Appearance

Unlike the other large cats, lions have no apparent pattern body markings. Unlike the tiger and the jaguar, which mainly preside in heavily forested areas, lions, for the most part, live in the wide- open plains of Africa's heartland. Their fur is tan and is very short, with the exception of the males' mane. Their tan fur allows them to blend in with the sand and grass that exists where the lion does most of its hunting. Only males have a mane; the mane is a status symbol. Like the antlers of a deer, the male lion uses its mane to show off to the females. Also like a set of antlers, the mane of a lion becomes larger and darker as the lion ages and reaches its sexual maturity. A lion with a longer and darker mane is usually found to be more desirable to the females. The male lion is considerably larger than the female, weighing in between 350 and 550 pounds. The females are smaller, averaging between 270 and 400 pounds. Lions average around 9 feet long from nose to tail.

Lifestyle

Unlike all other cats, lions live in groups of around 30 individuals called prides. These prides usually break down into smaller groups of a male or two, around 5 females and their offspring. The male is very lazy and almost never participates in hunting. His main job is to defend the pride against anything that could bring harm to them. During the mating season, males become more aggressive and will not hesitate to attack anything. During this time, the male hormones drive the younger males to seek out a pride of their own. How do they do this? Defeat the male in another pride. The young male approaches the pride lead by an elder male and proceeds to let his intentions known. The current male of that pride will then engage in confrontation with the younger male. If the elder male is victorious, the younger male flees and tries his luck with another pride. However, if the younger male wins, the elder male is forced to leave immediately. The new male then proceeds to eradicate the offspring from the first male. The male chases down every last cub in the pride from the original male, and kills them. Almost directly following the mass murder of the cubs, the females mate with their new leader. After a gestation period of 110-120 days, the lioness leaves the pride and had 1-4 cubs on her own. She hides them in a ridge or near rocks for a few weeks. These cubs are around 5 pounds and are born with their eyes shut. Lion cubs are born with a leopard-like pattern to help them hide from predators while their mother is out hunting. After 3 weeks, their eyes open and they are able to see. 3 months following their birth, they are able to follow their mother in hunting and back to the pride. After around 4 years, the male cubs may be kicked out of the pride. They wander around nomadically for a year or two, often forming mini-prides of other males that were kicked out of their prides. After another two years of doing this, at age 5, the male lion has finally reached sexual maturity. They have now developed a lot of strength and are ready to fight. This allows them to take control of another pride, thus spreading their genetics around the lion population.

Lions are known to be especially lazy. Like most cats, they are nocturnal and sleep most of the day, in fact around 21 hours a day! Most of their hunting occurs late in the day as the sun is preparing to set. Lions have an advantage at this time, because they have a relfective lens in the eye that will reflect light back into the eye so they can see well in the dark.

Food

Although the males are larger than the females, the females do almost all of the hunting for the pride. Their technique is reminiscent of Caesar’s strategy of "Divide and Conquer". The hunt mainly consists of four hunting females approaching a large herd of mixed hoofed animals. The main prey of lions is zebras, cape buffalo, giraffes, and wildebeest. Two of the four hunting female lions flank around to scare the herd toward the remaining two lions that are hiding and awaiting an ambush. When the herd sees two lions running into the core of the group, the ungulates panic and begin running away from the ones they see. However, that leads them into the jaws of the two that are hiding. Those two jump out and attempt to prevent one of the animals from escaping. The diversion lions then rejoin the ambush pair, and continue to kill the prey. Like the tiger, the lion looks to kill its prey with a bite to the throat or the back of the neck. When the prey is finally brought down, the battle is not over yet. The chase often catches the attention of other predators around. Spotted hyenas, also known as laughing hyenas, will not hesitate to steal the food away from a lion pride. All male lions and hyenas seem to have an eternal hate for one another. Hyenas will kill lion cubs, while male lions will kill adult hyenas. If the pride is able to keep their food, the male lions have priority to eat first. They eat their fill, then allow the females and cubs to eat after they are full. When the prey is small, this will often leave the young lion cubs without enough food to survive, and they die.

Status in the wild:

Lions are not endangered in the wild, although they are protected. Lions live in the uncharted parts of Africa at this time, so contact with human does not occur enough for their eradication to be needed. However, "The Ghost and The Darkness" had many run-ins with people. They led a nine-month killing spree on the workers of the Tsavo Railroad. If you would like to read more about "The Ghost and "The Darkness" click here.