Do male lions breed with their female offspring?
The lifespan of a lion in the wild is about 15 to 18 years. They do live in a pride, with a single male having access to multiple females. Male cubs are kicked out of the pride at around 2 to 4 years of age, but this is not the end. They routinely return to challenge a pride leader, but normally not the same pride. The loser of the challenge is killed and the new leader has access to the females. This cycle can happen on intervals of 3 – 5 years. With this short cycle, it is unlikely that a female can be born and mature to childbearing age before the father of the female is challenged and replaced. The constant replacement of pride leader with new blood from a different pride keeps the gene pool fresh. It is possible for direct relatives to bear children, but there is enough random mixing between prides to keep mutations from combining into Inbreeding Depression. The link below has more info. I hope this helps. Sources: h
