This Lion Was Severely Outnumbered by Some Fiery Lionesses

Lions are often called the “king of the jungle.” While they only contribute to around 10% of the pride’s hunts, lions protect the pride and guard its territory, thus being recognized as figureheads. But make no mistake, lionesses are the unspoken heroes of the pride, organizing its members, sustaining it with small prey, and caring for the cubs. Sometimes, however, the female lions get fed up with males. As this video shows, lionesses will even attack male lions. Let’s explore the reasons this may happen.

A Matriarchal Society

Male lions may be the figureheads, but lionesses really run things. Prides are matriarchal societies, where the oldest female lion serves as leader. She provides guidance, direction, and stability for the league of females. Under her leadership, the female lions collaborate in organized hunting expeditions. This cooperation allows the lionesses to take down larger animals than they would be able to on their own.

While each pride has a dominant male, typically, he protects the pride’s territory. The dominant male plays a part in guiding his pride, but the dominant female puts in the real legwork. It can’t be overstated how much organization of the pride’s activities comes from the females. They hunt together, work together, and even time their mating schedules so cubs can be born around the same time. Once born, female lions work as a team to raise the young.

In the video, we see a group of female lions viciously attacking several males. Despite being outsized, the females swat back the males. Undoubtedly humbled, the male lions retreat and sound out several bark-like calls. This may have calmed the situation, but it’s too little, too late. While the video doesn’t provide much info about the scuffle, there are several reasons why it might have gone down in the first place.

It Takes a Village

When lionesses attack male lions, it often involves their cubs. They are fiercely protective of the young ones, and for good reason. On average, 50% of lion cubs die before they reach maturity, and in the Serengeti, it can be as high as 67%! Be it issues with teething, disease, or other circumstances, lion cubs are fragile. While lionesses share parenting duties as a rule, sometimes cubs go overlooked. The biggest threat to lion cubs, however, is an incoming male.

If a male lion attempts to take over a new pride, he will kill any cubs that threaten his position. Perhaps that’s why the lionesses attack the males in this video. Any threat to their precious young, even if it comes from the father, puts lionesses on the offense. They will viciously defend their young at all costs. In rare cases, they will even kill males.

This video doesn’t provide much context, but YouTube user @oas6ss offers a plausible explanation, saying that the lionesses were fighting with hyenas. This caused their cubs to run away. Once the lionesses noticed some males following the cubs, they sprang into action. They probably assumed that the males were following the cubs. Whatever the case, don’t ever get in between a lioness and her cubs, even if you are king of the jungle.