The Cat Survival Trust

The Lion

Panthera leo Linnaeus


Photo: Sue Barr

 

Contents

 
  • Description
  • Distribution
  • Diet
  • Behaviour
  • Reproduction
  • Conservation Status
  • Captive Breeding and Lions in Captivity
  • Further Reading

    • Other names

    		  
     French:lion
     German:Löwe
     Spanish:león

    Description

    Probably the most familiar of all the wild cats, the lion is also the only one to exhibit marked sexual dimorphism.
    The bodies of both sexes are sandy brown to reddish brown above, paler below, without markings of any kind. Their tails have a conspicuous darker tuft at the tip. There are faint black bars on the ears.
    White lions occasionally occur in the Transvaal region of South Africa, but the are not true albinos.
    Males have shaggy manes of dark brown to sandy fur, animals from the northern and southern extremes or their range have fuller manes which extend partly along the back and underside of the body. Manes tend to darken with age and may become almost black. Barbary and Cape lions have very full manes and a fringe of belly hair. Females have no manes.
    The cubs are marked with spots which may persist on body and legs until fully adult and are occasionally visible throughout life. Lions have eyes with round pupils.
    The hyoid bone is incompletely ossified, which enables lions to roar.
    On average, lions are slightly smaller than tigers.
    Eleven subspecies of lion have been described although not all are generally recognised:
    P. leo leo (Barbary Lion) North Africa EXTINCT
    P. l. azandica Congo 
    P. l. bleyenberghiAngola and Zimbabwe 
    P. l. hollisteriCongo 
    P. l. massaicusUganda and Kenya 
    P. l. melanochaitaCape Province EXTINCT
    P. l. persicaGir Forest, India 
    P. l. rooseveltiSudan and Ethiopia 
    P. l. senegalensisSenegal to Cameroon 
    P. l. somaliensisSomalia 
    P. l. verneyiSW Africa 
    While the question of subspecies remains the subject of considerable debate among taxonomists, some of these populations have lived in comparative isolation from the rest of the species for long enough that consistent significant differences have arisen between them. The subspecies is the presently accepted way of giving formal recognition to these differences, the origin of which may have been adaptation to different geographical situations.
    While size is not the only difference between the various populations, it is the easiest to quantify and the following table gives some indication of the range of variation that occurs.

    Principal dimensions

     OverallMalesFemales
    Head and Body lengths (cm) 181.5 
    Tail lengths (cm) 91 
    Weight (Kg)122-193150-193122-182
        
    SerengetiOverallMalesFemales
    Head and Body lengths (cm)90-10570-100
    Tail lengths (cm) 123107
    Weight (Kg)120-250150-250120-182
        
    TransvaalOverallMalesFemales
    Head and Body lengths (cm) 170-250140-175
    Tail lengths (cm) 90-10570-100
    Weight (Kg)122-193150-193120-182
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    Distribution and Habitats

    At one time distributed almost throughout the warmer parts of Eurasia, Africa (except for desert areas and tropical rainforests) and North America, lions have long been gone from the New World.
    They disappeared from Greece by 100 A.D., but survived until the twentieth century in Syria, Iran and Iraq.
    In Africa, lions are present in reduced numbers across most of the continent north of the Republic of South Africa and Namibia and south of the equator. North of the equator they are confined to a narrow belt south of the Sahara desert on the western side and extending further south to link with the southern hemisphere population on the eastern side of the continent. The map shows this area more clearly and while there are many protected areas within the shaded part where lions are found they are only rarely recorded elsewhere.

    There is a small relict population of Asiatic lions in the Gir Forest reserve in Gujarat, India. This population is thought to number around 300 at the present time.
    Lions are principally animals of savannah country, although they are found in a variety of habitats including woodland and semi-deserts. They have been recorded as high as 5000 metres in the mountains of Kenya.
    The maps show the present distribution of Lions in grey.
    The maps are based on information in the Wild Cats Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan published by the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group in 1996. See our Books page for more details.
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    Diet

    A very wide range of prey includes wildebeest, zebras, cape buffalo, giraffes, gazelles and hares. Lions have been observed to eat locusts, termites, fruit and even rotten wood. They sometimes kill hippopotamuses and even young elephants.
    In the Kalahari lions are known to eat tsama melons which have a very high water content. They have been seen to lick dew from the fur of other pride members.
    Lions also scavenge and steal kills from other predators such as cheetahs, leopards and hyaenas as well as other lions.
    In the Serengeti lions depend on migrating herds of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle – so much so that cubs born when the herds are absent are likely to starve to death.
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    Behaviour

    Lions are the only big cats with an obvious social structure. Social groups, called “prides”, consist of between 2 and 12 females with cubs. There are usually a few pride males – referred to as a coalition of males – and the pride may total as many as thirty individuals – occasionally more – although fifteen is more normal and smaller numbers frequently occur.
    Although the pride is a definite grouping of females, the members do not stay together all the time and may scatter widely at times.
    The members of a pride interact peacefully, and lionesses with cubs and attending males share a pride area. Females groom each other, suckle each other’s cubs and share nursing duties as well as hunting together. Food is shared on a first-come-first-served basis.
    The females in a pride form a fairly stable group, but males are more transitory, seldom staying more than two years although as long as six years has been recorded. Many females stay with the pride in which they grow up and changes are mainly due to death although some females are recruited.
    In the Serengeti, Schaller found that all the prides had at least two associated adult males.
    Hunting by the pride females is done in groups, not necessarily involving the whole pride, and often appears to be consciously co-operative especially when large prey is involved. The lionesses encircle they prey and then close in for the kill. At other times they will lie in wait while others drive the prey towards them. With smaller prey hunting efficiency is hardly affected when more than two lionesses hunt together. Since there are also more to share the kill, it is better to hunt in small numbers
    Hunting success is fairly low; lions kill perhaps once in five attempts. Success is greatest in areas with more cover, such as dense riverine areas. Lions normally kill by strangulation. Once fully fed they may not eat again for five or six days.
    Lions are active by day and night but hunting success is greater at night, especially if it is moonless or cloudy. It appears to be unaffected by wind direction, but is helped if the wind is strong, perhaps because the wind noise masks any sounds the lionesses make.
    Pride males seldom hunt for themselves, preferring to take their share of what the lionesses have killed. Perhaps their manes make them too conspicuous to allow them to hunt successfully; certainly they seem to have a much lower success rate than the females.
    Many males are nomadic, either singly or in all-male groups. Some are young animals which have been driven out of their pride when a new male has taken it over, others are older males who have been forced to yield their pride to a more dominant animal, usually nomads. Some appear to leave their pride of their own volition. These animals wander widely, often following migratory herds.
    A few males displace neighbours and then control both their old and new prides of lionesses. The longest tenure of a pride male recorded by Schaller was six years.
    Male coalitions defend the pride from other coalitions which threaten the survival of their cubs. In this way they retain exclusive and shared mating rights. Large and successful coalitions remain with the pride longer than smaller ones or individual males.
    The home range of a pride may exceed 400 square kilometres, but is often be overlapped by those of neighbouring prides. Despite this overlap, confrontations are infrequent. The areas used by the males are often quite different from those used by the females.
    Range sizes vary considerably and are often much smaller; in the Kalahari they vary from 119 to 275 square kilometres, while in Nairobi National Park they are only between 19 and 31 square kilometres.
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    Reproduction

    Female oestrus lasts 4-16 days, averaging 7 days, and during this time she may copulate on average once every fifteen minutes day and night. Oestrus and births are synchronised and may occur at any time of the year. This ensures that all cubs in the pride are about the same age. The are allowed to suckle from any female and any nipple. It also ensures that there are willing baby sitters while the other females are away hunting. ‘Childless’ females also babysit, groom and play with the cubs.
    Mating success is low, and that coupled with the high copulation rate promotes social bonding.
    Females usually produce cubs only every two years, but if cubs are lost the mother will come into oestrus more quickly than if she succeeds in raising them.
    The reproductive life of lions varies considerably. In the Serengeti it may be as short as two years, so that cubs are extremely important and adults may share food with them. In Ruwenzori National Park, in Uganda, it may be ten years, the cubs are less important, and food-sharing does not occur.
    A group of well-grown cubs

    Photo: Wendy Oakley

    These well-grown cubs still show signs of juvenile spotting

    Three or four cubs (exceptionally 1-6) are born after a gestation period of 100-119 days (typically 110) and weigh 1150-1785 grams (typically 1400) at birth. Some, but not all, are born blind, those that are open their eyes after up to eleven days, usually about six days. They are able to walk in 10-15 days (typically 13), and are weaned at about 6 months although they will still suckle at other females until about 10 months. Their first solid food is often provided by the mother regurgitating partly digested meat.
    Cubs remain hidden until they are mobile at 4-6 weeks old. When born they have a soft, greyish-yellow coat, usually, but not always, with many dark spots. They have blue eyes which change to amber at 2-3 months old, after which they slowly lose their spots and develop their adult coats and tufted tails by 5½ months. Occasionally spots are retained longer and may be visible throughout life.
    They do not develop their adult teeth until 13-15 months old, and males do not get their full mane until about 2 years old. Males are sexually mature after 33-50 months (typically 42). Cubs usually stay with their mothers until about two years of age.
    If a new male takes over the pride he will often kill all cubs sired by his predecessor, thereby ensuring that females are receptive sooner and that his genes are propagated rather than those of the previous male. Females do try to defend their cubs, but they risk injury and if the cubs are older than six months the mothers are more likely to take them away from the pride.
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    Conservation Status

    The Barbary lion, which survived in north Africa until fairly recently, is now extinct in the wild and the other African subspecies are largely confined to national parks and reserves.
    Their reputation as man-eaters has not helped their survival. Man-eating has been recorded wherever lions are found, but humans appear to be regarded as competing predators rather than as prey except in the case of old or disabled lions who are unable to catch more normal prey. At other times the culprits are females with cubs to feed. In Tanzania it has been noted that more people are killed during the rainy season when the tall grass makes hunting more difficult.
    Notable cases of man-eating include a pair of males who killed 28 Indians and ‘dozens’ of Africans in Tsavo, Kenya at the end of the i9th century and a single male who killed 84 humans at Ankole, Uganda, in the 1920s.
    The remaining Asiatic lions are protected in the 412 square Kilometre Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat, India. At one time their numbers are believed to have fallen to twenty animals, but they have recovered to about 300.
    Although they have no natural predators, lions have been killed by many other animals including gemsbok, buffalo and giraffe, and have been severely wounded by zebra, porcupine, aardvark and crocodiles.
    The IUCN Red List has the Asiatic lion (P. l. persica) as Endangered and all other lions as Vulnerable.(Cat News 23, 1995, p. 21)

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    Captive Breeding and Lions in Captivity

    Studbook Keeper
    (Asiatic Lion P. l. persica)

    Michael Fouraker
    Director, Animal Collection
    Fort Worth Zoological Park
    1989 Colonial Parkway
    Fort Worth
    Texas 76110, USA
    A captive breeding programme needs to have regard to keeping separate the various subspecies, while at the same time avoiding the dangers of inbreeding.
    This is achieved by the maintenance of a studbook which is used to select suitable breeding partners for captive animals. Such studbooks are maintained on a voluntary basis by dedicated individuals or teams at various zoos around the world.

    Zoos which have lions


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    Latest update: 1st December, 1999

    © September 1996 The Cat Survival Trust, The Centre, Codicote Road, Welwyn, AL6 9TU, England.
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