Each of these complex societies consists of two or more adult males and several females and juveniles. The territory of each pride is several miles in diameter, with boundaries that overlap into the adjacent territories.
Prides generally stay intact as long as the food supply is abundant.
The females in a pride most often are related, with sisters, cousins, mothers, and daughters all working together in the group. The cubs of one mother are adpoted by other mothers. In a kind of day-care arrangement, mothers share the suckling and the guarding of a pride's cubs. While some mothers and maturing cubs are on the hunt, other mothers and cubs stay in the heartland of the pride's territory and keep watch over the pride's youngest members. Cubs need protection from adult males.