Special National Geographic web feature on
the Serengeti lions. Gorgeous photos and video, but I'm really imprssed by the technical aspects. Each section focuses on one aspect of life--prey, cubs, the pride, human impact, etc.--and you can get one or more of video clips, still photos, audip commentary, and captions for the photos (the controls are along on the bottom).
Warning: these are wild animals, with all that entails, and if you're squicked by sights of kills--and there's a short section about breeding lions for big-game hunting that I found highly morally repugnant (I was supposed to!)--then you can click past those sections.
There are two main prides it follows, the Vumbi pride and the Kibumbu pride. The two male lions with the Vumbi pride are C-Boy, a magnificent total bastard, and Hildur, a more easygoing Lothario. There's a video clip in which C-Boy muscles his way in on a kill, chases off the cubs and lionesses, and takes it over for himself. Total bastard, and yet that's what male lions do. Females do the killing, and males' jobs are to defend the territory and pride from other males, and to keep hyenas off the kill. (And to kill the cubs when they take over a new pride and father new ones, alas, as that will bring the females into estrus.)
Males also form coalitions--C-Boy and Hildur are a two-male coalition--to control territory and female lions. There's a section on the Killers, a four-male coalition nicknamed that after savage attacks on Kibumbu females, and after almost killing C-Boy.
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