| "Africa`s predator populations are declining, becoming isolated, or even locally extinct. The lion (Panthera leo) has experienced the most serious
population declines recently. These declines are particularly disturbing because they are occurring before we fully understand predator
communities and how they function. Predators are central to conservation. In ecological terms, large predators are keystone species, which,through their influence on the grazers and browsers, affect the entire ecosystem. The presence of large carnivores such as lions, leopards and cheetah defines a healthy ecosystem: if an area supports them, it is also supporting healthy populations of other large mammals upon which they feed, and the vegetation that those require. In turn, these support the myriad smaller vertebrates and invertebrates." |
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| "Still Kings" 48" x 72" Oil on Linen |
Once distributed across most of North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, lions are now found only in sub-Saharan Africa, with a tiny relict population in India.
Probably numbering less than 25,000, they are largely confined to scattered parks and reserves, too isolated to protect populations long term from disease, genetic inbreeding and political instability. Lion habitat ranges from severe desert to cold montane forests, but most are found in Africa`s grassland and thornscrub savannas.
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| "Sisters" 18" x 31" Oil on Linen |
Closely related females form the stable core of a pride. A single matriline (female family) occupies the same territory for generations. Mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, they cooperate in hunting and caring for their cubs. Lone females which leave the pride rarely are able to raise cubs, and are likely to become livestock killers.
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| " New Father " 28" x 42" Oil on Linen |
Pride females usually give birth at about the same time and nurse each other`s offspring.
Female cubs stay in their pride for life, but young brothers and male cousins eventually leave as a group and become nomadic, looking for another pride of females to take over.
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| "Mark of a King: 48" x 69" Oil on Linen |
Pride males defend their territories and females against the nomadic male coalitions, but in the end they are overthrown in fights that somtimes end in death.
Incoming males kill the prides` young cubs, bringing the females into heat. Thus, new males guarantee that they sire at least one litter of their own offspring in their often brief tenure as pride males.
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| "Someone to Watch Over Me" 28" x 42" Oil on Linen |
When a female comes into heat, she and one of the pride males leave the group, mating every twenty minutes for days on end. Given the high mortality of lion cubs, it may take several thousand matings to produce one lion that survives to maturity.
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| "We Three Kings" 48" x 64" Oil on Linen |
The great cats are Nature`s most awesome predators. Hunting through stealth, they stalk prey ranging in size from gazelles to bull buffalo and giraffe; usually, only large prides can take prey of this size.
Pride males leave most of the hunting to their females, but are also fully capable of feeding themselves. An adult male can consume over 100 pounds of meat in one meal. Livestock are easy and abundant prey.