Reproducing

 Lions will reproduce any time of the year, and all females of reproductive maturity will breed at the same time. This allows them to give birth in synchrony with each other, thereby sharing the suckling responsibilities. Any lactating female in a pride will suckle any cub that belongs to the pride. Lions give birth to 1-6 cubs after a gestation of 110 days. The cubs are born blind and helpless, and weigh approximately 2-4 pounds. Cub mortality is very high in lions, and less than half will survive their first year. Young males will leave their pride between 2-4 years if they can get away with staying that long, but sometimes they are forced out as early as 13-20 months. Females remain with their natal pride most of the time, although some will disperse and form new prides. While male lions are physically capable of reproducing at 30 months and females at 24 months, they do not generally successfully reproduce until pride membership has been firmly established.

Humans and Lions

Lions have no natural enemies, apart from humans who have hunted them for centuries. They were once common throughout southern Europe and southern Asia eastwards to northern and central India and over the whole of Africa.

The last lion in Europe died between 80-100AD. By 1884 the only lions left in India were in the Gir forest where only a dozen were left. They were probably extinct elsewhere in southern Asia, for example, in Iran and Iraq, soon after 1884.

Since the beginning of the 20th Century the Gir lions have been protected and their numbers have increased steadily over the years. Lions have been wiped out in northern Africa, and in southern Africa, outside the Kruger Park. They only live in the wild in remote areas which have remained undeveloped.

Well managed National Parks and game reserves are probably the lion's best hope of survival for the future.

Hunting

lions usually hunt at dusk and spend most of the day resting and sleeping. They have excellent eyesight and can see well in the dark. It is usually the lionesses who do the hunting. The lion takes little part in the hunt but he always eats his fill of the kill before the rest of the pride begin their meal - hence the expression 'the lion's share'.

Lions prefer to hunt zebra and wildebeest; these animals are slower and easier to catch than gazelles and small antelopes. The actual hunt is an organised event, some lionesses lying in wait, downwind of the herd they have targeted. Another moves around the herd until she is upwind of it, then she suddenly breaks cover and chases the frightened herd straight towards the hidden lionesses. One animal from the herd, perhaps a slow or injured one, is singled out and killed by dragging it to the ground and biting its neck. When prey is scarce, lions eat almost anything, including fallen fruit and carrion (already dead animals).

Hunger may drive them to attack larger prey - buffalo, giraffe, even rhinoceros, hippopotamus and elephant calves. These are all dangerous animals to interfere with and the lions often get injured. Lions kill only when hungry. Herds sense when lions are out to kill and will often ignore lions wandering close to them.

predators

Lions have long been killed in rituals of bravery, as hunting trophies and for their medicinal and magical powers. Although lions are now protected in many parts of Africa, they were once considered to be stock-raiding vermin and were killed on sight. In some areas, livestock predation remains a severe problem.

Diet of a Lion

Cooperative hunting enables lions to take prey as large as wildebeests, zebras, buffaloes, young elephants, rhinos, hippos and giraffes, any of which can provide several meals for the pride. Mice, lizards, tortoises, warthogs, antelopes and even crocodiles also form part of a lion's diet. Because they often take over kills made by hyenas, cheetahs and leopards, scavenged food provides more than 50 percent of their diets in areas like the Serengeti plains.

Lion Pride

Lions have a devised a system of living in groups called prides that's based around related females. The majority of the pride, consisting of approximately 15 individuals and can sometimes even reach 40 individuals, is female with only a handful of male. Male cubs eventually leave and typically become nomads before taking over their own group as the territorial male and father of all cubs. They only leave the pride when challenged by other males and are forced to leave or are killed. Nomads usually travel lone or in pairs, most of the time being related males. If a female nomad attempts to join a pride, it is usually very difficult as the other lionesses reject their intruder who is not related to them.

Lion Species

These kings of the jungle can weigh between 250 and 550 pounds, depending on sex and age and can grow up to be 14 years old in the wild and over the age of 20 years old in captivity. They become capable at hunting at the age of two and are fully grown after 5 or 6 years. Male lions are distinguishable for their impressive manes, which signifies their masculinity and reflects their health. The darker and thicker the mane, the healthier the lion. It allows the lions to appear stronger and frightening to warn off enemies, particularly humans, and appeals to lionesses that are scientifically proven to mate more with lions with thick and dark manes. Lions with no manes are either genetically inbred or have been castrated.

Behavior of Lions

Females do 85 to 90 percent of the pride's hunting, while the males patrol the territory and protect the pride, for which they take the "lion's share" of the females' prey. When resting, lions seem to enjoy good fellowship with lots of touching, head rubbing, licking and purring. But when it comes to food, each lion looks out for itself. Squabbling and fighting are common, with adult males usually eating first, followed by the females and then the cubs.

Lions are the laziest of the big cats. They usually spend 16 to 20 hours a day sleeping and resting, devoting the remaining hours to hunting, courting or protecting their territory. They keep in contact with one another by roaring loud enough to be heard up to five miles away. The pride usually remains intact until the males are challenged and successfully driven away or killed by other males, who then take over. Not all lions live in prides. At maturity, young males leave the units of their birth and spend several years as nomads before they become strong enough to take over a pride of their own. Some never stop wandering and continue to follow migrating herds; but the nomadic life is much more difficult, with little time for resting or reproducing.

Within the pride, the territorial males are the fathers of all the cubs. When a lioness is in heat, a male will join her, staying with her constantly. The pair usually mates for less than a minute, but it does so about every 15 to 30 minutes over a period of four to five days.

Lions may hunt at any hour, but they typically go after large prey at night. They hunt together to increase their success rate, since prey can be difficult to catch and can outrun a single lion. The lions fan out along a broad front or semicircle to creep up on prey. Once with within striking distance, they bound in among the startled animals, knock one down and kill it with a bite to the neck or throat. Hunts are successful about half the time.

Lion King of The Jungle

The lion is a very magnificent animal that appears as a symbol of power, courage and nobility on family crests, coats of arms and national flags in many civilizations. Lions at one time were found from Greece through the Middle East to northern India, but today only a very small population remains in India. In the past lions lived in most parts of Africa, but are now confined to the sub-Saharan region.Most cat species live a fundamentally solitary existence, but the lion is an exception. It has developed a social system based on teamwork and a division of labor within the pride, and an extended but closed family unit centered around a group of related females. The average pride consists of about 15 individuals, including five to 10 females with their young and two or three territorial males that are usually brothers or pride mates