Why do male lions have manes?
The lion’s mane has long been an iconic symbol, yet there has been no clear answer as to why lion’s have manes, or what function they serve. We have spent the last seven years addressing this question using a wide variety of information collected through observations, experiments, and physiological assays such as hormone analyses. Lions are the only cat with a mane, as well as the only social cat, so it stands to reason that the mane may be related to social behavior. Charles Darwin was the first to suggest that the mane may be a result of “sexual selection” meaning that the mane may play a role in reproductive success. One hypothesis has been that the mane protects a male’s neck in fights with other males, and that males that are more successful in fights would then have increased access to females. Another hypothesis is that the mane serves as a signal of male condition allowing males to assess each other’s fighting ability and females to choose superior mates. Our studies addressed
Surprisingly, there is still no sure answer to the question of why lions have manes. In the past people thought that the mane acted as protection in fights against other males. But lions often fight by biting each other on the back. Another possibility is that the mane acts as a signal to other lions. Lions are the only cats with manes, and only males have manes. Signals that are only found in males, such as the peacock’s tail as another example, are often shown to be attractive to females. Such signals may give the female information about whether the male would make a good mate. We are testing this idea with the Serengeti lions by using large, toy lions with varying manes. A picture of these “dummies” can be seen on our Lion Mane Research web page.
