Researchers Find Cowardly Lions on Plains of Africa--Not in Oz

Researchers reported Friday in the journal Science that cowardly lions really do exist.

On the plains of Africa, some lions fearlessly defend territory and family. Others are heroic only some of the time. And still other lions are cowardly enough to always avoid the most dangerous risk faced by the big cats--fighting with other lions to defend their hunting grounds.

Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota said a study of lion families, or prides, in Tanzania shows that the animals live in a subtle and complex society that allows for many different personality types.

Lions are not all brave, Packer said, despite a public perception that has even put the word “lionhearted” into the language. In “The Wizard of Oz,” the cowardice of a lion was considered so unusual that Dorothy--the heroine--thought that it would take the magic of the wizard to correct.

Packer and Robert Heinsohn of the Australian National University in Canberra studied cooperation and courage among female lions by playing recorded roars of strange lions within 200 yards of a resting lion group.

Lions will defend to the death their hunting grounds, so the sounds represented challenges to fight.

“When one pride has a battle with its neighbor, the lions are quite often injured or killed,” Packer said.

The first defender to confront intruders is the most likely to get hurt. Thus, by measuring the response of lions to the recorded roars, Heinsohn and Packer were able to assess the courage of each member of the pride.

They found that in all prides there are female lions that immediately will stalk away to challenge the intruders.

Others may or may not fight, depending on the odds.

Then there are what Packer called “the pure cowards. These are the jerks who would always hang back and couldn’t be counted on.”

Lions in the prides seemed to tolerate all levels of courage and none of the cowards were penalized, Packer said. Many in a pride are related and courage seemed to have no genetic basis, the researchers said.