doi:10.1002/ecs2.3288 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“Lions have been shown to preferentially attack zebra foals in Kruger National Park and Etosha National Park (Stander 1992, Mills and Shenk 1992) and this is likely the case in HNP too.”
BackgroundLion-Porcupine Interactions in Africa, Including Impacts on Lion Predatory Behavior
Peterhans, J. C. K., Celesia, G. G., & Gnoske, T. P. (2019) · Journal of East African Natural History · doi:10.2982/028.108.0101 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
The Role of Food and Mates in Shaping Asiatic Lion Societies
Chakrabarti, S., Banerjee, K., & Jhala, Y. V. (2023) · Fascinating life sciences · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-29803-5_3 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
- Authors
- Stander, P. E.
- Corresponding author
- Stander, P. E.
- Venue
- Canadian Journal of Zoology
- Publisher
- Canadian Science Publishing
- Published
- 1992-01-01
- Volume
- 70
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 8-21
- ISSN
- 0008-4301 (ISSN-L)
- 1480-3283
- OpenAlex
- W2022908501
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 3.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Canadian Journal of Zoology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Marine animal studies overview
- Keywords
- cooperative hunting, nocturnal hunting, scavenging, prey size preference, capture success, group size, daily food intake, seasonal variation, semi-arid savanna, Etosha National Park
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