- Email: [email protected]
Pride of lions
632
ANIMAL
BEHAVIOUR,
research programme even though a statistical ecologist might have to be consulted later. Comparing the two books, I would give the nod to Caughley. Although the title seems to indicate a concern only with vertebrates, the methods are general and, in fact, several of the examples are from invertebrates. Caughley’s bibliography is substantially larger; he covers more topics: and he seems to make fewer errors than Tanner. A. Ross KIESTER Department of Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, U.S. A. Pride of Lions. BY BRIAN BERTRAM. London, Toronto and Melbourne: J. M. Dent (1978). Pp. 253. Price E6.50. In a foreword to this richly illustrated book, Brian Bertram explains that he wrote it to answer all kinds of questions about his lion study which he was asked by eminent visiting zoologists, his four year old nephew and others. I think they will not be .disannointed-the book discusses many fundamental problems-of social organization and behaviour, whilst it breathes Serengeti and African bush life. It IS written in a very entertaining style, and almost casually a vast mass of data on lion behaviour which has now been collected by several research workers is summarized and discussed. Perhaps the style is too casual, even-one tends to forget sometimes that Brian Bertram’s statements are backed up by hard data, and that unlike many other natural history books he has solid grounds for his generalizations. But then, he had to keep his little nephew happy too. The book is a useful complement to George Schaller’s The Serengeti Lion (1972, University of Chicago Press): there we tind facts and detailed observations, which Brian Bertram puts in a more general context for a wider readership. In the tirst six chapters, Pride of Lions describes the lions’ Serengeti habitat and how to find, follow and catch a lion to put on a radio-collar; it gives an outline of the relations between individuals within the pride, relations between and within sexes, lions’ group territories and prey-catching techniques. This really is the ‘meat’ of the book, together with the two following chapters on the social life and predation of leopard and cheetah, in the same habitat. But I found Chapters 9 and 10 the most interesting ones: ‘The evolution of lions’ and ‘Lions’ genes’, where lions arc discussed as group-living ‘altruistic’ animals. Within each pride, females are closely related, and males too are often brothers. Groups of males fight over pride possession, and after a takeover infanticide is common. In this context, the lions’ mating marathons are discussed, the synchronization of oestrus and births, even the lions’ manes, and one is left with a neat picture of the how and why of the lion’s social system. Not all of Brian Bcrtram’s arguments are completely convincing, however, and they invite further speculation. Hunting for instance-do lions really co-operate? One would have to show some change in the hunting behaviour or success of an individual lion when it is hunting together with another lion? but this has not been convincingly demonstrated. Huntmg success is almost exactly twice as high when two lions hunt together; it does not increase further when more lions join. On the face of it, individuals would be better off hunting alone, and sharing kills after the hunting. In this context,
27.
2
I think it more likely also that the lions’ group territory is an adaptation not to co-operative hunting efforts but to the exploitation of a patchy food availablity-a lion territory has to contain several suitable places for catching prey, but then it can sustain more than just one family of lions. I have some objections to the arguments for the bioloaical function of the lion’s imoressive matine record (2000 copulations for each mature offspringr Is it really likely to be a female ploy to prevent fighting between males (because if they damage each &he< the males take over and kill present cubs)? Brian Bertram argues that there are no selection pressures for mating quickly and efficiently, and out of so many, one copulation isn’t worth fighting over. The argument would be tenable for instance if copulations occurred at random intervals throughout a lion’s life but the fact is that they occur in concentrated bouts; if males would fight the prize would not be one copulation, but scores. The points are issues for discussion rather than criticism, and the merit of Brian Bertram’s book is precisely that it stimulates this kind of questioning, because of its simple and lucid exposition of the problem. HANS
KRIJIJK
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Banchory, Kincard, Scotland. Primate Bio-Social Development; Biological, Social, and Ecological Determinants. Edited by SUZANNE CHEVALIER-SKOLNIKOFF
&
FRANK
E.
POIRIER.
New
York: Garland Publishing (1977). Pp. xix + 636. Cloth: $45.00; paper: $12.50. This book presents concepts, data, and explanations of primate socialization processes from an interdisciplinary biological and psychological perspective. The 21 chapters by different authors resulted from two symposia on Primate Socialization held in 1972 and 1973. The naners are mostly up to date, although some represent results and ideas published elsewhere. The material reviews both laboratory and field research and covers a reasonably wide range of soecies from lemurs to treat aoes. As individual chapters, the book presents c great-deal of unpublished or hard-to-find information in a well-written and comprehensible style. However, as is usual with tonics covering a broad and diverse set of ohenomena and concepts,- some sections of the book- are more coherent and well integrated around a central set of issues than are other sections. We run into a major problem right at the start in Poirier’s valiant introductory attempt to deline socialization as ‘the sum total of an animal’s past social experiences which, in turn, may be expected to shape future social behaviour . . . . that process linking ati ongoing society to a new individual. Through socialization. a group passes its social traditions and life-ways to sueceeding generations. The socialization process ensures that adaptive behaviour will not have to be discovered anew each generation’. As a colleague of mine remarked, ‘With this definition and 50 cents you could buy a CUDof coffee’. The definition suggests that there is actualiy a unitary socialization process, but the remainder of the book directly contradicts that notion. The chapters underscore the view that development of social behaviour is multidimensional, consisting of a large number of processes that are temporally separated by continuously changing - - sets of determining variables. The book thus represents a realistic statement concerning the inherent complexity in understanding developmental processes
ANIMAL
BEHAVIOUR,
research programme even though a statistical ecologist might have to be consulted later. Comparing the two books, I would give the nod to Caughley. Although the title seems to indicate a concern only with vertebrates, the methods are general and, in fact, several of the examples are from invertebrates. Caughley’s bibliography is substantially larger; he covers more topics: and he seems to make fewer errors than Tanner. A. Ross KIESTER Department of Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, U.S. A. Pride of Lions. BY BRIAN BERTRAM. London, Toronto and Melbourne: J. M. Dent (1978). Pp. 253. Price E6.50. In a foreword to this richly illustrated book, Brian Bertram explains that he wrote it to answer all kinds of questions about his lion study which he was asked by eminent visiting zoologists, his four year old nephew and others. I think they will not be .disannointed-the book discusses many fundamental problems-of social organization and behaviour, whilst it breathes Serengeti and African bush life. It IS written in a very entertaining style, and almost casually a vast mass of data on lion behaviour which has now been collected by several research workers is summarized and discussed. Perhaps the style is too casual, even-one tends to forget sometimes that Brian Bertram’s statements are backed up by hard data, and that unlike many other natural history books he has solid grounds for his generalizations. But then, he had to keep his little nephew happy too. The book is a useful complement to George Schaller’s The Serengeti Lion (1972, University of Chicago Press): there we tind facts and detailed observations, which Brian Bertram puts in a more general context for a wider readership. In the tirst six chapters, Pride of Lions describes the lions’ Serengeti habitat and how to find, follow and catch a lion to put on a radio-collar; it gives an outline of the relations between individuals within the pride, relations between and within sexes, lions’ group territories and prey-catching techniques. This really is the ‘meat’ of the book, together with the two following chapters on the social life and predation of leopard and cheetah, in the same habitat. But I found Chapters 9 and 10 the most interesting ones: ‘The evolution of lions’ and ‘Lions’ genes’, where lions arc discussed as group-living ‘altruistic’ animals. Within each pride, females are closely related, and males too are often brothers. Groups of males fight over pride possession, and after a takeover infanticide is common. In this context, the lions’ mating marathons are discussed, the synchronization of oestrus and births, even the lions’ manes, and one is left with a neat picture of the how and why of the lion’s social system. Not all of Brian Bcrtram’s arguments are completely convincing, however, and they invite further speculation. Hunting for instance-do lions really co-operate? One would have to show some change in the hunting behaviour or success of an individual lion when it is hunting together with another lion? but this has not been convincingly demonstrated. Huntmg success is almost exactly twice as high when two lions hunt together; it does not increase further when more lions join. On the face of it, individuals would be better off hunting alone, and sharing kills after the hunting. In this context,
27.
2
I think it more likely also that the lions’ group territory is an adaptation not to co-operative hunting efforts but to the exploitation of a patchy food availablity-a lion territory has to contain several suitable places for catching prey, but then it can sustain more than just one family of lions. I have some objections to the arguments for the bioloaical function of the lion’s imoressive matine record (2000 copulations for each mature offspringr Is it really likely to be a female ploy to prevent fighting between males (because if they damage each &he< the males take over and kill present cubs)? Brian Bertram argues that there are no selection pressures for mating quickly and efficiently, and out of so many, one copulation isn’t worth fighting over. The argument would be tenable for instance if copulations occurred at random intervals throughout a lion’s life but the fact is that they occur in concentrated bouts; if males would fight the prize would not be one copulation, but scores. The points are issues for discussion rather than criticism, and the merit of Brian Bertram’s book is precisely that it stimulates this kind of questioning, because of its simple and lucid exposition of the problem. HANS
KRIJIJK
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Banchory, Kincard, Scotland. Primate Bio-Social Development; Biological, Social, and Ecological Determinants. Edited by SUZANNE CHEVALIER-SKOLNIKOFF
&
FRANK
E.
POIRIER.
New
York: Garland Publishing (1977). Pp. xix + 636. Cloth: $45.00; paper: $12.50. This book presents concepts, data, and explanations of primate socialization processes from an interdisciplinary biological and psychological perspective. The 21 chapters by different authors resulted from two symposia on Primate Socialization held in 1972 and 1973. The naners are mostly up to date, although some represent results and ideas published elsewhere. The material reviews both laboratory and field research and covers a reasonably wide range of soecies from lemurs to treat aoes. As individual chapters, the book presents c great-deal of unpublished or hard-to-find information in a well-written and comprehensible style. However, as is usual with tonics covering a broad and diverse set of ohenomena and concepts,- some sections of the book- are more coherent and well integrated around a central set of issues than are other sections. We run into a major problem right at the start in Poirier’s valiant introductory attempt to deline socialization as ‘the sum total of an animal’s past social experiences which, in turn, may be expected to shape future social behaviour . . . . that process linking ati ongoing society to a new individual. Through socialization. a group passes its social traditions and life-ways to sueceeding generations. The socialization process ensures that adaptive behaviour will not have to be discovered anew each generation’. As a colleague of mine remarked, ‘With this definition and 50 cents you could buy a CUDof coffee’. The definition suggests that there is actualiy a unitary socialization process, but the remainder of the book directly contradicts that notion. The chapters underscore the view that development of social behaviour is multidimensional, consisting of a large number of processes that are temporally separated by continuously changing - - sets of determining variables. The book thus represents a realistic statement concerning the inherent complexity in understanding developmental processes