Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Speices profile: Lion


Hi again, welcome to animals under threat, today for our first blog post, we will be looking at the African lion. The lion, nickname “king of the jungle” or “king of the beast” is under threat from both human and environmental factors. The lion is also the only big cat to live in groups called prides. 


The lion (Panthera leo) is the largest cat species found in Africa living on the grassy plains or open savannah. The lion is considered to be an apex predator, but will scavenger if opportunities presents itself. A pride is formed around a single male lion (or two if brothers) with lioness (female lions) and the cubs he has sired. 


The lion is characterized by their tawny brown short haired coats with their tail ending with a dark tuff (lion 2018). Male lion is recognized by their large black or tawny manes and roar although some male lions have small manes or none due to genetics. Lioness are smaller and lack manes do most of the hunting and caring for cubs although male lions will help the lioness hunt larger prey and play with their cubs, allowing them to practice their hunting skills on him. Females share the caring responsibility of cubs between each other allowing the lioness to take a break from watching the cubs (Packer, 2010).
Male lion by Kevin Pluck and female lioness by unknown

Lioness will not allow any females to join the pride if they are unrelated as they are seen as a threat and will call for others to help drive the intruder out of their territory. Male lions defend their pride from roving males as they are also a threat to his cubs and females. If a new male defeats or kills the old male, he will kill the cubs of the previous male and mate with the females to ensure that only his cubs are sired (Packer, 2010). Lions have a wide variety of facial expressions as a lion that is content would its ears erect, eyes closed and drooping lips, however an agitated lion would have its ears back, teeth bared and eyes narrowed. Peaceful gestures include head rubbing and licking (Jackson & Jackson,2010).


Pictures taken by unknown

The lion is under threat by humans as many have killed each year in retaliation for loss of livestock and trophy hunting. There is also a concern about lions been hunted for parts in Nigeria and may replace tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicine (Parker,2010). Lions also have to compete against spotted hyenas for territory and food as hyenas can drive a pride of lions away from a kill and can be a threat to females and their cubs (Jackson & Jackson,2010). Loss of habitat and increasing drought conditions is also a big issue for lions as it leads to them been forced to enter human settlements leading to human conflict (Jackson & Jackson,2010).

Hopefully this information may help people understand that even though the lion is not an endangered species, they still under threat from people and their own environment. Next time, we will be covering an unusual lizard from Africa, the Common Agama.

References
Packer, C. 2010, "Lions", Current Biology, vol. 20, no. 14, pp. R590-R591.
Jackson, D. & Jackson, D. 2010, Lion, Reaktion Books, Limited, London; Chicago;.


Picture references



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