Communal cub rearing and non-offspring nursing in lions

Lionesses in a pride synchronise births and raise cubs in a communal creche, and this study examined how milk is shared. Mothers nursed their own cubs preferentially but tolerated suckling by related cubs, with allonursing patterns predicted by kinship, milk surplus, and the difficulty of repelling persistent non-offspring. Communal rearing buffers cubs against starvation and protects them from infanticidal males through collective defence. The analysis showed allonursing is a tolerated cost shaped by relatedness rather than indiscriminate generosity, illuminating how cooperative breeding operates in a felid and why creche formation is central to female reproductive strategy.