Lion

Lion :

Lion is known as king of forest and a king of all animals because they have power and strength to rule the jungle and its also known as strongest and smartest animal of the forest. They live in groups and their groups called as prides. Every pride is consists of one to three male lions and females in the pride over the year.  Lions don’t have anybody fears, they are fearless animals. The word lion originates from latin, leo, and greek. The word lion means, a large mammal that eats meats and they comes from India and Africa. In African languages lion is called as simba , in french  lion is called as leon, in Italian lion called as leone and in romanian lion is called as leu. Lions are the species of felidae family and they are the member of the genus panthera. They are  habitat to the grasslands and woodlands, where they can easily hunt their prey. According to a survey in 2020, there are only about 20,000 lions left in the world. They have a short, deep - chested body with yellow-gold coats, round ears, powerful legs, jaws and teeth. Their teeth are sharp, pointed and they use to eat , tear and break  food into smaller pieces and swallow it.

What  will lions do in a day :

They spends there day playing with their children, mating with their opposite sex, hunting ,eating , take caring of their young ones and many more… When they gets attracted to lioness, they will mate nearly  47 times in a day. Lion and lioness has different responsibilities , Lions defend their territory, protect their cubs and their area. Females are the main hunters, they hunt regularly and feed their male partner and their cubs. Lions are the laziest big cats. Most of the time, they spend enjoying and relaxing. They sleep and rest nearly 16 – 20 hours per day. They conserve their energy by relaxing during day time and they become more active at night, as they have a clear vision at night and when it is cooler. Lions are the laziest big cats as they spend most of the time lying on trees.

What they eat:

Lions are carnivores, they consume more than seven kilograms of meat. When they are hungry they feed on or hunt large mammals including buffalo, deer, zebras, leopards, baby elephants, turtles, dogs, rhinoceros, hippopotamuses, and many more.

Lioness hunt and kills the animals or prey but they will not consume it first, the males feed first, then the cubs. Lions are always greedy, if they are not hungry and they see a animal, they catch and kill it, in eagerness for some more food.

Sometimes many days passed without the meal because only one-third of hunts are successful. They also steal meals from animals like, hyenas and wild dogs.

They can survive up to 14 days without food and 4 days without water but they will eat wild melons and wild cucumbers.

Lion's behaviour over Bonding:

They are the big cats species which lives in a group of females, males and cubs. They spends most of the time in groups, their groups are known as prides. They don’t  live in groups, when they are hunting, mating or giving birth. Their bonding can be seen in many different way, they maintain peace in the group, their interaction between lions and they meeting up with each other and nudge their bodies and heads. Male lions used to interact with other male lions by head rubbing and female lions mainly used licking. Female lions also used head rubbing but while interacting with males. Male lions mainly attract or interact with female lions when they were closely related or they have same age, or same kinship.

The safari travelers, visit forest regularly and they can capture the things which are unknown to us. Male lions mate each other and some researchers say that when they mate each other it is a form of social bonding.

Mating :

Females starts mating at about 4 years of age, while males begin closer to 5. Lion cannot do mating with lioness until she agrees, mating is depends on lioness. Once mating started, it continues for three to four days, a pair generally mate every  20 to 30 min and 47 to 100 times in a day. During mating lioness sit down, male lions rub the female ovary from the backside, the male lions barbs [point] on his penis dig into the female ovary, when the penis or dig enter into  ovary hurts the female causing her to hit out an in from male. Female lions bite lions on the balls, bites their neck, and after the mating, female roll around the ground due to hormones changes in her body in response to ovulation. Mating may be noisy with loud or low growling by a lion.

Lioness mate with a number of different prides male lions and male lions also do the same Lioness mate with multiple lions in order to save their cubs from lions because lions kills other lions cubs.They will not allow their male siblings, child or father to mate with them.

Because of affection, male lion mate with other mate lions, rubs their cheeks, heads together.

Lioness are able to give births to cubs all year, from the age of three to four years. When they gets pregnant they leave their prides and go to a private shelter, cave or a den. The gestation period of lioness is 110 days. They will give birth to two to three cubs at once.

Hunting:

We have heard that only lioness hunt but it’s not correct, when lion and lioness are separated, both of them hunt. Lion hunt or kill in every three to four days or whenever the opportunities arise. And mostly both of them hunt injured animals because it will be easy for them to catch and eat. When they want to hunt a big animal like giraffe or elephant, both of them go together to kill them or hunt them.

When they catch the prey or an animal, it’s very difficult for an animal to run because they use their powerful claws and crush their necks because a bite on neck can immediately kills the animal, they do it to reduce the risk of being injured by the animal. Lions are greedy, no matter their stomach are full, whenever they see an animal they immediately catch them and eat them.

They also have risk while hunting, other animal can harm them, so mostly they hunt at night because they can see very well in low light, they also hunt when wind storms occur so that prey can’t listen to them and hunt when there is easiest chance to catch the prey/animal.

Older lions are not very much active they don’t hunt, only females member of the pride hunts and feed the members of the pride. They also feed their male partners and cubs because cubs cannot hunt.

Caring for cubs : When cubs are born, they are too small, they are completely helpless, cubs don’t open their eyes till 3 – 11 days. Lioness keeps the cubs hidden from all the animals even from the other lions because male lions kill others lions cubs. Lioness introduces their cubs to the pride when they are about eight weeks old. Females of the pride take care of the cubs, many of them give birth around same time, they have cubs of same age. Female lions protect, take care and feed each other’s babies. Cubs follow their mothers from three months of age. 40 to 80 percent young babies die before turning one because of starvation and coalition invaders.

Cubs died due to starvation : Cubs die when they don’t gets mother’s milk, babies of humans and animals need mother’s milk. Doctors suggest that at least till 1 year, new born should drink mother’s milk because mother milk is very important for new born babies, its helps them to grow quickly, healthy, and strong. It also protect them from illness. Lion cubs also need mother milk to grow quickly and healthy. Some cubs die due to, lioness was not lactating to feed the new born. Some cubs are separated from their mothers by humans and they die because of not getting mother’s milk and protection. Lioness cared their babies very much, they guide them to protect themselves from animals, how to hunt.

Coalition invaders : A coalition is a group of four male lions from another pride and the larger coalition of male lions is nine. Their main aim is to find a female pride, they kills the cubs so the female lions will mate sooner. But lioness don’t want to lose their cubs, they defend cubs by risking their life. They don’t allow any animal to kill their cubs, a group of females protect their young ones from other male lions. Female pride can prevent a male lion from killing their cubs, they can even kill him.

The Hide there cubs from male lions about 11 Days, to make other develop themselves female cubs keep  them around 8 weeks with her. And shown how to hunt and how to sacrifice in life while hunting and fighting.

As cubs become 1 Year old female lion get angry and make them leave alone an try to find there own dens.

 Some interesting facts about lion :
The roar of a lion can be heard up to 8 kilometres or 5 miles away.

Lioness are the main hunter.

Lion weigh 190 kg and lioness can weigh 126 kg.

Lions are called big eaters, they can eat up to 40 kg meat in a single meal.

Lions hunts at night and during storms, as its give them a advantage over their prey.

They are the only cats who roar together.

Lions will urinate to mark their smell and leave scratch marks in order to protect or defend their territoty.

There is only one species of lion, which is known as panthera leo and there are some sub species of lions are there: they are ;

1. An African lioness

2. North east congo lion.

3. White lion.

4. Masaai lion or serengeti lion.

5. Katanga lion.

6. Abyssinian lion.

7. The Asiatic lion.

8. Somali lion.

9. West African lion or Senegal lion.

10. Kalahari lion.