The animal is large, has mane, and most likely you would not want to cross him. But despite seem like much, the animal in the picture above is not a lion. What you are seeing is a beautiful large lion.
Her name is Mmamoriri, and she is not the only incredibly similar lioness with a lion. She lives in Botswana, and in the same area there are four other feline with the same masculine look.
None, however, has many behaviors considered nonstandard. Mmamoriri acts as if it were male, roaring closer tone of males (more severe), killing lions cubs who stole their prey and reaching even to ride in other lionesses - who did not like a lot of attitude, she has never been matched and it was either ignored or met with aggression.
It is not known exactly why this happens, but it seems that the reason is a well-known hormone among humans: testosterone. It is believed that the animals in question have much higher testosterone levels than usual.
No wonder the Lions hormone is responsible for the mane; a castrated animal, for example, lose the ability to have the symbolic coat around the head.
This would lead to a second question, the ability to reproduce. Animals with high levels of the hormone can struggle to procreate.
"While some lionesses with mane were observed copulating, none of them became pregnant, suggesting that they are infertile," he told New Scientist magazine, Kathleen Alexander, a biologist at the State University of Virginia.
There is no reason to worry, the lions will not go away. Apparently, the whole situation is the result of a mutation in the DNA and that only happened in the region.
"Bearing in mind that all the lionesses with mane are the Okavango region [in Botswana], there must be some genetic component in this population that is bringing up this phenomenon", also said the NS, Geoffrey Gilfillan, biologist at the University of Sussex in falme, England, study author noted that the lionesses in the last two years.
It is not the first time that a lioness such appears. In 2011, a feline of the National Zoo of South Africa began to develop his mane. Some tests have shown that the cause of all this was a problem in their ovaries - which were removed. Before long his coat back to normal.
The appearance of these females ends up helping the males in the group. It turns out that packs rivals think lionesses with mane are male, and the collective ends up gaining more space. Leone queen. Chora, Simba.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário