Lion and other animals with the least likelihood of committing incest.

Introduction.

Meaning of Incest.

Incest is any form of sexual relationship between people that are related by blood. Amongst humans of the present generation and those of the past, incest is considered a taboos. This cuts across many cultures and traditions world over. Apart from the fact that it is considered immoral, children born from inbreeding have greater risks of having various degrees of genetic disorders that can even cause death.

Inbreeding refers to the mating of close relatives in species that are normally outbreeding. Matings between father and daughter, brother and sister, or first cousins are examples of inbreeding. Many species of plants and animals have evolved devices to minimize close inbreeding.
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This post therefore is not aimed at discussing incest amongst humans, but within lower animals. Researches done overtime have revealed the behavioral habits in animals as it relates to their abilities to commit incest.
Those that are hit the worst are those whose environment are unique that they find it difficult to come in contact with their kinds from other groups. This cause them to resort to inbreeding while others develop tendencies that would make them reproduce asexually. Example; New Mexico whiptail lizard.

In general, there are few animals with minimal likelihood of committing incest. The Lion is number one on the list of animals that have shown the required discipline and natural structure that help avoid mating with relatives.

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Animals with the least likelihood of committing incest.

1. Lions.

Lion is the first of animals with the least likelihood of committing incest. This is because of the social structure they exhibit. This is because, once a lion cub matures sexually, he is kicked out by his father in the most brutal manner. Then the males that were newly kicked out move around together and eventually form a sort bachelor's pride just like the elephants. But in this case of the lions, they usually engage an elderly lion who probably lost his pride in a fight to a supposedly younger and more agile lion.
This older lion is supposed to help mentor them on skills to survive. He helps guide them on how to identify battles they should take on and the ones to avoid. (Examples of batteries to avoid are; battles with be poisonous snakes, group of hyenas, crocodiles etc).
Amongst lions, related females form a kind of stable social groups, while the male lions are forced out of their natal pride once they attain sexual maturity. When a male lion leaves their natal pride, they tend to join another existing pride or establish their own pride where they mate with unrelated females. As you have seen, this social structure helps reduce the possibility of incest or eliminates it totally.

However, there are a few exceptions that can allow incest pass amongst lions.

• When a lion takes over a pride or joins another existing pride, he may mate with other lions that are his sisters or cousins. This is however very rare.
• If there are no unrelated male lions around, female lions without a pride can mate with related males.
• There is another rare instance, where a lion returns to his father's pride to overthrow another lion that had overthrown his father, and therefore earn the right to to breed the female lions there, which may include his mother, sisters, and cousins.

Yes, he can still mate with his mother after the father because a male lion lives between eight years to ten years, while a female lion can live up to sixteen years.
It takes about five years before a female lion can becomes sexually attractive, while it takes about 6 years for a male lion to become sexually matured. The life span of a male lion is shorter because the life of a male lion is filled with battles, which reduces his lifespan.
Moreso , there is lover possibility of a male lion mating with his daughter, this is because, of their lifestyle as I had captured above. Before a female lion becomes sexually attractive, another lion must have overthrown her father and taken over his pride. Therefore, the possibility of a lion mating his daughter is equal to zero.

While the behavior and social structures of other animals encourage incest, the lions social structure and pattern of life helps reduce or eliminate the possibility of incest within the pride. This is because after a lion is forced out of a pride, he stays very far away in search of another pride to join, reducing the possibility of mating with a relative to the bearest minimum.

2. Elephant.

The elephant lives in matriarchal family groups. Here, female elephants form very strong bond with their offsprings. While the male elephants exit their natal groups to join bachelor heads or move about alone. This their social structure reduces the chances of mating their relatives.

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3. Dolphins.

Dolphins social structures and mating arrangement is very complex. Normally, they form large social groups where they interact and mate with unrelated people that are not from their immediate family.

4. Wolves.

They live in packs, led by a pair of alpha wolves, which consists of two unrelated male and female wolf. At sexual maturity, male offsprings leave their packs to find mates in other packs. This goes a long way reducing the the chances of mating with close relatives.

4. Bonobos.

Bonobos are otherwise known as "Pygmy Chimpanzees". They mate frequently involving different individuals outside their large, closely-nit communities. Perhaps, social alliances and bond plays very significant role in bonobos because they normally mate outside their familiar relationships.

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Conclusion.

As expected, the focus of this post is the lion, others animals sighted are to complement the post.

Certainly, the above listed are not the only animals with low chance of commiting incest. More examples are Gray wolves, who has a similar social structures like the lion. There is also chimpanzees who live in multi-male or multi-male social groups from where individuals can mate and interact with unrelated individuals.
More animals whose social structures help avoid incest are; Gorillas, orangutans, Red foxes, bottle nose dolphins, spotted hyenas, African wild dogs etc.