Jan

as you have been to Tsavo so many times would you confirm the legend that the male lions of Tsavo don't have manes because of the heat?

I am really curious about your findings!

Thank you!

Pippa, I know you asked Jan about this but I'm going to put in my 2-cents worth, if you don't mind.

I worked on the "Mane-less Lions of Tsavo Project" which is on-going University of Chicago project on the private ranch lands between east and west Tsavo...outside the park boundaries. We went out every day around the clock - day and night to find and study the lions whose males had little if any manes (some of the adult males had manes like male adolescents, others had no mane at all).
Why did they have short/no manes, the project leaders wondered.

The conclusions we came to was that the greater Tsavo ecosystem, at a lower elevation than the savannas, say of the Mara, was much warmer - day and night and the lions could easily get over-heated with this elaborate mane. Also, the vegetation is quite different - the open grasslands with their tall, pale grasses more easily concealed the long-maned lions, while the short, prickly, leafless, thick bush of Tsavo did not hide the male lions' long manes; also, the thick bush was much harder for the male lions to navigate when hunting prey. Their flowing manes would get caught in the thick bush.

You can find the full study report under: The U. of Chicago, Prof. Patterson, "Maneless Lions of Tsavo".

http://www.earthwatch.org/europe/downloads/Get_Involved/Lions_casestudy.pdf

Pippa, Jan, et al: The above link will give you the highlights (with pictures included) of Dr. Bruce Patterson's study of the Tsavo lions. Enjoy.

Patterson's group is just one that has studied the Tsavo maneless lions. They also discovered that the Tsavo maneless lions had smaller heads than those found elsewhere in Africa. Also Gnoske and Kerbis-Peterhans, who started out with Patterson, and due to disagreements, went on to study the lions on their own. Dr. Craig Packer (one of George Schaller's heirs) and Peyton West also studied the Tsavo lions. Some of the researchers originally did not believe there were maneless lions and thought perhaps what people were seeing were young immature males.

A real answer might never be found. However, I personally like Daphne Sheldrick's theory in her book "The Tsavo Story" written back in the 1960's. All of Tsavo East was originally very thick nyika (bush) which would have make it extremely difficult for maned lions to get around without the mane getting hung up on the bushes. At that time there were very few smaller animal herds such as zebra, impala, etc. in Tsavo. After the elephants re-formed the park by knocking down most of the trees in the southern sector, it became savannah-like and many more species came to Tsavo.

Why and how species evolve is a real question perhaps with no real answers, just theories. African elephants all used to have tusks (Asian and Indian females usually don't). After hunting and poaching got out of hand, now more and more tuskless elephants are being seen. Were they somehow able to realize the tusks were the reason for so many elephant deaths and somehow evolve to have tuskless elephants or was there originally only one tuskless bull who bred with many? Were lions perhaps able to know their manes were a real problem and somehow then evolve into maneless? Sounds far out, but how can one explain these oddities.

Jan, as I mentioned in my previous posting, Patterson agrees with Daphne Sheldrick about the long manes getting stuck in the thick. spiky bushes....he only adds that the, lower attitude and greater hotter temperatures of Tsavo (in comparison to the savannas of the Mara or the Serengheti) are also a factor.
Male lions in the hills of Tsavo have longer, fuller manes due to the cool temperatures there.

I think animals evolve to fit their environment and change or alter themselves accordingly.

Although its nice to ponder why a lion has a larger or smaller mane and what color of mane is more attractive to female lions, I also would hope that there is a conservation message to their research. The lions of Tsavo and the rest of Kenya are almost a memory.

Hi Kat: My thinking would be, if the heat and humidity of Tsavo contributes to the cause of manelessness, then one would think that in other places in Africa that are hot and humid they would also find maneless lions. You know far more about Africa in general than I. Do the southern African countries also have hot, humid areas or are they cooler?

It would be interesting to have you ask Annie when she gets back from Sudan, which is also hot and humid, if the lions there are maneless also.