Lead
"The 'male lion' has been wandering for many years, with a pair of majestic beards, and what should I do when I meet a lioness who wants to mate?"
You should know that in order to avoid the problem of inbreeding, some species will even make the young beast hostile to their parents and drive the young away, but for the "male lion" who has been wandering for many years, it may not be so easy to identify that it is his mother.
So the wandering life will have an impact on the group structure of the lion pack, and what should the male lion do for the growth of the lion cub?
1. The dangers of inbreeding.
The so-called inbreeding means that the same species in nature due to excessive population reduction, mating circle restrictions and other reasons, resulting in the phenomenon of inbred animals reproduction, such results are often due to the duplication of genes and will bring many diseases.
The cause of these diseases is due to the duplication of homologous genes, which are often recessive diseases in the animal's body, because during the mating of the group, these recessive diseases do not manifest themselves, because half of the genes are healthy, so that the occurrence of the disease can be suppressed.
However, in inbreeding, due to the extremely high gene duplication rate between breeding animals, this will lead to a large increase in the duplication rate of healthy genes and diseased recessive genes, resulting in a sharp increase in the probability of disease occurrence.
So this concept is actually applicable to human society, in the 21st century there are more and more data showing that inbreeding may lead to a decline in IQ, especially in the mainland due to the influence of feudal thinking, in order to maintain the purity of the bloodline, resulting in a very high proportion of inbreeding between relatives.
There was also a time when inbreeding was very prevalent among the European aristocracy, but the result of this was often a sharp increase in the likelihood of offspring suffering from recessive diseases, as well as a sharp decline in physical health.
Under the influence of this social atmosphere, many nobles even died of incurable diseases, and only then did they gradually stop such behavior and began to intermarry.
But in animals, especially in wandering groups, this can lead to a sharp increase in recessive diseases in this species, which can lead to the decline and extinction of this species.
So the harm of inbreeding is self-evident, so for a male lion, if one day on the way to wander, he encounters a lioness, then how should he deal with it?
Second, the change of the lion king.
Wild animals live in groups, just like human societies, and there are hierarchies and group rules in the wild animal world, and lions are no exception.
In the lion pack, each lion has its own place, and as a male lion, the most important thing for them is to protect their own territory, and the largest territory among male lions is the lion king.
And the status of the lion king comes from the competition between them, only the lion who can win the competition can be the king, and the status of the lion king will also change because of the new stronger male.
Therefore, when the male lion king gets older, or his combat ability decreases due to injuries and other reasons, he will be driven away by other male lions, and these male lions who have lost their territory will become stray lions.
These wandering lions will become temporary lion packs, and they will occupy the territory of other lions before they have the ability to regain territory, and then mate with those lions until they are able to regain territory, and then breed in the lion pack.
In order to avoid inbreeding, wandering male lions often drive their offspring away, so as not to have the possibility of breeding with their offspring in the process of mating.
So from the perspective of this group structure, in order to avoid inbreeding, male lions will take the way of expelling their cubs, but how does the wandering life come about?
3. The reason why the male lion wanders.
In nature, there is no concept called wandering, so the reason why lions become wandering lions is often because they have lost their territory and become such lions.
As a lion king, it is necessary to have a certain strength to be able to own a piece of territory, and only a strong enough lion is qualified to become a lion king and have his own territory.
But in nature, who can't guarantee that a male lion will not be injured, so some lion kings may be injured during the battle, resulting in the loss of territory, and these lions who have lost their territory tend to wander, but sometimes they will also occupy new territory and continue to live in the lion pack.
But there is a possibility that they will never be able to return to their lion pack, they need to keep wandering, in the process of wandering may encounter lionesses who have also lost territory, and after some years, some lions may not recognize their relatives, etc., resulting in inbreeding.
But on the other hand, it is precisely because of the frequent change of lion kings that the breeding between lion packs can often maintain the principle of natural selection, and it is a good thing for the lion pack not to inbreed because one or two lions are inbreeding in the process of breeding.
In this way, the race of lions will be better able to survive, and the lions will not have the possibility of inbreeding and will be able to maintain the balance of nature.
epilogue
Judging from the population structure of lions, they already have a good mechanism for how to avoid inbreeding, and human society should also be more cautious about pet breeding.
Don't blindly let pets complete inbreeding for the sake of pet purebredness, otherwise there will be more and more recessive diseases in pets, which will make the pet's body worse and worse, and may even lead to a decline in vitality.
Therefore, in the process of raising pets, we must also have natural respect for pets, so that pets can freely choose their own partners.