lion

: 91-120 cm
: males 181 - 277kg, females 113 - 152 kg
: about 102 days; breed throughout the year

Lions are highly social animals and live in small prides and groups of up to 20 individuals. They hunt a wide range of species, and have excellent sight, hearing and sense of smell. You may come across a lion heading into a stiff wind or encountering a pride of sleeping lions.

A lioness with cubs can charge if she is frightened or feels threatened. It has happened trackers shouted at a lioness and managed to stop her within five meters of the group. The continuous shouting caused her to lose her nerve and she backed off. Male lions more often than not "bluff". In all the encounters with male lions, they have always fled.

Lions (Male and Female) roar as a means of communication and territorial demarcation. As a rule lions are silent when hunting, usually filling the night air with deep roars only after a successful kill. They call at dawn, to locate each other, especially after hunting.

Lions will eat almost anything when they are hungry. Usually they hunt for medium- to large-hoofed animals, such as Impala's, Wildebeest, Kudu to Buffalo. Giraffe have known also being attacked by lions, even though the lion sincerely respect their savage kick. They hunt, in the main, at night. Lions drink regularly when water is available, but are capable of going without water for long periods in dessert and arid areas.

When mating takes place, it is not unusual for the female to have around 150 copulation's a week, and sometimes between more than one male.

When about to give birth, the female leaves the pride to give birth, and doing so will move the youngsters to different locations to eliminate as much as possible the smell of the new born cubs penetrating the area, and by doing so, safeguard the cubs from potential danger, as Hyaena`s and other predators will kill the cubs if found.

After about 6 weeks de female will introduce the new cubs to the pride with the danger the male will kill the cubs, as that is sometimes the case. (That can be due to the fact that the male likes to have his own offspring, and the fact that the female might have had copulation's with more than one male, the male might consider the cubs not his own, and for that reason, a
male that takes over a pride will in some circumstances kill the cubs in that new pride to.)

The male cubs will be chased out of the pride by the father and mother as soon as independents starts, and often young male brothers form a alliance and hunt together for a period of time before moving off and looking to establish their own family.