Lion

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
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.