Lion

## King of the jungle, forest, and savanna

Lions have captured our imagination for centuries. Stars of movies and characters in books, lions are at the top of the food chain. The Swahili word for lion, *simba*, also means "king," "strong," and "aggressive." The word lion has similar meaning in our vocabulary. If you call someone lionhearted, you’re describing a courageous and brave person. If you lionize someone, you treat that person with great interest or importance.

Prime habitat for lions is open woodlands, thick grassland, and brush habitat where there is enough cover for hunting and denning. These areas of grassland habitat also provide food for the animals lions prey upon.

## Mane attraction

Lions differ from the other members of the large cat genus, *Panthera* - tigers, leopards, and jaguars. Adult male lions are much larger than females and usually have an impressive mane of hair around the neck. The color, size, and abundance of the mane all vary among individuals and with age. The mane’s function is to make the male look more impressive to females and more intimidating to rival males. The lion's thick mane also protects his neck against raking claws during fights with other males over territory disputes or breeding rights.

## Living with pride

Lions are also the only cats that live in large, social groups called "prides." A pride can have 3 to 30 lions and is made up of lionesses (mothers, sisters, and cousins), and their cubs, along with a few unrelated adult males. The pride has a close bond and is not likely to accept a stranger. The unrelated males stay a few months or a few years, but the older lionesses stay together for life. In dry areas with less food, prides are smaller, with two lionesses in charge. In habitats with more food and water, prides can have four to six adult lionesses. Both males and females scent mark to define their territory.

## All for one and one for all

Living in a pride makes life easier. Hunting as a group means there is a better chance that the lions have food when they need it, and it is less likely that they will get injured while hunting. Lion researchers have noticed that some activities are "contagious" within a pride. If one lion yawns, grooms itself, or roars, it sets off a wave of yawning, grooming, or roaring!

## You go, girls!

Lions and lionesses play different roles in the life of the pride. The lionesses work together to hunt and help rear the cubs. This allows them to get the most from their hard work, keeping them healthier and safer. Being smaller and lighter than males, lionesses are more agile and faster. During hunting, smaller females chase the prey toward the center of the hunting group. The larger and heavier lionesses ambush or capture the prey. Lionesses are versatile and can switch hunting jobs depending on which females are hunting that day and what kind of prey it is.

## A king's life

While it may look like the lionesses do all the work in the pride, the males play an important role. While they do eat more than the lionesses and bring in far less food (they hunt less than 10 percent of the time), males patrol, mark, and guard the pride’s territory. Males also guard the cubs while the lionesses are hunting, and they make sure the cubs get enough food. When a new male tries to join a pride, he has to fight the males already there. The new male is either driven off or succeeds in pushing out the existing males.

## Lions lying around

A lion’s life is filled with sleeping, napping, and resting. Over the course of 24 hours, lions have short bursts of intense activity, followed by long bouts of lying around that total up to 21 hours! Lions are good climbers and often rest in trees, perhaps to catch a cool breeze or to get away from flies. Researchers have often noticed lions lying around in crazy poses, such as on their backs with their feet in the air or legs spread wide apart!

## I hear you

Lions are famous for their sonorous roar. Males are able to roar when they are about one year old, and females can roar a few months later. Lions use their roar as one form of communication. It identifies individuals, strengthens the pride’s bond, and lets other animals know of the pride’s domain. Other sounds lions produce include growls, snarls, hisses, meows, grunts, and puffs, which sound like a stifled sneeze and is used in friendly situations.

Lions have other forms of communication as well, mostly used to mark territory. They spread their scent by rubbing their muzzle on tufts of grass or shrubs, and they rake the earth with their hind paws, as the paws have scent glands, too. Adult males also spray urine - stand back!

## Dinner at dusk and dawn

Lions usually hunt at night, particularly at dusk and dawn, with lionesses doing most of the work. A lion chasing down prey can run the length of a football field in six seconds. Their eyes have a horizontal streak of nerve cells, which improves their vision following prey across a plain. Lions have been spotted taking down animals as large as buffalo and giraffes! They may even drag this heavy prey into thickets of brush to keep other animals from getting to it.

Lions hunt antelope and other hoofed animals, baby elephants or rhinos, rodents, reptiles, insects, and even crocodiles. They also scavenge or steal prey from leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, or wild dogs, even eating food that has spoiled. Lions digest their food quickly, which allows them to return soon for a second helping after gorging themselves the first time.

At the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the lions get lean ground meat made for zoo carnivores as well as an occasional large bone, thawed rabbit, or sheep carcass.

## Lion school begins early

A lioness gives birth to her cubs in a secluded location away from the pride. At birth, each cub’s coat is yellowish brown and marked with distinct dark, rosette-shaped spots or, sometimes, stripes. Cubs remain hidden for four to six weeks as they gain strength, learn to walk, and play with one another and their mother. When they return to the pride, they can nurse from any adult lioness in the pride, not just their own mother. In fact, the females in a pride often give birth around the same time, which makes for lots of playmates!

Cubs born in a pride are twice as likely to survive as those born to a lioness that is on her own. However, if a new adult male takes over the pride, he may kill cubs under one year old so that he can father new ones. Under favorable conditions, a lioness can produce cubs roughly every other year.

From the time they are born, cubs have a lot to learn! At three months old, cubs are able to follow their mother wherever she goes, and they are weaned by the age of six months. At about one year old, males start to get fuzz around their neck that grows into the long mane adult male lions are famous for.

How long a lion cub stays with Mom depends on the sex of the cub. Mothers generally raise males until they are just about two. Once they hit that stage in life, the mother usually runs them out of the group, and they are on their own. Sometimes the sub-adult males form bachelor groups and run together until they are big enough to start challenging older males in an attempt to take over a pride. If the cubs are female, Mom cares for them until about two years of age and they usually stay with the pride they were born into. A mother and daughter may live together for life.

## Nomads seeking territory

Lions that do not live in prides are called nomads, and they range far and wide while following migrating herds of large game. Nomads are generally young males, roaming in pairs or small groups and often related to one another. Females are occasionally nomadic, too. For reason not clearly understood, young females are sometimes driven from their pride just as are young males. As they gain in age and experience, nomadic males may challenge established pride males for dominance of a given territory and its pride of lionesses, or they may join nomadic females and form a new pride.