Animal Sacrifices

Author notes

lion

Emily K

on April 15, 2007

A lion's mane is a mirror of his condition. Males with darker mane are often signaling health and higher levels of testosterone. Scientists from the University of Minnesota tested this by putting two life-sized plush lions out into the savannah and fitted them with different kinds of mane. 9 out of 10 times, lionesses were more interested in the darker maned one, and were indifferent to mane length. Data has shown that lions with darker mane are often older, healthier, have higher levels of testosterone, and often produce healthier offspring.

There is a downside. Darker mane absorbs more heat than lighter mane. Since most dark-maned lions are more fit and healthy than others, they can usually handle the excess heat intake, but in some cases it can overheat their sperm and make them infertile. This might be why weaker lions have light mane; the benefits of being more attractive to lionesses isn’t worth the higher certainty of reproductive failure.