Lion [Panthera leo]
The lion is the largest cat species in Africa. You can find these majestic creatures in grasslands, scrub, or open woodlands of Sub-Saharah Africa and in South Africa you can view them in their natural habitat with ease. They have been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1996, as populations in African range countries declined by about 43% since the early 1990s.
I decided to take my kids on an early morning (7am) game drive to see the wild cats being fed. At Mabalingwe tourist can watch them feed the Lions, Cheetahs, Hyenas, Caracals, Servals and Wild Dogs twice a week early in the morning. This hind leg was prepared with vitamins (the white powder on the meet), and hooked on a chain to feed the lions.
Mabalingwe has a male and a female which is pregnant. The male gets the meat after delivery and have the privilege to eat first.
The poor female have to sit and wait for her turn till the male is done.
Subdued and patiently sitting waiting for a few minute for the male to finish his meal, the female decide to hurry him on, showing him how hungry she is by rolling around on her back a little closer to him.
After a few minutes, he decided to allow the annoying female to come and feast.
She was in lions heaven being able to still the hunger with this big chunk of meat.
Being fed well he slowly walked off to the waterpit to get a drink.
After we watched all the animals being fed we returned to the lions once more before our departure. One of the tourists decided to climb through the marked off area to get closer to the fence to take a better photo of the male lion. Her little son followed her and touched the electric fence, the voltage was quite high and he was in tears, this disturbed the lion a great deal as you can see by the look on his face.
The male lions are bigger than the females (120-190kg), weigh over 230kg with a height of 1.2m, and can reach an age of 10-14 years and 20 years in captivity. Only the male lions have a fringe of long hair around their heads (called a main)
Females are the hunters in the group, live in a pride and have a good family bond. There are about 2-14 females, their young and only 2-4 dominant males in a pride. At age 3 the females are ready to mate. They have a gestation period of 120 days, give birth to their young away from the pride and keep them secluded for the first 8 weeks.
