Lions

Description

	Lions are large cats with short, orange coats, white underparts, and long tails with a black tuft at the end. They vary in color and size Lions are the only cats with manes. Three year-old male lions grow manes that vary in color from black to blond .Manes tend to be fuller in open habitats.
	Adult males weighs 189 pounds / Females weigh 126 lbs on average.
	The average male height is 1.2 m /average female height is 1.1 m
	Length ranges from 2.4 - 3.3 m and tail length ranges from 0.6 to 1.0 m

the longest male lion recorded was 3.3 m.

	Cubs have brown spots on a grayish coat til the age of three months.
	Adult lions have 30 total teeth and adult females have four tits.
	Asiatic Lions are slightly smaller than African lions
	They have shorter manes thicker elbows and a tail bunch, their skin folds and their stomachs are longutitonal.
	Asiatic lions are slightly smaller than african lions.
	They are genetically different between the two species which is smaller than that between human races.

Reproduction

	Lions breed year-round and are polyganous.
	It is estimated that lions mate 3,000 times for every cub that survives for one year.
	One period of sexual readiness out of every 5 results in a litter.
	Lions mate approximately 2.2 times per hour for the 4 day mating period. The first male member of a pride that reaches a female in heat has the mating priority over the female.
	Fighting between prides over females does not occur normally .
	Males are noticeably large and impressive, they have the opportunity to control the reproduction of many females, when they rule in a pride.
	Successful males that takeover a pride have about 2 years before another younger, stronger coalition will replace them.
	Pride takeover fights are often violent leading to severe injury or death of the losing lions.
	Sometimes the lioness will engage in infants
	It is to the successful male’s reproductive advantage to kill the cubs of the defeated males.
	A nursing lioness that loses her cubs will come back into heat within 2 to 3 weeks.
	The normal time between births is 2 years, which is the typical time for a male to rule a pride.
	Females actively defend their cubs during a takeover and are sometimes killed also.
	Female lions breed throughout the year and peak in the rainy season.
	Female lions tend to have cubs every 2 years.
	Females are able to breed at 4 years of age
	Males are able to breed at 5 years.
	One to six cubs are born after a 3.5 month gestation period.
	There is an interbirth interval of approximately twenty to thirty months.
	Newborn cubs weigh 1 to 2 kg.
	Eyes typically open by 11 days.
	Cubs can walk by 15 days and are able to run by 1 month of age.
	Mother lions keep their cubs in hiding until they reach about 8 weeks of age.
	Weaning : 7 and 10 months.
	They depend upon adults in the pride until they are 16 months. Females are mainly responsible to care and nurse their young.
	Cubs are often raised with other litters and females.
	Cubs are often left alone for more than one full day, by the time they are 5 to 7 months old.
	They often get attacked by hyenas.
	Hungry mothers sometimes abandon weak cubs that can’t keep up with the pride.
	Males do not directly provide care for the young in a pride.
	They are important in the protection of the cubs from rival males is very important.
	As long as a male maintains control over a pride, preventing another male from taking over.
	The father cubs he has are at lower risk of killing babies.
	Female lions typically live longer than males.
	Males reach their prime between five and nine years.
	Few males survive past ten years of age.
	Some males have survived upto 16 yrs in the wild.
	Females normally live upto 15 or 16 years.
	In the Serengeti, females live up to 18 years.
	In captivity, lions live approximately 13 years.
	Adult lions have no predators, but are vulnerable to humans, starvation, and attacks from other lions.
	Killing babies is an important contributor to cub mortality and increases when prey is scarce.
	Female Asiatic lions live an average of 17 to 18 years, with a maximum of 21 years.
	Male Asiatic lions generally live for 16 years.
	Adult Asiatic lions have a less than 10% death rate.
	In the Gir forest in india , 33% of the cubs die during their first year of life.

Behavior

	Lion prides are breaking up- merging societies.
	Pride members come and go and rarely all together at once.
	There can be anywhere from 2 to 40 lions in a pride.
	In the national parks ,Kruger and Serengeti : pride size was on average 13 lions.

	The average makeup of these prides were 1.7 adult males ,4.5 adult females,3.8 subadults, and 2.8 juveniles.
	In order to successfully take over a pride, males form groups that usually consists of brothers.
	Young males leave their true pride when their fathers or the new male leaders of the pride begin to view them as competition at about 2.5 years. These males lead wandering lives for two to three years, then form a group and seek a pride to take over.
	Male groups of 2 tend to rule a pride for no more than 21/2 years long enough for one set of cubs to be born and trained.
	Groups of 3 & 4 tend to rule a pride for longer than 3 years.
	Groups of more than four are rare because most likely there are large groups that are difficult to keep together.
	Prides consist of related females.
	Females are lifelong residents in their mother’s region
	Female pride mates do not compete or fight with each other.
	Lions have the great ability to critically hurt or kill other lions when involved in a fight.
	Fighting with a pride mate of similar age and sex not only threatens the survival of the individual but also risks harming a valuable team-member that could later help to defend the pride against the attacker.
	The lions of Tanzania in Serengeti have been studied continuously since 1966.
	Research has shown that lions form groups for many reasons besides greater hunting efficiency.
	Lions live at higher population densities than other large cats.
	There is a great need for pride members to collectively defend their region against takeovers by other lions.
	Lionesses reproduce together and form highly stable groups that defend their cubs against babies.
	Smaller prides tend to be more social than larger prides in order to defend their area as a group.
	Areas that have the greatest variety and total biomass of hoofed mammals (prey) in open habitats can support up to 12 lions per 100 kilometers square.
	In an area with plentiful amounts of prey.
	Lions spend approximately twenty hours per day sleeping.
	They become most active in the late afternoon, mainly socializing with the pride.
	Hunting typically takes place at the evening hours and into the hours of the early morning.
	Lions have a common greeting routine of rubbing heads together with tails curling in the air, while groaning.

Communication and Perception

	Lions have the mental ability to recognize individuals and to work with other lions to benefit their own survival.
	They use visual hints in this communication. For example, the mane is thought to signal to other lions the sex of a male from a distance & to indicate individual fitness.
	Male lions regularly mark their territory by spraying vegetation with urine and by scuff-marking. Females spray occasionally.

	This behavior starts at the age of 2 years.
	This type of marking uses both chemical and visual communication signals.
	Male lions start to roar at 1 year of age and females start shortly after 1 year.
	The male’s roar is both louder and deeper than the female.
	Lions can roar at any time, but they typically stand or bend while roaring.
	Roaring serves to announce regions.
	Communication with other pride members, and to demonstrate aggressions toward enemy lions.
	Lions also roar in chorus, this may be a form of social bonding. This is accoustic communication.
	Lions use (physical) communication.
	Males in physical aggression during pride take over. There is touching during greetings between pride members.
	Physical communication passes between feeding females and the cubs they are nursing.

	Lions are predatory carnivores.
	They usually hunt in groups, but the actual killing is done by an individual lion.
	They frequently bring down prey much bigger than they are themselves.
	Males have more difficulty hunting than females because they are

easily spotted , therefore females in a pride do the majority of hunting.

	Males are still more aggressive during feeding than are females, even though they are less likely to have killed the prey.
	African lions eat the mostly ,Thompson's gazelles, zebras, impalas, and wildebeests.
	Individual prides tend to have their own eating choices.
	Some prides tend to target large prey such as cape buffalo , and giraffe. Lions that are not able to capture large prey will eat birds, rodents, fish, ostrich eggs, amphibians and reptiles.
	Lions also actively scavenge watching hyenas and vultures.
	Lions predators are the spotted hyena and humans
	Adult lions have no natural predators, excepting harrasement by humans. Lions often kill or compete with other predators such as leopards, cheetahs , Spotted hyenas.
	They defend kills or scavenged food from young and female lions, but typically leave the food to a big male lion.
	Hyenas are known to kill lion cubs, juveniles, or weak and sick adult lions.
	Lion cubs, if left alone, can be vulnerable to other large predators.
	Human poaching is a major problem for lions.
	These animals are poached with wire traps, rifles, and arrows.
	Since lions are scavengers, they are particularly vulnerable to carcasses that have been poisoned
	There are still poachers that operate within some national parks in Africa.
	It has been estimated that in the 1960's, poachers were responsible for approximately 20,000 lion deaths per year in Serengeti .
	Only six African countries allow trophy hunting.