Group territoriality and the benefits of sociality in the African lion

Drawing on decades of Serengeti pride records and GPS data, this study quantified how the number of adult females in a pride affects its ability to win contested ground and raise cubs. Larger prides defended core territories and high-quality river confluences more successfully, and these prime areas translated into higher cub survival and recruitment. The analysis treated the pride as a group competing for space against neighbors, showing that territory quality, not just hunting, drives the fitness payoffs of sociality. By linking long-term demography to spatial competition it provided a rigorous test of the idea that lions are social because they fight over land. The result reinforced the view that real estate, defended collectively, is the currency of lion reproductive success.