Data from: Selfish partners: resource partitioning in male coalitions of Asiatic lions

Behavioral plasticity within species is adaptive which directs survival
traits to take multiple pathways under varying conditions. Male-male
cooperation is an evolutionary strategy often exhibiting an array of
alternatives between and within species. African male lions coalesce to
safeguard territories and mate-acquisition. Unique to these coalitions is
lack of strict hierarchies between partners, who have similar
resource-securities possibly because of many mating-opportunities within
large female-groups. Skewed mating and feeding rights have only been
documented in large coalitions where males were related. However, smaller
modal prey coupled with less simultaneous mating-opportunities for male
Asiatic lions in Gir forests, India would likely result in a different
coalition-structure. Observations on mating-events (n=127) and
feeding-incidents (n=44) were made on 11 male-coalitions and 9
female-prides in Gir, to assess resource distribution within- and among-
different sized male-coalitions. Information from 39 males were used to
estimate annual tenure-holding probabilities. Single-males had smaller
tenures and appropriated fewer matings than coalition-males. Pronounced
dominance-hierarchies were observed within coalitions, with one partner
getting >70% of all matings and 47% more food. Competition between
coalition-partners at kills increased with decline in prey-size, increase
in coalition-size and the appetite-states of the males. However, immediate
subordinates in coalitions had higher reproductive fitness than
single-males. Declining benefits to partners with increasing
coalition-size, with individuals below the immediate subordinates having
fitness comparable to single-males, suggest to an optimal coalition-size
of two lions. Lions under higher competitive selection in Gir show
behavioral plasticity to form hierarchical-coalitions, wherein partners
utilize resources asymmetrically, yet coalesce for personal gains.