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| Latin name | Panthera leo |
| Head & Body Length | 2.3-3.3m (7-9ft) |
| Shoulder Height | up to 1.2m (4ft) |
| Weight | 120-240kg (270-550lb) |
| Gestation | 105-110 days |
| No. of young | usually 3-4 |
| Lifespan | up to 17 years in the wild; Up to 24 years in captivity |
Populations of African Lions are scattered across the African continent south of the Sahara. They tend to be found on grassy plains, savannas, open woodlands and scrubland. Within the grassy plains and savannas, lions use the large outcrops of rocks. These are ideal sites for lions to rest, hidden from the view of humans and prey.
Although lions will make kills in daylight, they will usually hunt under the cover of darkness. The majority of lions live in prides and within those prides it is the lionesses that carry out the hunting. The males rarely join in and they generally keep out of the way until the hunt is over.
Lions may scavenge any carcasses they come across but they hunt most of their food themselves. They are opportunistic and hunt a wide range of prey from mice to buffalo and ostriches to pythons. Lions stun small prey with a swipe of the forepaws. They kill larger prey by clamping their jaws on the animal’s windpipe or by suffocation.
Females are usually on heat more than once a year for three to five days at a time. Mating itself lasts about a minute and the pair may mate every twenty minutes or so day and night for as much as five days.
Small cubs are highly vulnerable to predators such as jackals, leopards and hyenas. When their mother leaves to hunt, they spend most of their time hiding among rocks or concealed in vegetation.
One of the features that distinguishes lions from other cats is that they cannot purr, they roar instead. A long elastic ligament replaces one of the bones that supports the voicebox. This creates a wide air passage and the vibrations that are produced make the lion the noisiest of all its relatives.
Lions have sensitive whiskers that help them to find their way in dense cover or on moonless nights. When they are moving in for the kill, they spread their whiskers like a living net, which helps it to select the best spot to clamp its great jaws on its victim.
The mane of the male lion serves two functions. It makes the lion look bigger and more imposing to rival males. It also provides the throat with padding in the event of a fight.
The lion uses its two pairs of cruelly pointed canine teeth to seize and throttle its prey. The small incisors chop mouthfuls of flesh from the carcass. The molars and premolars have sharp cutting edges that work against one another like shears to slice up prey.
The lion once roamed over nearly every part of Africa and from southeastern Europe through the Middle East into all of northern India. Today, the African lion is restricted to scattered conservation areas.
Lions have been hunted for many years, by farmers and others who saw the lion as a dangerous predator of their livestock, and by game hunters.
Lion populations are highly vulnerable if the numbers of their prey fall below a certain level. Prey numbers are dependent on factors such as poaching and dwindling food resources as humans and their livestock compete for space. Many lions are still killed illegally by farmers and poachers using guns and poison, or trapped in snares set for other animals. More seriously, rapidly growing populations mean less space for the lions and more competition for food with humans.
Although the short-term outlook for the African race of the lion is far less bleak than that facing the tiger, it is likely to face the threat of extinction unless action is taken now to preserve adequate amounts of suitable habitats.
- In dry habitats, lions survive on the water that occurs in the intestines or in the blood of prey.
- When a male takes over a pride, he usually kills the cubs fathered by the previous leader of the pride. The females will come on heat sooner than if they had been left to rear their cubs. This means that the new male can mate with the females as quickly as possible and pass on his own genes.
- Depending on the size of the meal they have eaten, lions may not need to hunt for three to four days. That is why lions in captivity are given ‘starve days.’
- Lions are wary of water and will avoid having to swim in it, unlike tigers who are enthusiastic and skilled swimmers.