Among the big five wildlife species, Lion stands out to be one of the prominent members. Big Five Wildlife species came about back in the early years of the 20th Century. These are wildlife that were hard to hunt or became a threat to hunters.
So let’s understand the African Lion in depth. There are different species of African Lions that were there, and some are extinct and others are under protected areas. The Northern African Lion, East, and Central African Savannah Lion, and the Southern African Lions. Their distinct differences are their sizes and the mane formations.
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There are only 23,000 lions left in the entire world, making them under great threat of extinction. There were more than 1 million rooming around the world, 15,000yrs back.
Lions are extinct in the following countries:- Ghana, Gabon, Egypt, Congo, Togo, Mali, and Guinea. The ICUN Report puts under the red list of species facing extinction.
With the above details, we can therefore have some facts of African Lions that describe their behaviors and other factors.
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10 Interesting Facts about African Lions
- The Latin name for a lion is Panthera Leo.
- Lions can live up to 14 years in the wild, and up to 20 years in captivity.
- Lions are generally inactive for 20 hours a day. They tend to spend 2 hours walking and 50 minutes eating.
- Lionesses are the main hunters while lions are the main protectors.
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- A Lion mates for 10 to 15 seconds. They mate around 20 times a day for 4 days consecutive.
- Lions with dark mane tend to attract lionesses more. This shows how protective and authoritative the Lion is.
- Lions form coalitions to protect their territories. Famous coalitions are like the Mash pride of Masai Mara.
- Male Lions kill cubs of a lioness that it wants to mate with. This will prompt the female lion to seek mating in order to reproduce again.
- Lions roar goes up to 8km distance.
- Ruaha National Park hosts 10% of Worlds total population of lions.
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10 Bonus Facts About African Lions
- A group of lions is known as a pride and consists of around six related females, multiple cubs of both genders, and up to two males.
- Male lions are often excluded from the pride when they reach maturity. This because they tend to pose threat to the current lion that’s ruling the pride and territory.
- Cubs are born blind and are carried from den to den by the nape of their neck to prevent their scent from attracting predators.
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- One of the most famous lions was Elsa. She was kept by George and Joy Adamson, and was the subject of many films and documentaries, such as Born Free (1966).
- It’s easy to spot climbing lions in Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Tarangire National Park in Tanzania, Kapedo National Park in Uganda. This is due to the TseTse flies that dominate most of the Parks.
- On average an African lion needs to consume 5-7 kg of meat for each day they are alive and healthy.
- Lions can make a variety of sounds/voices to communicate which include roars, grunts, moans, growls, snarls, meows, purrs, hums, puffs, and woofs.
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- Lions hunt depending on the hunger it’s facing. They hunt big prey such as giraffes in prides in order to sustain themselves for long. They prey on buffalos, Topis, Wildebeests, Zebras, Antelopes, Warthogs, and many more.
- A Lion can run at speed of 80km/hr.
- Prey is often killed by strangulation, and not their sharp teeth.
- A lion’s tongue is as rough as sandpaper. It is covered in tiny spines, called papillae, which face backwards and are used to scrape meat from bones and dirt from fur. These spines make the tongue so rough that if a lion licked the back of your hand only a few times, you would be left without any skin!
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