Quote:
Originally Posted by charley
At times, you do realize that, in the wild, lion "dads" can tend kill the cubs. The orchestrated encounter (by zoo staff) and rather cute YouTube video is not a real reflection of reality.
As a child, I had a cat who decided to give birth in my closet, loads of little kittens - absolutely amazing to watch them all come out 
However, to my absolute horror, she removed about half of them and carried them out to the back yard, where we found those that she had carried out quite dead, which necessitated a long talk with my mother about animals and reality. |
Actually Lions do not kill their young if they sired them ..apparently they
seem to know..also lion females typically have their cubs away from the pride and keep them hidden for 2-3 months of age because they are
less likely injured when they reenter the pride. Typically cubs are killed if the pride is challenged by
new Lions who invade an established pride. If they successfully take over the pride they kill all the cubs, which will put the lion females into estrus and ready to breed...it's brutal but true.