Showing posts with label Lions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lions. Show all posts

Luna Rules, OK!


The moon has long fascinated us humans. As it regulates the tides, it is believed to regulate the human emotions. Amongst the medical cognoscenti, this belief is known as the “Transylvania Effect” and the full moon is something of a problem (1). It is strange that while we grow up being frightened by the darkness, some more than others of course, that we also associate the full moon with madness and mayhem.

Owen and McGowan have shown that we no longer have to stay locked away with the shades draw when there’ a full moon as the Transylvania Effect doesn’t have a bat’s chance in hell of being the cause of our madness, collective or otherwise (1).

Where we live also makes a difference. In our cities, we all head for bright lights like moths to the flame. In the country it is different and, moreover, in which country. In some parts of the world, wandering about in the country at night carries some of the same risks as our hominid ancestors had to work around. The chance of becoming a meal for a lion does vary with the lunar cycle (2).

Packer et al have studied the eating habits of lions in Tanzania (2). They tracked when lions are likely to be most hungry and when people have the greatest chance of satisfying that hunger. The best time for the lions was in the dry season when the moon was up early but not full. Just after the full moon gave them the right amount of light for hunting before everyone had gone to bed. 6 to 10 in the evenings were the worst.

So, we should see the full moon as the harbinger of a dangerous time during the following week when we are at a greater risk of being eaten by lions. Early to bed and early to rise makes  a deal of sense.

  1. http://www.gjpsy.uni-goettingen.de/gjp-article-owens.pdf
  2. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0022285

Listen To Your Mom, Girl


We know that elephants work cooperatively and gossip about this and that in undertones that we can’t quite catch. There may be just the touch of democracy in the group but only a touch. African elephant groups are matrilineal and what mom says goes, especially if she is older and has been around the block a few times. This, of course, is a good thing as we were all told when we were little (and maybe not so little), and the savannah predators make this essential. Lions do eat elephants. Little ones, they couldn’t manage a whole one, and apparently male lions are particularly dangerous, so the family gets behind Big Momma in a tight group with bigger sisters at the front when a lion come knocking.

Studying this response in the field, McComb et al (1) crept up on unsuspecting family groups and played lion roars through their boom boxes. Recordings of multiple lions roaring got immediate solidarity with a tight bunch and Big Momma getting ready to tan their hides for making such a racket. More interesting though, were the results from single lion roars.

Young moms were much more casual about getting ready to sort the neighbor out if the roar was from a single lion. Big Momma though knew better, and would gather her family in. If the roar was from a male lion, things were taken more seriously by all, although one lion roar sounds much like another to me. Those big elephant ears aren’t just for cooling the blood, but get it pretty hot if the sound waves aren’t to their liking.

The general conclusion was that older meant wiser. And when listening to opportunist predators, Big Momma knows best what’s good for you. You’d better listen and not go and see what that pretty guy out there is shouting about .



1. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/03/10/rspb.2011.0168.full?sid=1df894c6-2099-402b-a309-bfc71095c064