this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
546 points (99.1% liked)

Comic Strips

20774 readers
4069 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] hark@lemmy.world 90 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yep, this magnified lion population issues since poachers would kill the lion and then a new one would step in, killing all the cubs, but then he'd also get poached and the process would repeat before cubs could grow.

[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

So what is the normal natural balance to males killing their offspring? Obviously more pregnant lions is good genetic trait to have, but dead babies does not reenter gene pool. Super aggressive moms to defend against dad?

[–] hark@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Female lions better at defense or male lions that are better at not getting poached, I guess.

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago

The strong protector prevents his cubs from being killed, preventing a new male from moving in.

This selects for genetically superior males OR younger more vigorous males.

Experience tips the balance of power so that youth can’t just win.

The natural balance is that the male isn’t removed from the equation before the equation can be written on the board.