Originally Posted by Birdwatcher
First off, congrats on some wonderful experiences which I'm sure are the envy of most here cool

On the topic of wild lion population demographics, somewhere all of this data must have been compiled, it is hard for me to believe lions haven't been exhaustively studied.

One would think that prides of females, in addition to having good survivorship once past the cub stage, would be expected to over time eventually increase to the point where they occupy all the best habitat, said prides accompanied by dominant pride males. But apparently your experience has been there was also room for groups of bachelor males in those same areas.

Another point to consider is that for the take to be sustainable, the harvest of 6+ year-old males could not exceed the annual recruitment of males into that same age class. If the annual take were only a fraction of the whole population of 6+ year-old males, but exceeded even marginally the number of new males entering that age class each year, then the population would decline.

I can't think of any other species where the take of some individuals also affects the survivorship of the other individuals in the social group. There has GOT to be a good and current source book for all of this data out there somewhere, compiling recent studies, if there ain't, then someone should write one.

Within Zimbabwe, from what I understand, the hunting of lions at the Hwange Preserve where the now infamous 'Cecil' was shot, had been suspended previously for a few years due to a perceived overtake and subsequent decline in lion populations.

Again, congrats on some awesome hunts cool

Birdwatcher


If by some happenstance all the 6+ year old male lions were wiped out, younger males would take over some of the prides.

There are even prides run by females. An example is the Kanyemba Pride. Kanyemba is a small village in the very northeast corner of Zimbabwe, bounded by Mozambique on the East and the great Zambezi River on the North.

Sometime around 2010 a native poacher shot the head lioness in the face with birdshot, which was the cause, it was said, of the pride turning to eating humans. After many misadventures, including a game scout being eaten, seven of the nine lions were killed and the other two, they told me in 2011, stopped preying on humans--maybe. There was a story about this pride in a recent issue of "Sports Afield."

Since then, it has been reported as late as 2015 by Ivan Carter that the pride is still active in preying upon humans.

None of this, of course, appears in the Bambi-esque media.

To the "Cecilians," black lives simply don't matter. They matter even less to the Mugabe government. All hail the great Cecil.

Don't blame me. I voted for Trump.

Democrats would burn this country to the ground, if they could rule over the ashes.