About Lions, Hyenas and Painted Dogs

Let me tell you something about Lions, Hyenas and Painted Dogs.
From "General Perspective":
"Lions are the noble beasts of the African bush and steppe.....
The King of Beasts"....  and so on

Hyenas are sneaky, thieving, carcass devouring, curiously laughing beasts, not to be trusted.

Painted Dogs are cruel marauding packs of efficient killers.

Now let me look at those three from a different, my, perspective:

At a kill the male Lion will inevitably eat first. Then the female, who in most cases has indeed made the kill, may take her fill, and then, if something is left over, the babies, according to their age and strength, may also partake of the meal. But if there is nothing left over, the baby goes hungry and in the worst case scenario, the baby starves to death.
If a young, strong male Lion, in a struggle for pride supremacy, has defeated the King of the Pride and driven him off, to take over the pride as the new leader, he first and foremost will kill all the infants sired by his defeated predecessor. Thereby he insures that his genes find an outlet.

The Hyena will, either in co-operation between male and female succeed in making a kill, or as is often the case, they may finish what a pride of Lions had started.  If they have youngsters in their den, they will eat from their kill, quickly return to their den, and, regurgitating, they will make sure to feed their offspring.

Painted Dogs also hunt in packs of males and females. They will gorge themselves on the meat of the kill, return to their lair and. also regurgitating, they will assure the survival of the young.

So now, you tell me which is the nobler of the three ?
The egomaniac, lazy, baby killing Lion, or the sharing, offspring-loving Hyena or Painted Dog.

I may be over-simplifying this issue, but that's the way I see it.

You want to argue ? Write to 
Bertstravels...

(excerpt from my book:  "Safari Africa, 2011)