What does a lion eat in Africa. What do lions eat? Strengths and weaknesses of the sign

Representatives of the cat family. An impressive magnificent mane, a ferocious roar, a muscular huge body, a stranglehold - all this very much characterizes the powerful and strong king of the jungle. In the people of lions it is customary to call the kings of the jungle. Hence the misconception was born that these live in tropical thickets.

The weight of an adult male lion can reach 250 kg, and females 150 kg. The body length of the animal is from 2.3 m to 3.0 m.

Lion habitats

In fact, lions today can only be found in two places on the globe - in the African savannah, as well as in India. They mostly disperse in groups that scientists call prides. These groups include about 20 individuals, of which, as a rule, no more than 4 males.

In the Middle Ages, the lion was much more extensive - the entire territory of Africa, excluding the tropics and the desert, the Middle East, Iran, part of Europe, even the southern outskirts of Russia, India. But the hunt for lion skins, wars, destroyed the predator's familiar environment. Lions have lost most of their range. In 1944, the last lion in Europe was found in Iran - he was dead.

Now in Africa, lions occupy the territory south of the famous Sahara desert. Here, in unlimited conditions of existence, animals feel more than comfortable, which contributes to their reproduction. Despite this, the population of lions is rapidly decreasing every year.

About 80% of all lions in the world live on the hottest continent of the planet - in Africa.

In India, the kings of the jungle occupy a territory in the West of the country with an area of ​​1400 sq. km. They settled in a region called the Gir Forest. Unfortunately, this population of felines is quite small - about 360 individuals. The sad statistics forced the country's government to protect the lions and do everything to prevent the decline in the wild cat population. And this played a positive role: according to the latest data, the size of the group began to slowly grow.

Savannah is considered a favorite place where lions prefer to live, but often they settle in areas with an abundance of shrubs, in forests. Important for lions is the presence in the settlement area of ​​a special type of acacia. It is this plant that protects flocks from the scorching sun, and also saves from heat and sunstroke. In dense moist forests And lions do not live in waterless deserts.

How many years do lions live? In order to fully answer this question, you need to understand what exactly determines the life expectancy of such a large predator, the real king of animals - the Lion.

Back in medieval times, their habitat was more than extensive.

Lions could be found throughout the region of Africa, the Middle East and Iran. They inhabited northern and northwestern India, southern Europe, and southern Russia.

The life of these predatory mammals was completely different, but these beautiful animals were always in the field of view of a person who interfered with their usual, territorial affiliation.

Lions were destroyed in order to protect themselves, they were caught for demonstrative circus tricks and just for the sake of a hunting trophy. And by our time, the number of these animals has significantly decreased. Currently, lions can be found only in some parts of Africa and around the Indian state of Gujarat.

Lions have a very peculiar appearance. At the same time, males are champions among cats in terms of height at the shoulders and have a yellowish-gray color. The jaws of these animals are so strong and their legs are powerful that they can easily hunt a large animal. But there is another feature that distinguishes males from females, this is a mane. The mane in color often matches the color of the skin, but may also have a brighter or darker shade, and at the end of the tail, both in females and in males, there is a tassel of long wool.

Lions in the wild

In the language of animals, hair reared on the scruff of the neck means aggressiveness, such individuals are considered and feared, nature has endowed male lions with a lush and luxurious mane, which adds to them majesty and menacing. In fact, lions are not as scary as they seem. Despite their strength and severity, for most of the day, about 20 hours a day, lions rest stretched out in the sun, they hunt most often in the morning or evening, looking for a suitable prey for a long time. Lions are social animals, they live in pride families.

A pride usually consists of one or more males - blood relatives, several females and their cubs. As soon as the cubs reach the age of 2-3 years, they are expelled from the pride, and they live separately from everyone, becoming wandering lions. These lions look for food alone, most often taking prey from the pride or from scavengers. Young lionesses do not leave the pride. In addition to life in prides in Africa, there are lion couples living independently.

Among the females, there is a clear distribution of roles during the hunt and outside it, because the survival of the entire pride depends on it. Someone is watching the cubs, someone is resting, and someone is watching to see if there are females or males from another pride on the horizon. Wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, kudu and kongoni make up the basis of the lion's diet, sometimes warthogs and deer are on the menu. Hunting is done in a group. Lions run slowly and cannot pursue their prey for a long time, so the main goal for them is to drive prey to a dead end, surround and attack.

A pregnant female leaves the pride for a secluded place, where, after 110 days, from one to four blind and helpless cubs are born. Up to seven weeks they are alone with their mother, after which the lioness gives the cubs under the protection of her pride. It is interesting that males, if there are any in the pride, are much more tolerant of cubs than females, they are more willing to play with them and share their prey.

On the question of age

And so - how long does a lion live in wild nature? Taking into account all of the above, it becomes clear that the lifespan of a lion depends on many factors.

In the wild - despite the menacing appearance and really terrible strength and dexterity, these predators face a lot of dangers, injuries and injuries that do not contribute to prolonging life.

These are skirmishes with strangers for territories, after which one of the lions often becomes disabled and subsequently cannot fully show its strength and dexterity in hunting, these are attacks by other no less aggressive predators.

These are injuries and injuries that occur in the process of hunting large animals like buffaloes, after which the animal naturally cannot hunt and eat well, and therefore live long.

But the biggest problem for the lion, as before, is poachers. So in the wild, the life expectancy of lions is on average 8-10, much less often 14 years.

It is worth noting that lionesses live a couple of years longer than males, most likely due to the fact that they do not need to participate in skirmishes with strangers for territories.

Lions in reserves and zoo

Back at the end of the 18th century, trying to save these beautiful animals from extinction, people tried to keep them in nature reserves and zoos, where lions are able to live and breed normally. At the same time, their life expectancy increases markedly, from 10-14 years, from the fact that lions can live in the wild, up to 20 and even up to 25 or more years, with proper care and the supervision of veterinarians in the reserve and a little less in the zoo - usually about 20 years. So the most important long-liver of all lions to date has lived 29 years.

We tried to give the most detailed answer to the question about the life expectancy of the most important representative of the cat family, and indeed animals in general - the lion. And if your child takes an interest in the life expectancy of lions, you will surely be able to tell your son or daughter how many years lions live in the wild, in the reserve and zoo.

The king of beasts - that's what the lion is called. The lion is the second largest among all cats, the weight of an adult male is 200-225 kg, and the length is 2-2.5 meters plus a tail, 1 meter long. Lions have very pronounced sexual characteristics: the male lion has a chic mane that no female can boast of.

Large jaws, muscular body and strong paws allow the lion to be the main hunter in the African savannah. If you want to understand why the lion is called the king of beasts, see the video: wild African lion vs crocodiles.

But the eating of prey is joint. And the lions eat as much as they can physically eat, because when the next “festive table” will be is not known, only every 3-4 hunt is successful.

Another big plus of the family is mating. In the "harem" of a lion, there can be 14 females, with whom he mates at every desire.

Pregnancy of females lasts an average of 15 weeks, and 3-4 lion cubs are born, helpless, weak, blind. For 10 weeks, the lioness with her children is separated from the pride, during which time she must not only feed them with milk, but also convey her smell, thanks to which the cubs will later be accepted into the family.

Lionesses arrange a "nursery" - when they go hunting, they can leave their babies under the supervision of other lionesses, who not only protect, but also feed with their milk ...

A selection of interesting videos.

Landmark video: Battle at Kruger. There is just an incredible amount of action for eight minutes. Bulls, crocodiles and lions all mixed up in a bunch. Watch everyone.

Another video where herbivores show themselves in all their glory. Never give up. (although the quality is not very high)

550 lbs Lions Fighting. Lions decide who is in charge.

Nomadic Lions fight to the finish. Lions fight to the death.

Lion fight in Botswana.

Lion Fight - Part I. See the continuation on youtube, in the video below there is a link to the second part. There are 5 in total.

Lion Vs Cheetah - Male lion kills 2 cheetahs. Lions vs cheetahs.

Lionesses on the hunt:

A selection of documentary films.

Lions with Crocodile River:

Desert Lions:

At the end of the Pleistocene, from 100 to 10 thousand years ago, lions lived all over the globe. Their distribution area covered the whole of Europe, Asia from Western Asia to India and north to Siberia, almost all of Africa, as well as both American continents from Yukon to Peru. However, then their territory began to shrink inexorably: about 10,000 years ago there were no lions left in America, in historical time (the beginning new era) they completely disappeared in Europe, and in the last two centuries they were exterminated in the south and throughout the north of Africa, in Iran, in India, where less than 30 lions remained in the 1940s, but the population was saved and increased there. Now the lions have retained East Africa (with the exception of deserts and rainforest), in South Africa they live only in the territory National parks Kruger and Kalahari Gemsbok, and a separate subspecies is the Asiatic lion ( P.l. persica) - miraculously survived in the Gir forest in northwestern India.

The largest predator in Africa, rivaling only the tiger in size, the lion seems to consist of nothing but muscles. When hunting, with one stroke of his paw, he can knock down an antelope in a jump.

The coat color is sandy to tan above, almost white below. Young animals have dark rosettes and spots on the sides, which last longer in females. At the end long tail- black brush. In some populations, albinos (animals with uncolored fur) may appear, but cases of melanism (black color) in lions have not been described.

Sexual dimorphism is stronger than in all other cats, and is manifested not only in the larger size of males, but also in the presence of a mane of very long hair (usually dark gold, less often black, sometimes reddish) growing from above on the head , on the sides of the muzzle, and flowing in smooth waves over the shoulders. Lions living in open spaces have a more lush mane.

An adult lion has 30 teeth. The species feature is also the presence of four nipples in females.

When conducting regular observations of lions, individuals use the unique distribution of spots on the part of the muzzle where whiskers grow to identify individuals.

The average male weighs about 190 kg (175-230), the record weight is 272 kg for a lion from the mountains of Kenya. The female weighs an average of 120-130 kg, reaching 180 kg. The body length of the male is up to 3.3 meters, the female is up to 2.7 meters, the average height is 1.2 and 1.1 m, respectively. Tail 0.6–1 m.

The optimal habitat for a lion is park and grassy savannas, semi-deserts, and dense thickets of shrubs. In the mountains, lions are found at an altitude of up to 3000 meters, the height record is 4240m in the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia. They are picky in choosing a place to live, avoiding only vast deserts and tropical forests. The main limitation is the amount and availability of prey. Lions are perfectly adapted to life in semiarid areas, they can not drink for months, being content with the moisture contained in their food. In favorable conditions for them, lions are the second largest predators after the spotted hyena. Crocuta crocuta.

Lions are social animals, unlike other cats, they often live in groups (prides). The pride owns the territory in which it hunts and protects it from other lions. The dominant male of the pride marks its borders with a mixture of urine and secretions from the anal glands, and any lion who approaches his land knows where the border is. Although the territory is not patrolled, any invasion sooner or later ends in a deadly fight between a dominant lion and an invader, or lionesses with an intruder, so any invasion of a lion or several young lions is a challenge that the leader will always answer, and in such wars, many lions end up own life.

Thus, the lion protects the females from the claims of strangers, and the territory protected by the male is the hunting area of ​​his females.

The size of the hunting grounds directly depends on the density of the game and ranges (for African lions) from 20 to 400 km 2, while the number of lions where there is a lot of various prey (mostly ungulates) can reach 12 per 100 km 2.

But there are lions that do not have their own territories - young single predators. Sometimes they migrate along with herds of ungulates, sometimes they wander along the borders of the pride territory, representing a constant threat to the aging leader.

After a night hunt, lions sleep in islands of shade in the grass or on low massive tree branches. If there is enough prey, sleep can take up to 20 hours a day.

Hunting.

Lions can hunt different ways, depending on the composition of the group of hunters and on the abundance of game.

When the pride hunts open space for large ungulates, as happens in the Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), lionesses take the main part in the capture of the victim. Lions are striking, and therefore their participation in this method is reduced to a minimum: at best, they scare the victim with a growl, driving her to an ambush prepared by lionesses, and sometimes lions do not take any part in the hunt at all. Like all cats, lions are very fast, but not too hardy, this dictates the way of hunting - hiding. Under the cover of a moonless night, lionesses imperceptibly surround a herd of zebras or wildebeests, one of them sneaks up as close as possible to the victim - 20-30 meters - and overtakes her with a swift throw. When the animal falls, other lionesses come to the rescue, grabbing the prey by the rump and neck, squeezing the throat with great force. Usually they hunt either near a watering hole, at the moment when the animals began to drink, or by the joint efforts of the pride, driving them to an ambush. With such a joint hunt, the probability of success is very high, but this is possible only with an abundance of large ungulates - then one animal caught is enough for several days, the pride can afford not to eat everything at once, but to protect its prey from carrion-eating animals. Lions never come out to hunt if the previous prey has not yet been eaten.

In wooded areas, the distribution of roles between females and males is different. Since kittens are much easier to hide in the forest, lions do not spend as much energy on protecting them, they generally interact less with lionesses and go hunting themselves. In the wooded Kruger National Park, males predominately hunt buffalo, females prey on zebras and wildebeest.

Lions use other methods to hunt certain types of animals. Thus, they accompany buffalo herds for a long time, not hiding and thereby creating panic in a usually well-organized and protected herd, and when even ranks of buffalo disperse, they select available prey.

A lone lioness left with her cubs when the pride left after the migrating herds, or an old lion expelled from the pride, do not disdain anything. Hunger for them is a serious danger. But they also find food for themselves - watching for ungulates at a watering hole, smaller game, or even watching hyenas and vultures, which will show them where to find carrion. Hungry, they can eat birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles, rodents, ostrich eggs.

In addition to hunting and eating carrion, lions can take away their prey from other predators.

Each pride can have its own food preferences. Usually the prey is eaten collectively, but the dominant male eats first and only then the lionesses. The lion can make sure there is food for the kittens too. First offal is eaten, then meat with skin. A lion can eat 25–30 kg of meat at a time. Such a feast does not happen every day, and in extreme cases, the lions can go without food for several weeks.

Lions can eat almost anything. In the Serengeti, where the food conditions for lions are ideal, the basis of their diet (about 90%) is ungulates: zebras, wildebeest, Thompson's gazelles, buffaloes, warthogs, hartebeests (cow antelope) and topi hartebeests.

However, the role of lions in regulating the number of ungulates fades into the background compared to the sufficiency of the food supply, therefore, lions, like almost all large predators, are rather useful for the state of the ungulate population, as they destroy weakened animals; this prevents the development of mass diseases and leaves more food for healthy individuals.

Pride structure. Communication.

Lions are the only cats that form social groups, prides. The basis of the pride is 2-18 lionesses, as a rule, these are close relatives who have their own territory (the lioness always inherits the mother's territory). Pride lionesses do not establish hierarchical relations among themselves at all. Several lions live with them, among which one is dominant, he is not always the strongest, but other lions recognize and do not dispute his supremacy. He is the first to eat after a successful hunt, the first to mate with females during estrus, the first to attack the enemy - the lion - invading the territory of the pride. In total, a pride can have up to 40 animals, but on average, about 13.

Young lions, growing up, begin to claim the championship and at the age of 2.5 years are expelled from the pride. Subsequently, they either create their own pride, or live alone or in small groups (up to seven lions, as a rule, they are brothers) without females for 2–3 years. It is easier for such a group to capture a pride than for a lone lion, and it is easier to defend their pride afterwards: if a pair of males usually keeps a pride within 2.5 years, then a coalition of 3-4 males - more than three years. Young lone lions are not burdened with feeding their cubs and taking care of the territory, so they eat better and sooner or later conquer the territory for themselves, which hosts one or even several prides of lionesses. The first thing a male does after capturing a pride is to kill all the cubs. Lionesses, as a rule, are not able to interfere with them, and only cubs older than a year have a chance of salvation. A lioness who has lost her cubs begins estrus (estrus) in 2–3 weeks and she will soon give birth to a new leader. Such infanticide (killing of cubs) is a necessity, because otherwise the new leader would have to wait at least two years for his own offspring, and despite the fact that the leader, as a rule, is replaced every 2-4 years, he would not have time to raise his own cubs .

Pride gives lions the benefits of hunting. In a group, the chance of a successful attack increases, and it also becomes possible to hunt larger and stronger animals, such as an adult buffalo. It becomes possible to protect the half-eaten corpse from spotted hyenas and scavengers. However, the lion still has less food than if he hunted alone, since he gets only a small part of the prey. The reason for the formation of a pride may be the need for cooperation in raising cubs. Lionesses give birth at almost the same time, which allows them to jointly feed and protect all cubs. In addition, a large pride is able to resist the territorial claims of other lionesses, can seize their territory and kill the lionesses of neighboring prides.

But, apparently, the main task of the pride is the joint protection of the cubs from stray lions and from the lions that captured the pride: joint defense, at least, allows you to defend the grown cubs.

Lions get to know each other well. The greatest contribution to this is made by visual perception. For example, two adult males, already by the state of the mane of the opponent, can draw conclusions about how strong and dangerous he is, and decide whether to claim his possessions. The mane is indeed a very good guide, as mane growth is highly dependent on testosterone levels. Greeting each other, the lions of one pride rub their faces and are generally very affectionate.

Odor signals are used when a lion (and sometimes lionesses) marks the boundaries of his area with a mixture of urine and the secretion of special glands. This behavior is formed in lions at the age of about two years.

Lions learn to roar even earlier - about a year. In males, the roar is longer, bass and louder than in females. The lion usually roars while standing, sometimes crouching to the ground. Such acoustic communication serves both to communicate within the pride and to announce to the opponent that the territory is being guarded.

Reproduction. Caring for offspring.

Lions breed throughout the year, but peak during the rainy season. In a non-pregnant female, estrus begins 16 days after the end of the previous one. At this time, the lion begins to care for her. The couple leaves the pride for 4-5 days to mate (which at this time occurs on average every 25 minutes), remaining, however, in its hunting territory. Not only males are polygamous, but also females, usually mating occurs both with the dominant male and with other lions from the pride. Pride males usually do not fight for females, the lioness leaves with the first one who meets her. On average, every fifth estrus ends with a pregnancy.

If the lioness becomes pregnant, then after 3.5 months, shortly before the birth, she again leaves the pride. She finds a shady, inconspicuous place and offspring are born there - from 1 to 6, on average, three lion cubs. For the first time, their mother takes care of them, and after returning to the pride, all lionesses are equally affectionate with the cubs and do not distinguish between their own and others. In a pride, lion cubs are born synchronously, which gives them an advantage: it is known that mutual feeding and collective defense significantly reduce the mortality of cubs. The role of a lion in caring for offspring is primarily to protect the pride from stray male lions. He can also make sure that when the prey is divided, the cubs get their portion. But females protect cubs from predators. Lion cubs aged 5-7 months are most at risk. They remain alone for a long time and can become a victim of hyenas and other predators. In addition, sometimes the mother herself attacks weak lion cubs, which cannot yet follow the pride in due time. Mortality in the first six months of life of lion cubs reaches 50%.

If the cubs survived, their mother will give birth next in about two years, but if they all died (usually due to the capture of the pride), then estrus will begin a very short time after their death.

Newborn lion cubs weigh only 1-2 kg. On the 11th day they open their eyes, and on the 15th day they begin to walk. On the skin of small lion cubs (up to 3 months) there is dark spots, which then disappear. For the first two months of their life, they feed only on milk, but at this age they return to the pride with their mother and, in addition to milk (all lactating lionesses feed them along with their mother), gradually get used to meat. At the age of 7 months (up to 10) they switch completely to eating meat. Soon they begin to accompany adult lions during the hunt, and from 11 months old they can already kill prey on their own. However, independent life is still far away: the lion cub has a chance to survive alone, starting at 16 months, but usually does not leave the pride until the age of two or even four. Young females generally remain in the pride.

Males and females reach sexual maturity at an average of 5 years and 4 years, respectively. But even after that, they continue to grow in size - usually up to six years.

Lionesses live longer, as old lions are usually driven out either by a pride or another, stronger male. In nature, they live an average of 14-16 years (up to 18 years in the Serengeti), and males rarely reach 11 years, but you can meet an older lion (up to 16 years). The average life expectancy of lions in captivity is 13 years, a record of 30.

Enemies and diseases. Significance for a person.

An adult lion is practically invulnerable to predators. spotted hyena may, however, attack cubs, young or old lions. The greatest danger to an adult healthy lion is starvation or death as a result of a collision with another lion. Lions compete for food with other large predators - hyenas, cheetahs and leopards - but they usually come out victorious in a fight with them. At the same time, hyenas will yield disputed prey only to a large male lion, and from lionesses, on the contrary, they can even take away the animal they have killed.

The lion population is limited mainly by the number of surviving cubs. The main cause of their death is infanticide, which is carried out by males when capturing a pride. The mortality of lion cubs also increases markedly with a lack of prey. In addition, left unattended, they become victims of predators, primarily spotted hyenas.

A serious danger to lions is a person. A huge number of lions still continue to be destroyed in national parks. In addition to rifle hunting, arrows, traps and poisoned baits are used (since lions willingly eat carrion, usually it is a carcass with poison in it). In some African countries allowed to hunt lions for food.

But the harm caused to lions by man is far from being exhausted by direct destruction. As mentioned above, the territory of the lion's habitat has sharply decreased in historical time, and the main reason for this is the development of agriculture and cattle breeding, which gradually forced out large predators to lands not yet developed by man. Even in Africa, this has led to the fact that lions are now kept almost exclusively in hunting reserves. Although lions were found all over the sub-Saharan continent 150 years ago, in western Africa their population continues to decline dramatically, and it seems that soon they will remain only in the eastern and southern parts of the mainland. The problem is compounded by the fact that different reservations are separated by impassable spaces for the lion, and local populations are often too small to support themselves. Subsequently, if the situation does not change, this may lead to an increase in the frequency of genetic anomalies and to a further drop in the number of lions.

Most of the conflict between man and lion is at the boundaries of reserves, but relatively simple measures (such as a reliable fence with live wire) can prevent lions from entering populated areas. However, sometimes lions overcome fences. If this happened to an adult lion with a pride, who simply wanted to expand his territory in this way, then they try to bring him back, and he will no longer try to repeat such an experiment. If this is a young lion, already addicted to killing cattle, which is so common in Africa, then he will continue to overstep the boundaries of the reserve, and they are trying to seize such lions.

But even where lions can sometimes appear near housing, attacks on humans are the rarest exception. As a rule, these are old lions, doomed in nature to starvation, old or wounded animals. Healthy lions, deprived of a normal habitat, can also become cannibals, but usually, having met a person, the lion simply leaves, and in places where there are many tourists, he does not even do this, calmly continuing to rest and go about his business.

Another problem is that lions are often carriers of feline immunodeficiency virus, which also infects domestic cats. This virus, which is similar to HIV, is lethal to cats, and apparently not dangerous to lions, but it infects a huge part of the lion population, due to which the natural focus of this infection is constantly maintained.

Lions also benefit people: thanks to them, ecotourism flourishes in many poor countries, bringing substantial income.

Lions are protected by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the Asian subspecies P. l. persica is listed in the Red Book as endangered.

In some reserves in Africa, where lions became so small that the population could no longer self-renew, they even used artificial insemination to produce offspring. Attempts are being made to populate areas undeveloped by lions with adult females or entire prides in order to reduce the harmful effects of inbreeding in small groups.

In captivity, lions breed well, which made it possible to create their own Asiatic lion population in zoos, which is also used to maintain the number of Asiatic lions in the wild.

Diversity.

The genetic diversity of lions is not very high - less than between people of different races - but it is customary to distinguish several of their subspecies. Genetic analysis data showed that the common ancestor of Asiatic and African lions lived about 100 thousand years ago.

The final opinion on the allocation of subspecies of the lion has not yet been formed. Although all researchers agree that the Asian form is a separate subspecies (P. l. persica), some divide the variety of forms in Africa into several subspecies, sometimes they consider it to be one subspecies. The most widespread classification, where five living subspecies are distinguished among African lions, is given below. All subspecies are separated and named according to the geographic region where they live.

1.Panthera leo senegalensis(West Africa), or the Senegal lion - is endangered.

2. P.l. Azandica (northeastern part Congo, Zaire)

3. P.l. bleyenberghi(Katanga, Angola, South part Congo), or the Katanga lion, is endangered.

4. P.l. krugeri (South Africa, Transvaal) - includes lions living in the Kalahari Desert. They are characterized by a lighter mane, this is the only species of lions that inhabits the desert. Lions from the Kalahari are sometimes recognized as a separate subspecies, P. l. verneyi.

5. P.l. nubica(East Africa). These include Somali lions ( P.l. somaliensis), Masai ( P.l. massaicus), lions from the Serengeti ( P.l. massaicus), Congo ( P.l. hollisteri) and Abyssinia ( P.l. rosevelti).

Among the subspecies destroyed by man:

1. Atlas, or Barbary lion ( P.l. leo). Back in the early 20th century, they lived in northern Africa, in the Atlas. These lions were distinguished by a huge black mane, which grew not only on the head, but passed over the shoulders to the belly. They differed from living lions in their large size and dense physique. They lived alone in the wooded area, without forming a pride. It was these lions that the emperors of Rome kept. The last Barbary lion was destroyed in Morocco in 1922.

2. Cape lion ( P.l. melanochaita) - lived on the southern tip of the mainland. This is the largest lion that a person could meet. The last Cape lion was destroyed in 1860.

3. Maroczi, or spotted lion ( P.l. maculatus) - from East Africa, where it inhabits mountain forests. Only single encounters with humans have been recorded, and it is not known whether these animals survived. They differ greatly in appearance from other lions: smaller, no mane, but the skin is covered with spots in the form of rosettes. There is an opinion that this is not a special kind of lion, but a cross between a lion and a leopard, in which case the maroczi cannot be considered as a subspecies of lions.

4. The only lion in Asia is the Indian lion ( P.l. persica) - preserved only in the Girsky Reserve (western India). The natural population has up to 300 adults. The last Asiatic lion outside of India was killed in 1942 in Iran; before that, lions were exterminated in Europe (about 100 AD), Palestine, Turkey (in the 19th century), Iraq (1918), India (for with the exception of the Gir forest, by the beginning of the 20th century).

Outwardly, Asiatic lions are distinguished by a smaller and shorter mane (which never completely covers the ears), somewhat smaller in size. An adult male weighs 160–190 kg, a female 110–120 kg.

Asian lions in nature live in prides, but they are formed, as a rule, only from two females. Males are less social: together with the pride, they live only during the mating season or when they go out on a big hunt together. This does not happen often, as the usual prey in the Gir forest is small, often Indian deer and sambar, although it is traditional for the Asiatic lion to hunt larger animals, especially more affordable cattle. Perhaps this feature is the reason for the decrease in the size of the pride.

Life expectancy averages 17–18 years for females and about 16 for males, reaching sexual maturity at 3–4 and 5–8 years, respectively. In one litter from 1 to 5, usually 2-3 cubs, however, mortality in the first year of life is very high and is about 30%, then it sharply decreases and does not exceed 10% for adult animals

Various measures are being taken to protect the Indian lion. Although its population is slowly but steadily growing, there is a danger that due to illness it can all disappear at once, so an attempt was made to create a reserve population in captivity in order to subsequently release animals to places where they could live and leave offspring. However, in the 1980s, it became clear that almost all Asiatic lions bred in zoos are, to a large extent, a cross between African lions and African lions.

Tatyana Smirnova

The lion is a predator of the panther genus, subfamily big cats. This handsome beast is second in size to other big cats.

It is not for nothing that in fairy tales the lion personifies the king, because indeed he has royal habits, a majestic gait.

Lion habitat

Most often, lions could be found in Africa, the Middle East, southern Russia, and in some parts of India. They live in the steppe, savannah, rarely in forests and shrublands. Currently, lions are becoming less and less. Lions live in huge groups, they also hunt artiodactyls not alone. Lionesses, hunting, act as leaders, unlike lions. Males intimidate prey with their powerful roar, and females, having hidden, are preparing to attack animals (carcass of buffaloes, giraffes). Lions also act in defense of their lionesses in the fight, and, unfortunately, many die.

Description of lions

Lions have a chic mane, from yellow to orange, some predators have a tricolor color as in the photo. Anyone who has sparse hair will envy such density. The hair is shorter on the tail, at the tip it looks like a small paint brush.

These huge animals have an anatomical difference between females and males (this phenomenon is called dimorphism). The weight of lions is approximately from 170 to 185 kg, lionesses weigh less (120-125 kg). The largest lion was 375 kg at the London Zoo. Lions are no more than 2 m long (on average 180 cm), females - 150 cm. Surprisingly, the tail is not much less than about 105 cm long. A record length of a lion is slightly more than 300 cm.

Lion breeding

These wonderful mammals are ready to breed from the age of 4. The female also bears cubs for about 4 months. She prefers to give birth to little lion cubs in a secluded place where she will feel safe. Babies are born with a body weight of 1 to 2 kg. The eyes begin to see 7 days after birth. Instinctively, the female knows that if she often changes her habitat, then the smell will not accumulate and will not attract other predators to the babies. Lions can communicate with the help of body movements, for example, in order to greet someone, they rub their heads against each other's heads, utter loud sounds similar to a deep roar.

Predators feed according to the schedule: first - males, then - females, the last to eat are babies. They need to eat about 18 kg of meat per day.

These majestic predators need to be protected through nature reserves and other animal protection projects. Since the 18th century, many zoos have been created, where more than a thousand lions live.