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DescriptionA 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 DifferencesFemales have no manes, males are larger Habitat
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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.
SoundsThe 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'.

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.

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