page_title: Bunting (animal behavior)
section_title: Lions
hierarchical_section_title: Bunting (animal behavior) / Bunting in other species / Lions
caption_attribution_description: English: Two cuddling lionesses.
context_page_description: Bunting is a form of animal behavior, often found in cats, in which the animal butts or rubs their head against other things, including people. Bunting as a behaviour can be viewed as a variation of scent rubbing. This is when an animal, typically a carnivore, will rub its back on a scent such as prey or the urine of an animal of the same species. Evolutionarily speaking, scent rubbing is the oldest form of scent communication and bunting is a derivative of this behaviour. Rolling in the scent of another animal was an adaptation to camouflage the scent of a predator or outside male in order to get closer to mates.
  Bunting is generally considered to be a form of territorial scent-marking behaviour, where the cat rubs the scent glands on their cheeks and forehead on the object being marked. After a display of aggression, a cat will begin bunting objects in that immediate area as a form of territorial display toward a rival cat. Bunting and allorubbing are also part of feral cat behavior within colonies. An elaborate ritual which can take several minutes, two cats will rub along the side and tail of the other cat.
context_section_description: Similarly to domesticated cats, lions also use bunting as a form of greeting and territorial marking. Lions will often greet each other with this head bunting behavior when returning to a pride after a hunt. In the early stages of life, cubs procure stimulation from their mother as she cleans them by rubbing and licking them. This behaviour carries throughout their lives and bunting remains a primal source of interaction between adults as it stimulates a familiar interaction between kin.
caption: Lions display bunting as a form of greeting when met with other pride members.
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