Hi everyone,
Have you ever thought why this creature had been called as the king of the jungle even though technically it doesn't live in the "jungle"? Well, that's because the word "jungle" which has been used in this title derived from Hindi which meant "place that is non-habitable by human". These habitats include wasteland, forest, wold, wilderness and any environment which is deemed unsuitable for a human to live in. "Panthera Leo" or lion has been called "the king of the jungle" or "the king of the beasts" since the dawn of times. They are active at night which makes them look sedentary during the day.
A lion prefers to live in an open environment such as the savanna and grassland. Despite being called as "the king in the jungle", the title should not be judged literally. In the past, they can be found almost anywhere on earth including Africa, Asia and Europe but as the time goes by, their numbers keep on declining and currently, they can be observed mainly in some parts of Africa near to the Sahara. There some Asian lion which lives under the protection of India's Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary and I'm sure; you have seen some in the Zoo that you've visited. If you didn't, you are unlucky (just kidding).
Characteristic
Like most of the mammals, the size of this particular creature would depend on the sexes. They are quite muscular with a large head, short pair of legs and a long body. The most outstanding features which could differentiate between a male and female lion is the mane. This feature is a unique characteristic which only presence among the male lion. However, the appearance of the mane might differ between populations. It's like hairs; everyone has a different style of hair. Some might only have fringes.
The colour tone of the mane might also differ between male lions, but what we can all agree was, this appearance makes male lions look larger than they are. This characteristic can be used to intimidate opponents or potential rivals and at the same time, attract any prospective mates. This mane is sort like a crown which is worn with pride giving them a majestic look.
A male lion can grow up to 2 metres in length excluding its tail with a height of 1.2 metres measured at the shoulder level. They weighed around 170 kg and can reach up to 230 kg of weight depending on the size of the male lion. A lioness can grow up to 1.5 metres in length with a shoulder height measured at 1.1 metres. They weighed around 120 kg and can reach up to 180 kg. They appear yellowish, but the truth is, their colours could vary from yellow to dark brown. If you have seen "Lion King" before, you will realise that there are two things which are prominent and darker in colour compared to the other part; the mane and the tuft on the tail tip.
Herds (Prides)
Unlike a leopard or tiger who love to live in isolation, lions live in a group or herd which is called as pride. Usually, they can be found scattered around in a specific territory, but when the time comes for them to hunt or share some meat for food, they will become united. The size of the pride could vary between population, but generally, a pride consists of 15 members. They are composed of a few lioness and cubs, as well as the male.
Their territory can be divided into two area:
- Core area
- Fringe area
The core area is the absolute territory which is defended by a particular pride from intruders including lions from other pride. The fringe area is a relative area in which overlapping between two territories of two different feelings of pride is tolerable. The size of the territory will vary between regions depending on the number of prey available in that particular area. It can be between 20 square kilometres to 400 square kilometres.
So might be curious, how do they mark their territory? Drawing a line between here and there? Well, most of the time, other pride can identify the area as being other pride territories by scent. Urinating around the bush, defecating and rubbing against some bushes has been an act of territorial marking. Roaring also an act of declaring that territory of being theirs. Every day, a few distinctive roars would be delivered between evening and dawn.
Hunting For Food
In a pride, hunting role is usually assumed by lionesses. Their target would depend on the location of their territory but mostly they love to hunt medium to large-sized animals with hoofs such as antelopes and zebras. Their prey for hunting might be similar to a hyena and a leopard; sometimes lionesses steal from those two poor predators. They can hunt various kind of animals which include:
- Some rodents
- Baboons
- Hippopotamuses
- Sick or small elephant
- Giraffes (young)
Even though the male lion appears lazy, and just eat whatever food brought by the lioness, sometimes, they do hunt. In some habitat which is not savanna, the male lion would stay less frequent with the group and hunt by themselves to eat. Even though nomadic lion is rare, but there are some lions which live in isolation and this case, they must find their foods.
Even though they appear formidable, large proportions of their hunts end up in failures. They are usually tired after running a few hundred metres, and if they failed to catch their prey, it would just stop. After capturing its prey, all other members of the pride will gather to eat, often fighting for greater access to meat. They can eat as much as 34 kg of meat in a single meal which will keep them full for a week. The frequency of hunting will depend on the availability of prey in their territory.
Reproduction
Lioness breed once in every two years in the wild. Both of the genders were polygamous but generally, a lioness would not mates with more than two male lions of the same pride. During the reproductive cycle, the lioness will become sexually receptive. The mating session would last for about 30 minutes, and the maximum number of copulations they were able to perform is 50 times per day. Why do they have to copulate so many times in a day? Well, there are two reasons:
- To secures paternal males. As they both were polygamous, mating is an act of competition.
- To stimulate ovulation in the lioness.
The pregnancy will take about 3 - 4 months and a lioness can give birth between one to six cubs. Like any other mammal, lion cubs were born blind. They will live with their mother until the age of 2 years, however, they will participate in hunting activities when they were 6 months old. Even though the lioness seems like a great mother in nursing their cubs, but they were sometimes reckless. They often leave their cubs for more than 24 hours which contribute to a high mortality rate for cubs younger than 2 years old.
A nomad lion would be having some problems to mate as lionesses were heavily protected by male lions in a certain pride. If for the sake of argument, a new male nomad lion is able to take over a pride, the first thing it's going to do is to kill all of the cubs which are born during the reign of the previous male lion. The lioness would try to protect their cubs from being killed but this is much effective if the age of the cub is near to two years old.
References
- Roland W. Kays. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Lion. Retrieved March 19, 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/animal/lion#ref325414
- Guardian. Lion. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-2693,00.html
- Wikipedia. Lion. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion