One of the most interesting sets of interactions we had on our trip happened at Nxabega Tented Camp in Botswana. Lions are, of course, pride animals. There’s a dominant male or a “coalition” of brothers, multiple females, and cubs. Often there are several females in the pride who are pregnant and give birth about the same time. Litter sizes are typically two or three cubs, and if multiple females have young cubs at the same time it’s common for them to share babysitting and even nursing duty.
We encountered one pride headed by a single male, where two females (one older and experienced, and one young and maybe even a first-time mom) had cubs at nearly the same time. The older one had a litter of two, a common size, but the younger one had five cubs! When we first encountered them, the older female had the babysitting duty, and as you can see in Incident Report: Two Lionesses with Seven Cubs, she’s not all that happy nursing seven cubs in total, perhaps especially so because only two of them are hers. Lion cubs always want to eat, it seems, so every time a mom tries to sit or rest, they’re on her. Since a lion doesn’t have seven teats, there’s competition among cubs that raises the noise level and irritation quotient considerably.
Young cubs are typically kept separate for a while, then introduced to the pride in general and the pride male(s) in particular. The younger lioness decided, while we were watching her and the cubs, to make the introduction herself. Imagine the male, who is usually at best tolerant of cubs, suddenly faced with seven yelping youngsters. It doesn’t go well, and the lioness and cubs are forced to beat a retreat. Interestingly, the older lioness, without any cubs, was tolerated by the male.