FORAGING DYNAMICS OF LIONS IN A SEMIARID ENVIRONMENT

Direct observations on the foraging activities of lions, based on 920 attempts to capture prey and 156 kills, on the plains of Etosha Nation al Park, Namibia, revealed a regular nocturnal pattern of mostly coord inated group hunting. Lions scavenged rarely and killed mainly prey an imals weighing less than 50 kg, which contributed to 73% of the observ ed kills and 50% of the estimated biomass consumed. Capture success in creased with lion group size and was also greater during coordinated g roup hunts. Lions hunted most of the prey that they encountered, showi ng a preference for large prey species. Average food acquisition range d from 8.7 kg/day per lioness in the dry season to 14 kg/day per lione ss in the wet season. During the dry season, coordinated cooperative h unting was essential and lionesses most often formed groups of 2, ther eby acquiring higher daily food intake than groups of other sizes. In the wet season, lioness groups of all sizes obtained more than the est imated daily requirements, and lionesses did not uniformly forage in t he smaller groups capable of greater food acquisition.