Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about lions. Lions are often known as “the kings of jungle”, but they don’t really live in jungles; they live in grasslands, scrubby semi-deserts, and woodlands. Asiatic lions, which are found in India, specifically live in more forested habitats. Asiatic lions are, however, still classified as the same species as African lions.

There are big debates over the classification of African lion subspecies, so today we’re just going to focus on the species as a whole. In general, lions are living in a small part of their former range. They once reached across most of Africa, along with large portions of Asia and even Europe. Today they’re confined to patches of mostly protected African areas as well as the Gir National Park in India. As apex predators, lions are mostly facing threats in the form of habitat loss. Barring interactions with humans, however, lions do generally reign supreme as adults - though their cubs may face other threats.

A group of lions is called a ‘pride’. This is a factor that sets lions apart from other cats. These prides may consist of upwards of thirty members. The females within a pride are typically related. Males in prides may have further ranges than the females within the group, but he - or they - are almost always close enough to ensure the pride is safe from intruders.

A male lion’s mane sets it apart from other cats. Lions are highly sexually dimorphic. Adult male lions are visually easy to identify from females. Male lion manes are fullest in open area environments, so Asiatic males tend to have less voluminous manes; and, in fact, Asiatic males are often slightly smaller in general. On average lions reach about 12 feet (3.7 meters) in length including their tails and 330 pounds (150 kilograms) in weight.

Lions often appear tawny in color which helps them blend in with their surroundings, but lion manes can appear quite dark - and have been observed darkening over time, thus older males may have darker manes. Manes start growing in at about two years old, which is when the young males will be kicked from the pride as at this point they will be seen as rivals to the males in charge.

There isn’t always just one male lion as the dominant male. In fact, prides with multiple dominant males often stay under the reign of those males longer. The average length of a male lion’s reign is about two years, but if he brings a brother or two into the mix, they may keep a pride for double that time. Two years is the minimum a male needs in order to ensure his offspring have a chance to make it to adulthood.

When a new male takes over a pride he will almost always kill the offspring of his predecessor. This might seem brutal, but it’s a means of passing on his genes and eliminating his rival’s. When this occurs, the lionesses will go back into heat - meaning they’ll be able to mate and produce new litters of cubs. These cubs will carry the new male’s genes, and if he can maintain his position as the head of the pride for the two years it takes for the cubs to reach adulthood, he’ll have successfully passed on his genetics to the next generation. Because all the cubs of a pride are killed a la Anakin Skywalker style - all the females in the group will thus produce their litters around the same time. It’s believed this actually keeps disputes between females lions to a minimum as they’ll all be raising young of approximately the same age, reducing the chance of hierarchy squabbles.

As the young lions grow, they’ll learn hunting skills from their mothers. Male lions may not take part in the hunt because their manes can be quite conspicuous. Lions are opportunistic, and while they generally take food in the form of medium to large ungulates, they may also eat boar, crocodiles, leopards, rabbits, ostrich eggs, monitor lizards, birds, and rodents. At a kill, males may be rowdy, but females are often pretty chill, and the cubs always get a chance to eat. Lions can go days without eating, but they can also wolf down as much as 110 pounds (50 kilograms) in a single sitting. On average, females may live to be fifteen while males typically don’t even make it to ten.

For more facts on lions, check out the links in the description. Thank you to Samson Bierig and Jaylin Landry for today’s request. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.