tigers are the largest cats in the world. These regal felines are known as the "king of beasts" or the "king of the jungle", but are only found in parts of Africa and India.
The African lion and the Asiatic lion are two different types of lion. According to the Cat Specialist Group, lions from West and Central Africa are more closely related to Asian lions than they are to lions from the eastern and southern parts of Africa.
The reclassification of lions was published by the Cat Specialist Group in 2017: Panthera leo leo (also called the Northern subspecies) and Panthera melanochaita.
According to the University of Kent, there are lion populations in Central Africa, West Africa, and India, as well as extinct populations previously found in North Africa. The lion populations from southern parts of Africa and East Africa are included.
Many of the physical characteristics and behaviors of the West African and Asiatic lions are not the same.
The tail of African lions can be as long as 2 to 3 feet (60 to 91 centimeters) and can measure between 9 and 10 feet (3 meters) from head to tail. They weigh between 330 to 550 pounds (150 to 250 kilograms), with males reaching the higher end of that range.
Asian lions are smaller than African lions. According to the World Wildlife Fund, they are long from head to tail and can weigh up to 418 pounds.
Lions have loose skin hanging from their midsection, which may help protect them from the hooves of their prey. The African Lion and Environmental Research Trust says that African lions have a fold of skin that runs along their belly. African lions have long hair tufts on their elbows, while the Asiatic lions have shorter hair on their tails.
Male lions have a thick mane of hair around their heads that females don't. According to the San Diego Zoo, the biggest and most fabulous men are more intimidating to females than competing males. The mane protects the male during fights. African lions have larger, more magnificent manes than their Asiatic cousins.
African lions live in a number of countries, including the Central African Republic and South Sudan. According to the Cincinnati Zoo, the pride's territory may include an area of up to 100 square miles of shrubs, grasslands and open woodlands.
The only place in India where you can find the lions is in the protected Sasan Gir National Park, a . The Indian government designated this land as a wildlife sanctuary in 1965, according to the park's website. The park is home to more than 500 lions and 300 leopards, as well as more than 200 species of birds.
Lions are social cats and live in groups. African lion pride are very different from the Asiatic one.
African lion pride typically consists of three adult males and around a dozen females and their young, according to the (opens in new tab) Sedgwick County Zoo. Up to 40 members can make a pride extremely large. Females tend to be related to each other because they are in the same pride. When they are old enough, males wander off to create their own pride.
According to the Zoological Society of London, male lions will not live with females of their pride unless they are sharing a large kill.
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African male lions are competing to take control of the pride of females. Maggy Meyer has an image on her website.
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A lion is on the prowl. There are only lions in western India. The image is from Shutterstock.
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Most lion pride consist of around 10 - 20 individuals. Kjetil Kolbjornsrud has an image on his website.
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Female lions are good at hunting and killing large prey. The image is from Jez Bennet.
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Lions are the only social cats. Martin Prochazkacz has an image on his website.
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African lions are known to hunt large animals such as zebras, hogs, rhinos and Hippos. The lions hunt buffaloes, goats, nilgai, chital and sambar. According to the National Zoo, lions can kill animals that weigh up to 1,000 pounds, but they can also hunt smaller animals.
The main hunters of the pride are females who work together to take down prey. According to the World Wildlife Fund, lions can run up to 50 mph and leap as high as 36 feet. To bring down prey, lions jump on the backs of very large animals but will grab the smaller animals with their legs, according to ALERT (opens in new tab). lions use their powerful jaws to kill their prey.
If the prey is large like an elephant or water buffalo, males will join in the hunting. The main job of the male is to protect the pride. African males who live alone are required to hunt by themselves, and tend to hide in dense vegetation to engage in ambush-style hunting.
Water holes, streams and rivers are often where lions hunt at night. According to ALERT, lions will also steal and kill other animals.
According to a research article published in the journal Zoo Biology, male lions reach sexual maturity when they are around 2 years old. When males are large enough to attempt to take over a pride and assert their access to sexually mature females, they are unlikely to breed before the age of 4 or 5 years.
Males as old as 16 years can still produce sperm, but they lose their rights to have sex when they no longer fight younger males. Male African lions that are trying to take over a pride will kill all of the other males to avoid competition.
Most female lions give birth by 4 years old. The period for lions is four months. Females will hide their young for the first six weeks of their lives when they give birth. The babies only weigh around 2 to 4 pounds when they are born. They are completely dependent on their mother, according to ALERT (opens in new tab).
The females in a pride will mate at the same time. The pride will return after the first six weeks of rearing alone. According to the San Diego Zoo, other females in the pride will contribute to raising all of their pride's young, and will even nurse other mothers'cubs.
The Lions are listed as vulnerable by the Red List of Threatened Species. According to the World Wildlife Fund, about 75% of African lion populations are in decline, and their current global population is estimated at 20,000. Over the past two decades, the population has been reduced by 50% because of killings by farmers whose livestock were eaten by lions, as well as from trophy hunting and habitat loss.
The research found that the ancestors of lions and brown bears migrated from Asia to North America in multiple waves.
Scientists who studied the movement patterns of lions over diverse landscapes found that the big cats hunted differently due to changes in vulnerability and distribution of their prey.
The research looked at the hunting behavior of lions in Kruger National Park in South Africa.
According to the study authors, lions left their home ranges to hunt on more than a third of the nights they were observed. The lions left their home ranges as often as every second night to visit areas with shorter grass, according to their results.
The Defenders of Wildlife website has information on how to protect wild lions and how to conserve them. You can see the hunting skills of a lioness in the clip from the new tab.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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