| ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡Lions! ! ! ! ! ! ! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The lion is the largest member of the cat family. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A large male lion measures from 9 to 10 feet, including the tufted tail, and stands more than 3 feet tall at the shoulders. He can weigh about 400 pounds. His body is covered with short yellow-brown hair, and a coarse mane grows on his head, neck, and shoulders. The female lacks a mane and usually is more slender and about a foot shorter than the male. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| HUNTERS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Much of the hunting is done by the female. Colored like sun-dried grass, the lion can slip unseen across the plains. Its jaws are so hinged that it can open its mouth 11 inches and kill a zebra or a medium-sized antelope with one bite. Its upper canine teeth measure from 2 to 2 1/2 inches . The sickle-shaped claws, when extended from their sheaths, may be 3 inches long. The lion can span nearly 30 feet at one bound, jump over a barrier almost 6 feet tall, and dash a short distance at more than 50 miles an hour. Lions usually hunt at night. Although they will eat carrion, they prefer fresh meat, particularly that of the zebra, antelope, giraffe, and buffalo. The lion often hides beside a trail leading to a water hole and then pounces upon the shoulder or flank of a passing animal. It drives its claws deep into the flesh and kills its victim with a stabbing and crunching bite on the throat or the back of the neck. When stalking a herd, the lion creeps up from the side toward which the wind is blowing, taking advantage of cover until the moment of the last quick rush. A pride of 4 to 12 lions sometimes hunts together, working as a team. The males roar loudly to scare up the game, while the females lie in wait along the trails to pounce on the scurrying animals. After the lionesses have had time to make a kill, the males stop roaring and come to eat. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| MATING | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Lions usually pair for life. About 16 weeks after mating time, the young (from two to four in a litter) are born in a secluded spot selected by the mother. She guards her offspring jealously and does not permit even the male to approach, because he is inclined by instinct to kill his offspring. | The newborn cubs are about the size of large domestic cats. Their fur is frizzled and spotted. The males are marked also with stripes--several down the sides and one along the middle of the back. Although open-eyed and able to use their claws, the cubs are otherwise quite helpless. For the first two weeks they move about with their forelegs and drag the hindquarters. The mother weans them when they are about 3 months old. At 5 months the cubs weigh about 50 pounds , but they are still as playful as kittens. At 9 months most of their spots and stripes disappear. When they are about 18 months old the mother begins to teach them to hunt. She growls and snarls at their clumsy and frantic mauling when they first try to make a kill. At 3 years of age, the male has a conspicuous mane. Lions reach their prime at 8, at which time the male's mane is at its best. After that age, the animals tend to decline. Lions reach an average age of about 28 years, according to reports of zoos and estimates of biologists.
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