Selfish partners: resource partitioning in male coalitions of Asiatic lions

Behavioral plasticity within species is adaptive which directs survival traits to take multiple pathways under varying conditions. Male-male cooperation is an evolutionary strategy often exhibiting an array of alternatives between and within species. African male lions coalesce to safeguard territories and mate-acquisition. Unique to these coalitions is lack of strict hierarchies between partners, who have similar resource-securities possibly because of many mating-opportunities within large female-groups. Skewed mating and feeding rights have only been documented in large coalitions where males were related. However, smaller modal prey coupled with less simultaneous mating-opportunities for male Asiatic lions in Gir forests, India would likely result in a different coalition-structure. Observations on mating-events (n=127) and feeding-incidents (n=44) were made on 11 male-coalitions and 9 female-prides in Gir, to assess resource distribution within- and among- different sized male-coal...