Africa's social big cat. Lions live in prides of related females and their cubs, defended by one or a few males, and a small population also survives in India's Gir Forest.
Quick answers
What is it?Mammal
Carnivore?Yes
Dangerous?Yes
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Night
Mostly active at night and around dawn and dusk; lions spend much of the hot day resting.
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?No
At a glance
Found inAfrica
HabitatGrassland, Scrub
ColoursTawny, Gold
SizeLarge
Length2.4–3.3 m including the tail
Weight126–272 kg
Legs4
Covered inFur
Lives inprides
Lives for10–14 years
Can swim
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Savanna, grassland and open woodland in sub-Saharan Africa, plus Gir National Park in western India. Historically absent from the central African rainforest and the Sahara.
- What it eats
- Mostly medium and large hoofed animals such as wildebeest, zebra, buffalo and gemsbok.
- Conservation
- Vulnerable (IUCN Red List)
Did you know
The only truly social cat — everything else hunts alone.
A lion’s roar, most often heard at night, carries up to about 8 km.
Often confused with
- Cougar
Both are plain tawny cats, but a cougar is much smaller, lives in the Americas, and has a long, thick tail with no dark tuft at the end.
Sources
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A photo, a few hints, one guess. Same 438 animals.
