Social Life of the Lion : A Study of the Behaviour of Wild Lions (Panthera Leo Massaica [Newmann]) in the Nairobi National Park, Kenya

Rudnai, J. A.

ISBN 10: 9401171424 / ISBN 13: 9789401171427

Published by Springer, 2012

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 20195502-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Social Life of the Lion : A Study of the Behaviour of Wild Lions (Panthera Leo Massaica [Newmann]) in the Nairobi National Park, Kenya
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9401171424
• ISBN 13: 9789401171427
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This book is a fascinating study of lion behavior, and throws light on many previously unrecognized facets of their social relationships. The depth and expertise of the study ensure its value and interest to a wide readership. Ever increasing human populations and the consequent encroachment of settlement and cultivation threaten the survival of wild animals within viable ecological units through East Africa. In the long run, wildlife will probably only survive within National Parks or similarly protected reserves. However, these units cannot be expected to maintain themselves without management based on clear understanding of the basic pattern of interactions between the climate, vegetation, herbivores, carnivores and scavengers. This applies to an even greater extend to small units which are not self-contained ecologically such as Nairobi national Park. Thus, not only are broad ecological surveys necessary, but also intensive studies of individual species to learn their exact relationship to their environment in any particular area offering a set of circumstances not duplicated anywhere else. This study investigated how lions respond to the particular set of environmental conditions within Nairobi National Park, A small area with a great variety of habitat and a fairly abundant game population, how they select from among the available prey animals and how changes in the proportion of the various ungulates affect the lion’s predation pattern. A major discovery made by Ms. Rudnai is a method of individually identifying them that had never been noted before. She noted that every lion had a unique patter of dark spots whose number, position and size do not change over the course of it lifetime. These are located above and below the top row of whiskers. The “whisker-spot method”, a reliable and non-invasive way of identifying individual lions, has been employed by scientists ever since as had the rest of Ms. Rudnai’s research.