Lion
(Leo leo)
Most social of the cats, lions live in groups called prides. One or more males and several females and cubs make up a pride, which may number from four to thirty. Females form the core of the society, as the adult males are not always present.
Hunting is done mainly by the lionesses, but pride males dominate in feeding at the kill. Wildebeest, zebra, and antelopes make up most of the food of lions. A lion consumes an average of 5,500 pounds of meat a year. Lions often scavenge kills of other predators, especially those of hyenas and cheetahs. Only one third of a pride's hunts end in a kill.
Lions breed when three and a half years old and the cubs, spotted at birth, are born after a 110-day gestation period. As many as seven cubs may be in a litter but the average is two. Born at any time of year, cubs remain with their mothers for eighteen months. Mortality is high for cubs because of starvation, disease, abandonment, and killing by leopards, hyenas, and strange lions; only half survive the first year.
Male lions, distinguished by their mane, average about 375 pounds in weight, while females average 265 pounds. In captivity lions have lived twenty five years, but in the wild they usually survive half that long.
Audio: Listen to a Lion
Group Environment
African Savannah
The long, yellowed grass through which lions move in this scene typifies conditions early in the dry season.
- Chlorophora excelsa, a large tree with smooth, broad leaves, belongs to the same family, the moraceae, as our mulberry. It occurs both in forest and savannah. In savannah country, its branches begin relatively low on the trunk and a wide, spreading crown develops. The hard teak-like wood of this tree is often used in East Africa for boat fittings, furniture and the like.
- Hymenocardia acida is a member of the family euphorbiaceae, to which pointsettia also belongs. The small tree seen here represents the same species as the more fully grown trees in the Eland diorama group.
- Aloe engleri, an aloe with coral colored flowers. Another specimen is included in the Hunting Dog diorama group.
- Themeda triflora, a relatively tall species of kangaroo grass, has a pendant flowering pattern. Typically, it grows large spikelettes with exceptionally long arms or beards. Botanists noticed this grass in Arabia as early as 1775.
Rock foundations in the left background are granites, some decomposed in the form of latrites. Common formations in tropical regions, latrites are products of weathering.
