90% of adult lions live in secret groups (10 photos)

Everyone knows that lions form prides. Stately lionesses, tiny kittens, a formidable head of the royal family with a luxurious mane - we are familiar with all this from hundreds of documentaries about Africa. But in reality, most wild cats live completely differently.





You've come to the wrong area, bro.

They organize secret societies that almost never appear on camera. After all, their life consists of unbridled violence and bloody wars. The closed group does not accept Masons and Illuminati. It consists of exiled lions.

It all starts at 2-3 years old - this is the age when lions reach sexual maturity. It is a little easier for young females to cross the threshold of sexual maturity, they can stay in the group for life, next to their mother, sisters, aunts and grandmothers. Yes, there are almost no strange lionesses in the pride - they are all close relatives. While the life of a young male turns into hell.



When your parents subtly hint that it's time for you to move out.

If earlier the head of the pride saw a kitten in a young lion, now former sons become current competitors. They are driven out of the territory - they will never see their family again. Just imagine how hard it is for the young prince: just yesterday you lived in abundance. Together with everyone else you chased strangers away from the watering hole, licked the faces of relatives after dinner, and now - you are left alone. Hundreds of kilometers from home, without support, support and protection. Many young lions die at this stage. And those who did not die of hunger and wounds create their own secret organizations.





A crowd will even extinguish a lion! Especially if this lion is alone.

This is not a typical pride, but a brutal male party of 2-4 males. Most often, it consists of siblings or young males of the same pride. Such a lifestyle dramatically increases the chances of survival. A lone male, just kicked out of the family, is content with carrion and small change - he does not have the strength and experience for more. But a group of lions is capable of more or less organized hunting. The more experience the coalition gains, the more fearsome it will be.



This lion dug in the ground for 7 hours to get a warthog. Now that's the king of the savannah!

A group of seasoned males can bring down the largest prey on the continent - a hippopotamus, a buffalo, and even a giraffe! Akela missed and the hunt was a failure? You can take the food by force! A lion gang will smash any lone competitor to smithereens. Lion coalitions do not have a specific territory. They roam the savannah in search of food and a place to put down roots. And this is the first reason why so few people know about wandering lions. They are hard to find, hard to observe, and even harder to capture on camera. That is why most people who watch documentaries think that lions only have prides. But this is not true. All males that do not have their own pride live in a nomadic mode. And this is from 80 to 90%!



It is not what you think! Only strong male friendship!

The second reason why male groups so rarely get on camera is their monotonous cruelty. What do we usually see on TV? Cute playing lion cubs, caring mothers, passionate hunting - a kind of light version of a lion's life with bloody scenes cut out of the frame. But for wandering males, their whole life comes down to inflicting serious bodily harm. And not only to their prey, but necessarily to other lions. And believe me, no censor will let such a spectacle through.



A brother for a brother - that's the basis!

Coalitions of young princes hunt shoulder to shoulder and gain experience. They wait for the right moment and accumulate strength to invade and conquer their own pride. Once the target is located, a full-scale "capture and cleanup" operation begins. The lions track down the local leader and attack as a crowd. If the pride is protected by several lions at once, then the wanderers track down and destroy them one by one. All the lion fights that are shown on TV are just the tip of the iceberg. Often, in the fight for the pride, lions receive injuries incompatible with life.



When you told your friend not to touch your shavoukha, but he touched it anyway.

After the overthrow of the ruling king, the wanderers begin to destroy his descendants. This fate awaits the smallest kittens. A couple of months after the slaughter, the females will go into heat, and the invaders will assert their right to own this pride by slaughtering their own offspring.



Lionesses can try to protect their offspring, but more often than not, they are unable to resist an adult male.

Usually, this is where the story of wandering lions ends - they capture the pride and settle on its lands. But this does not always happen. Mapogo is a coalition of 6 brothers. It was formed in 2006 and existed for 6 years! This is one of the most brutal lion groups - they have more than 100 lions on their paws - males, females, kittens. During their dominance in the Sabi Sand region (South Africa), they conquered about 700 square kilometers of land. This is 10 times more than any other pride!



The same Mapogo group in its prime. It consisted of Makulu - the leader of the gang, Handsome, Rasta, Scar, Kinky Tail and Mister T.

In good regions with a lot of prey, one lion family occupies about 70 square kilometers. In slightly worse regions - about 200-400. And that same Sabi Sand is not just a dry desert, but a fertile land with lots of antelopes, zebras and giraffes. Before the invasion of the group, several dozen prides reigned in these lands. Mapogo killed them all. This coalition was unprecedentedly large. The other lions could not resist - they were losing both in numbers and experience.



The leader of the Mapogo group, Makulu, lived the longest. At the time of his death, he was almost 15 years old! For comparison: the average life expectancy of males is no more than 10 years.

Only 6 years later, Mapogo was overthrown. By 2012, the six ambitious and young lions were reduced to a decrepit trio, the eldest of which was 13 years old! For big cats, this is extreme old age. The weakness of the former usurpers was felt by the young lions. The boomerang of fate repaid Mapogo with the same cruelty with which they conquered power in their youth.