Hopdoc,

As I understand it, when a lion is killed, the next in succession will kill all of his predecessor's cubs and youngsters. The lioness come into heat then and his cubs face less competition in the future.

This is why there is an effort to avoid shooting males less than five years old, since the older males make better trophies and so that at least some of the pride's young make it to adolescence.

Perhaps Shakiri can fill us in.

JPK