The cruel kingdom of lions, Fight to Survive
Why do lions fight each other using their paws rather than going with much more deadly bites?
Fighting among lions is not uncommon. Male lions often fight each other for territory and females, often to the death. If the invading males are successful in killing or subduing the alpha males of the pride, the first thing they do is kill off all the cubs in the pride. They do this for two reasons – firstly, they wish to destroy the existing gene pool of the loser’s offspring and secondly, the lionesses will come into oestrus much sooner without cubs to wean.
Several lionesses together will also attack a single, unknown male for the same reason: they fear he intends to kill their cubs. Several male lions together will have no qualms about killing a single lioness if they perceive her to be competition for food, particularly if she’s not in oestrus.
The intricacies of life in a pride of lions are complicated and often brutal. Young males are chased out of their pride as soon as they begin to be sexually mature – around two years of age. These bewildered teens head out into the unknown, often falling victim to alpha males in other territories, getting caught in snares if they venture near human settlements or getting fatally injured when hunting for prey.