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Common Name :

African lions

Scientific Name :

Panthera leo

Type :

Mammals

Diet :

Carnivore

Group Name :

Pride

Size :

Head and body, 4.5 to 6.5 feet; tail, 26.25 to 39.v inches

Weight :

265 to 420 pounds

IUCN Red List Condition :

Vulnerable

Current Population Trend :

Decreasing

What is the African lion?

African lions have been admired throughout history for as symbols of courage and strength. These iconic animals have powerful bodies—in the true cat family, they're second in size just to tigers—and roars that can exist heard from five miles away. An developed lion's coat is yellow-gilded, and juveniles have some lite spots that disappear with historic period. Just male lions typically boast manes, the impressive fringe of long hair that encircles their heads.

Habitat

African lions once roamed most of Africa and parts of Asia and Europe. But the species has disappeared from 94 pct of its historic range and tin can only be establish today in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. These lions mainly stick to the grasslands, scrub, or open woodlands where they can more easily hunt their prey, but they tin alive in most habitats aside from tropical rainforests and deserts.

Asiatic lions (Lion persica) are a subspecies of African lion, but only one very small population survives in India'south Gir Forest.

Lion prides and hunting

Lions are the only cats that alive in groups, which are chosen prides—though there is one population of solitary lions. Prides are family units that may contain anywhere from two to 40 lions—including upward to to three or four males, a dozen or and then females, and their immature. All of a pride's lionesses are related, and female cubs typically stay with the group every bit they age. Immature males eventually leave and constitute their own prides by taking over a group headed by some other male.

Males defend the pride'south territory, marking the area with urine, roaring menacingly to warn intruders, and chasing off animals that encroach on their turf.

Female lions are the pride's primary hunters and leaders. They often work together to prey upon antelopes, zebras, wildebeest, and other big animals of the open grasslands. Many of these animals are faster than lions, and so teamwork pays off. Female person lions as well raise their cubs communally.

After the chase, the group effort often degenerates to squabbling over the sharing of the impale, with cubs at the bottom of the pecking order. Young lions do not assistance to hunt until they are about a year onetime. Lions will hunt alone if the opportunity presents itself, and they also steal kills from hyenas or wild dogs.

Threats to survival

Today, in that location are only half every bit many African lions than in that location were 25 years ago. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that fewer than 25,000 lions remain in Africa, which is why the organization classifies them as vulnerable to extinction.

African lions face a diversity of threats—virtually of which tin exist attributed to humans. Fearing that lions will prey on their livestock, which tin be a significant financial blow, ranchers may kill the animals both in retaliation and as a preventative measure, sometimes using pesticides as poison. Poachers target the species, likewise, equally their basic and other body parts are valuable in the illegal wildlife trade.

The role trophy hunting plays is controversial. Mismanaged hunting in the past has caused lions to disappear from some habitats, while hunters and those involved in the industry say hunting fees generate money for lion conservation. National Geographic Explorer Craig Packer, however, has said the amount generated by hunting is so "underwhelming…[that] it'due south no wonder that despite years of king of beasts hunting being immune in [some] countries, the lion population has plummeted."

Further fueling this conflict between lions and humans is the loss of casualty beyond the species' range. African lions casualty on large herbivores, a population that's being hunted for an increasingly commercial bushmeat trade. The IUCN estimates these populations have declined by as much as 52 percentage in East Africa and 85 percentage in West Africa. With less food bachelor in the wild, lions may be more likely to turn to hunting domesticated animals like livestock.

Conservation

Helping humans learn how to live with lions is fundamental to ensuring their survival. Conservation organizations are working to change attitudes toward lions through compensation initiatives. Some of these models offer communities financial rewards when their local lion populations rise, while others pay farmers to supplant their livestock that have been killed past lions.

Other conservationists accept focused on creating protected areas for lions. In Botswana'due south Selinda expanse, just a single lioness and her cub lived at that place when filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, both National Geographic Explorers, turned the land into a protected reserve and photographic tourism camp. Now about a hundred lions roam the reserve.

In Mozambique's Zambezi Delta, where the effects of a protracted civil state of war caused king of beasts numbers to plummet, the largest-always king of beasts translocation projection brought in 24 lions from South Africa in 2018—they're now settled in and starting to have cubs.

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Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/african-lion

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