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Description

A very large cat, the biggest of the African carnivores. Tawny to sandy brown with white/cream under parts. Cubs are faintly spotted on the lower parts; some adults retain traces of the spots. The long tail is short-haired with a black tuft at the tip. Adult males have manes that vary in color from tawny to black, manes also vary in size from small to a growth framing the face, covering the head between the ears, the neck, shoulders and chest and running down as a fringe below the belly. The head is large with a strong, heavy muzzle. Head and body length 2,6-3,3 m; tail 60-100 cm; shoulder height males 1,2 m, females 90 cm and weight males 190 kg, females 130 kg.

Visible Male/Female Differences

Females have no manes, males are larger

Habitat

Occurs in a wide range of habitats except rain forest and true desert. Can penetrate into arid areas along drainage lines, and can go for long periods without drinking. Takes domestic animals and are incompatible with stock farming and human settlement.

Diet

Medium-sized and large prey: impala, wildebeest, zebra and gemsbok, and will also take larger species such as buffalo, giraffe, hippo and young elephants. Also eats a very wide range of animals from birds, reptiles, fish, and even insects, also smaller mammals down to the size of mice. They kill other carnivores but rarely eats them, some cases of cannibalism have been recorded. Occasionally become man-eaters especially in the Kruger National Park/Mozambique border area. Scavenges frequently.

Reproduction

Litters of up to 6 cubs (usually 1-4) weighing 1 5 kg (1% of adult body weight) are born at any time of year after a gestation of 110 days.  Cubs are concealed in dense cover or in a cave, away from the pride. Introduced to pride at 6-8 weeks or later if there are older cubs in the pride. Weaning starts at 10 weeks, and is completed by 6 months. Females stay in the pride, males leave by age of 3 years. They are competent hunters at two years, full-grown at 3-4 years, and weight peaks at 7 years. Lifespan 13 years. Cubs and old or disabled lions may be killed by spotted hyenas. Lions mate about 4 times an hour over 2-3 days (!). Pride males do not compete for matings as female will mate with all of a pride's males in turn as each loses interest in her. Pride females suckle one another's cubs, with no bias towards their own.

Behavior and Habits

Lions have a lazy lifestyle, typically active for only 2-4 hours in every 24. They are most active at night and rest during the day in shade. Lions are the only social species of Southern African feline. The pride consists of a group of 2-12 (typically, 3-6) closely related adult females with their young, attended by 1-6 adult males. If there is more than one male they are often, but not always, close relatives, often brothers.

Only pride males have access to the pride females. Males take over prides by driving out the current males in savage and sometimes fatal fights, and are in turn displaced by new challengers after 1-10 years, although tenures are longer when coalitions are formed. After a take-over the new males expel any young males from the pride and try to kill all the cubs to bring the females quickly back into breeding condition and to ensure offspring will have their genes. Females prefer large male coalitions because a longer tenure reduces the number of cubs lost to infanticide at takeovers. After a take-over females come into heat and mate but do not conceive until the new males have established their status against possible challengers. Lionesses cooperate to defend their cubs from infanticide. Prides hold territory with males defending against males and females against females. Territory can be from 40 to 450 square kilometers and may be larger depending on prey availability.

Lions employ the classical feline hunting technique: a  stalk low to the ground to within 20 m using any available cover, a charge and chase usually not longer than 200 m and a pounce on the prey which is held with the claws, pulled down and killed by suffocation. This is done with a throat bite closing off the windpipe or by covering the with the lion's mouth. Lions differ from other cats by regularly hunting in groups. When hunting small prey, each lion pursues its own animal; with larger and more dangerous prey cooperation is needed to split a herd or pull down and kill one animal. Cooperative hunting includes stalking in line abreast, partly encircling the prey, or setting up of an ambush, one lion flushing the prey towards its companions. Most the hunting is done by the females, which are less conspicuous than the larger, maned males (and probably because it is more comfortable for the males), but unattached males have to hunt for themselves. When in a pride, the males take what food they want from the females. Cubs get what the adults leave, and in times of food shortage, starvation is their major cause of death. Hunts are more successful on dark nights, in dense cover, when hunting lone prey and when a close stalk is possible. One pride in Kruger National Park specializes in porcupines. Unless outnumbered 4 to 1 by spotted hyenas lionesses can defend their kills against other predators, or even steal the other predators' kills. Adult males do not tolerate and their presence in a pride reduces losses of kills to spotted hyenas.

Sounds

The powerful sound of the African night is the lions roar: beginning with a series of grunts, building in volume and length, and then trailing off again. Lions also grunt, cough and snarl. A series of explosive coughs is given as a threat to intruding humans. Small cubs have a catlike 'meow'.

Field sign

Droppings are 4 cm thick with tapered ends, usually containing hair and bone fragments. Very dark feces point to a diet of meat with little bone, light-colored feces indicate more bone in the diet.

 

© Safari Media Africa/ C.A. Mitchell 2000/1/2/3/4/5

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