African lion populations have declined dramatically from historical levels, with pride social structure central to individual welfare and conservation strategies.
Lion welfare depends fundamentally on intact pride and coalition structures that protect individuals from infanticide, provide cooperative hunting success, and enable normal social behavior. Lions whose pride is disrupted by loss of adult males face elevated cub mortality from infanticide by incoming males, representing both acute welfare harm to cubs and reproductive failure for surviving females. Human-lion conflict results in retaliatory killing and snaring that remove established individuals from functional social groups, causing cascading welfare effects across the pride. Lions in fragmented habitat with reduced prey must range into human-use areas, increasing conflict risk. Conservation approaches that address livestock predation through compensation and livestock protection while maintaining connected lion habitat address welfare at the population scale.