8 Comments so far

1. Leolupus Had this To Say

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   No animal will intentionally kill its own young, unless they are born with serious problems and would not survive anyway – mother animals are often able to tell if their young are sickly, even when they appear normal to human eyes.
   Males of many species, not just cats, will kill any young that are not their own. This is both to reduce competition for themselves, and to give their own offspring a better chance. Since most cats are solitary, males may occasionally accidentally kill cubs which they have fathered themselves, though this is unusual.
   This does not happen in lions, because they are the only truly social cats. As the males live with the females, they know that any cubs born are their own. They are extremely protective of their young – the main role of males in the pride is to defend the territory, protecting the young from invading males. When new males take over a pride, they will kill any young cubs (regardless of their gender). This is because it takes a lioness around 2 years to raise cubs, and she will not mate again until this time. Since the average tenure of males with a pride is between 2 and 3 years, new males cannot wait this long while the lionesses raise their predecessors’ cubs before breeding themselves. By killing the cubs, they cause the lionesses to come into season again, allowing them to mate and father their own young.

2. The Cheshire Had this To Say

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   For the most part it is done to pass on their bloodline.
   For exampe say there is a pride of lions that has several females with little ones and a new lion comes in and takes over the pride. The new male will kill the cubs which will force the females back into their cycle. Thus the winners bloodline gets passed on instead of the other.
   Of course there are times were it can happen due to hunger, but for the most part like I said, it is done to pass on bloodlines.
   And yes, there are females who do try to protect their cubs. I have even seen some females leave prides with cubs when new males move into the area. Its just nature though…

3. dukefent Had this To Say

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   They don’t kill their own offspring. But if a male comes into a group, or takes over, it will kill kittens belonging to other males. This causes the females to come into heat sooner, so he can then impregnate them to produce his own offspring. It’s cruel and nasty, but that’s nature for you.
   Incidentally, domestic cats living in colonies show the same behavior. The difference is that on occasion the females will gang up and fight back, which makes house cats more noble than the ‘king of beasts.’

4. Marwaen Had this To Say

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   There are two reasons for this type of behaviour. Firstly, it happens when male smells that the baby is not “his”. Some scientists say it is because they don’t want to spend energy and natural sources to grow offsprings of others, I would say it is because of jealousy.
   The second case occurs only for male babies, when the mail feels that his position in the group could be replaced by his offspring.

5. ?Heidi? Had this To Say

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   It isn’t just wild cats, lions, and tigers that does this. There is a lot of animals that kill there newborn if there newborn has a defect.

6. jasonv13 Had this To Say

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   All Cats do this (even domestic cats). The dominant male “Toms” will kill infant males (not necessarily their own) to eliminate future competition for breeding etc.

7. jo2001mu Had this To Say

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   Even male cats at home does the same .If the female don`t have any Young to care about , they begin to search for male again.
   You got it ?

8. thierrys Had this To Say

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   so they can mate with the mother.