Juvenile male lion threatening a cub (or possibly just a cranky mother)

• by VMoore

  At about what age do male lions start eliminating their competition? 2 years old?

  Posted December 21, 2012 5:06 PM

• by davidbygott moderator

  Cranky mother. The cub has just been suckling, judging from ma's leg-up posture. The young male is about the age to be one of the previous generation of cubs, and their mothers become less tolerant of these subadults (who live in the basement, eat for free and won't get a job). I'm assuming that this male was born within the female's pride and familiar to her, because of the body language. The male's approach looks tentative, and the female and her cub would be fleeing if this were a cub-killing stranger - males don't kill cubs in the pride where they grew up.
  Learn more about the context of infanticide at http://lionresearch.org/

  Posted December 22, 2012 6:42 AM