LION
Lions are the second largest cats
after the tiger. Most are tawny in color; faint spots found on the young are
occasionally kept into maturity.
Lions are the only sexually
dimorphic cats, meaning the female and males differ in appearance. The males
have thick mane around the head that extends down the chest between the
forelegs; the mane can vary in color from yellow to black. There are a few populations
that have very thin or no manes; males who have been injured may also lose
their manes.
Lions are the only cats with tufts
at the end of their tails. They have massive shoulders and strong forelimbs,
long sharp claws, and short powerful jaws. Their muscular build generates a lot
of metabolic heat and they may pant just from walking across an open plain.
Lions have nine distinct vocalizations, including roars and puffing (similar to
chuffling in the tiger). Their roar can be heard by humans over five miles
away.
They climb trees to avoid swarms of
biting flies and escape herds of Cape buffalo. One group on a tiny isolated
island in the Duba Plains of Botswana's Okavango Delta has specialized in
hunting Cape buffalo and they swim through deep rivers to get to them.
Adult lions are mainly nocturnal and
are the least active of the big cats, sleeping or resting about 20 hours a day.
Both males and females mark their territories by roaring and scent marking.
Lions give a flehmen response when they investigate scent marks or the
reproductive state of lionesses.
Males with newly won prides often
kill existing cubs; the females then come into estrus and the males sire their
own cubs. The lioness gives birth in a secluded area away from the group and
introduces the cubs to the pride when they are about eight weeks old. Often
several females give birth at about the same time and they share the duties of
protecting the cubs in a communal nursery called a crèche. They may also
sometimes nurse cubs other than their own. Young cubs are vulnerable to
predation by hyenas, leopards and black-backed jackals. As a result of this, as
well as starvation during times of food shortages and attacks by males taking
over a pride, 60-70% of lion cubs die within their first 2 years of life.
Lionesses will sometimes leave the pride with cubs to protect them until the
age of 2 years and some die defending their cubs.
Asiatic
Lions
Asiatic lions once ranged from the
Mediterranean to the north-eastern Indian subcontinent. Today, they survive in
the Gir Forest of Gujarat state in India. An effort to establish a second group
in another state has met resistance as Gujarat doesn't want to lose its
distinction as the only sanctuary.
Asiatic lions are similar to African
lions, but they have a belly fold, a flap of skin that runs the length of the
belly between the front and hind legs. Their manes are thinner than those of
African lions but their coats are thicker and their tail tufts are longer.
Their color ranges from reddish-brown to a highly mottled black to sandy
cinnamon grey. Their prides are smaller than those of African lions, with an
average of only two females. The Asiatic males are less social and only
associate with the pride when mating or for a large kill. Asiatic lions prey
predominantly on deer (sambar and chital), antelope (nilgai), gazelle
(chinkara), wild boar, water buffalo and livestock.
Habitat decline for lions in the Gir
Forest may be associated with the presence of nomadic herdsmen whose cows are
causing overgrazing, which reduces the lions' natural prey. When the lions
shift to killing cattle, they may be poisoned. Others die from run-ins with
farmers' illegal electrical fences or drown in open wells dug by farmers for
irrigation.
White
Lions
White lions were first documented in
1928 in the Timbavati region of South Africa (e.g. near the Kruger National
Park). The white lions are not albino but carry a recessive white gene; some
have blue eyes. In 2002, no known white lions remained in the wild but a White
Lion Reintroduction Program was showing some success by 2009.
Prey
Much of lions' hunting is done at
night and in the very early dawn. Female lions account for about 85-90% of the
pride's hunting. They usually work together to ambush prey, although lions will
also hunt alone. Lions often steal kills from hyenas, wild dogs, cheetahs,
leopards (and sometimes other lions), with scavenged food providing more than
50% of their diets.
Their larger prey animals include
antelopes, impala, zebras, wildebeest, giraffe, buffalo, wild hogs, rhinos and
hippos. They may also attack elephants when food is scarce. Lions further feed
on hares, birds, reptiles, crocodiles, pythons, fur seals, baboons, porcupines
and ostrich eggs. Their hunting success rate is low, so lions may only eat
every two or three days; they can eat almost 79 lbs of meat in one feeding.
Most lions drink water daily if available, but they can go four or five days
without it.
Habitat
A pride's territory can be 15 to 400
square miles in area, comprising grassy plains, savannahs, scrub and dense
bush, or dry open woodlands. They do not live in moist tropical forests (i.e.,
the "king of the jungle" does not live in the jungle). Cooperation by
males and females in defending their territory is thought to explain why lions
live in groups ; their high density requires control over good habitats.
Range
Lions once roamed most of Africa and
parts of Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Today they are found only in parts
of sub-Saharan Africa, with a very small population of Asiatic lions in India.
Habitat loss means that they now occupy about 10% of their former range in
Africa.
Biology
|
Weight
|
265 to 575 lbs for males and about
260-400 lbs for females
|
|
Reproductive
Season
|
Mating takes place year round. Males
often bite females in the neck during mating; copulation lasts 8-68 seconds
(averaging 21 seconds!) and lions may mate from 60-100 times per 24 hours!
|
|
Gestation
Period
|
110 days
|
|
Litter
Size
|
2-4 cubs
|
|
Age
at Independence
|
|
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Sexual
Maturity
|
2-4 years
|
|
Longevity
|
12-18 years in the wild and 20-25
years in captivity
|
|
Social
Structure
|
Lions are the only large exotic
cats that live in family units, called prides; these families can include as
few as two and as many as 40 members. Within an established pride, members
rarely fight but rather show affection to one another.
A pride |
Principal
Threats
Lions have long been killed as part
of tribal rituals and for their supposed medicinal and magical powers; it is
feared that they may replace tigers as sources of ingredients for Chinese
medicines. Lions are also threatened by burgeoning human populations which
result in loss of habitat as well as hunting, poisoning and poaching by
livestock ranchers. Trophy hunting is another threat to their wellbeing, with
white lions being especially popular for canned hunting.
In the wild, lions face an indirect
threat from climate change called co-infection, in which they acquire both
canine distemper and a tick-borne parasitic disease during times of severe
drought; together, the diseases cause high mortality. In 1994, the Serengeti
National Park in Tanzania lost 30% of its lions within a few weeks. Such
droughts are predicted to become more common. In addition to distemper, most
African lions eventually acquire feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), though
they do not become sick from it; they also suffer parasitic diseases. Hyenas
and leopards will kill lion cubs. Weak, sick and wounded adults may be attacked
by hyenas.
Role
in Environment
Lions are a keystone species. If
lions were to disappear, populations of the species they prey on would increase
dramatically. The result would be excessive competition for food between the
prey species, and also between these prey species and livestock.
