African lion

Physical features

• Lions are large cats with short, golden brown coats. Their long tails typically have a tuft of black hair at the end, and they are the only cats to have this tuft. They also have a sharp “claw” on the end of the tail and the reason for it is unknown.

• Weights range from about 250-300 pounds for females and 350-450 pounds for males. Lengths range from 6-8 feet with an extra 2-3 feet of tail.

• They have powerful jaws and strong teeth for attacking and pulling down prey. Incisors grip struggling prey while carnassial teeth (modified molars/premolars common to all Carnivorans) work like scissors to cut through muscles, hides, and connective tissues.

• Their tongues are covered with small projections called papillae, which resemble the rough side of Velcro. The tongue is primarily used as a grooming tool, but it is also used in feeding to remove fur from prey and meat from bones.

• They can run up to 37 miles per hour and tackle prey that greatly outweighs them.

• Lions are sexually dimorphic. Males weigh more and have large manes which protect their throats in fights with other males. Males with darker manes have been found to have higher testosterone levels, spend more time resident with prides, have higher offspring survival, and are preferred by females.

• Manes start to grow when young males are around one year of age and grow thicker, longer, and darker as they matures. Males generally have a full mane by 4-6 years of age, but the color and thickness of the mane can change during the male’s lifespan.

Diet: Carnivore

• Wild – ungulates such as zebra, wildebeest, antelope (although any animal may be taken, especially those that  are old, sick, injured or young); they will also eat smaller prey such as birds, rabbits

• Zoo – 8 pounds of raw beef six days per week; they receive a small amount in the morning for training, but most of their diet is fed to them in the evening; since wild lions do not eat daily, they also have one fasting day each week and receive a large bone to aid in dental health

• Lions are apex predators and critical to the health of their ecosystem.

• Lions usually gorge and then fast. Adult male lions can eat up to a quarter of their body weight in meat in one sitting. They will eat almost every part of the prey animal, except for the largest bones.

• If the amount of meat a wild lion consumes is averaged by day. Adult males require about 15 pounds of meat daily. Adult females require 11 pounds daily.

Reproduction

• Lions are sexually mature by four years of age.

• They are polygamous; the dominant male of the pride breeds with the multiple females.

• There is no specific breeding season, and females usually give birth every other year.

• Average gestation is between 3-4 months and litters of 2-4 cubs are produced. Cubs are weaned at about six months of age.

• Cubs have dark spots on their coats for the first few months of life. They stay with their mother for about two years. After this time, females typically stay with the natal pride, while males are kicked out.

• Females in a pride often give birth around the same time and young are raised in crèches, where the females help to raise many litters together. Cubs nurse from any female in the pride.

• It is common for outside males to intrude upon a pride and fight with the dominant male for claim to his pride. Males are only dominant over a pride for roughly 2-3 years. If successful, the intruding male will kill any cubs within the pride so the females will come into estrus again, usually within 2-3 weeks, to bear his cubs. Thus, there is often more than one adult male in a pride. One of these males might be dominant to his brothers, but the brothers also have opportunities to breed because females within a pride often cycle around the same time.

• Male cubs will begin to develop the first signs of their mane at around one year old. It starts as short hair that then grows into the longer full mane that they are known for.

Interpretive Information

• Lions are the only social cats. They live in groups called prides which consist of five to forty individuals (with an average size of six to seven individuals). Males without a pride spend much of their lives on their own or with other lone males and must hunt on their own. All females in a pride are typically related, and outsiders of either sex are not tolerated. Adult males are usually part of a pride for only few months or years.

• A lion’s roar can be heard from up to five miles away. The roars are used to communicate territory, possession, aggression, or other information to pride members and outside lions.

• Lions kill only when they are hungry. A lion’s prey can often sense whether they are out to kill, and, if they are not, the prey will often ignore the nearby lions.

• Hunting is an organized event that is carried out by the females of the pride, usually overnight. Only about 25% of hunts are successful. During the dry season, lions often lie close to a water hole, waiting for prey to come for a drink. Although the females are the ones to hunt, the dominant male is the first to eat.

• Male lions also hunt. Males spend most of their lives without a pride, and thus are effective hunters on their own. Previously dominant lions expelled from their prides may also form loose bachelor groups.

• Lions have binocular or 3-D vision.

• Lions will sleep an average of 20 hours a day.

• The Swahili word for lion is “simba.”

Updated July 2019