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Population ecology

Group living and hungry lions

Nature volume 449, pages 996–997 (2007)Cite this article

Ecologists have necessarily had to simplify matters in looking at predator–prey dynamics. Study of a situation in which predator and prey live in groups reveals that a key process was previously overlooked.

Eating is a necessity of animal life. So you might expect that individuals would do everything possible to maximize their food intake. An example, often invoked, is that lions live in prides because group hunting increases food availability by allowing the lions to kill prey that would be too large for an individual to tackle. On page 1041 of this issue, however, Fryxell et al.1 argue that living in groups decreases the amount of food each lion eats. Moreover, that decrease is even more severe if the lions' prey is also gregarious. How can this be explained?

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Figure 1: Group theory.

G. HINDE/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY

References

  1. Fryxell, J. M., Mosser, A., Sinclair, A. R. E. & Packer, C. Nature 449, 1041–1043 (2007).

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  1. Tim Coulson is in the Department of Life Science, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK. t.coulson@imperial.ac.uk,

    Tim Coulson

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Coulson, T. Group living and hungry lions. Nature 449, 996–997 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/449996a

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