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Behavior Guide: feeding 
Lions may not always hunt cooperatively, but they are willing and eager to share the fruits
of their companions' labors. Feeding can be a messy affair with an entire pride scrambling
for access to a carcass, but a general dominance hierarchy emerges that is governed by sex and
age class. Adult males keep females off a carcass, and females dominate sub-adults
and cubs. By keeping females off a carcass males may inadvertently make
room for small cubs, and the two will feed together while
the rest of the pride waits at a respectful distance.
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The flanks and guts of a carcass are highly favored. The guts are usually the first to go,
and when prey is abundant lions
often desert carcasses after eating the guts and move on to the next. Oddly, lions
occasionally bury bits of a carcass after feeding. Little is known about the reason for this,
but one suggestion is that this a residual behavior stemming from a time when lions
were solitary and buried the remnants of a carcass to deter scavenging rivals.