African Lion

The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the five large cats in the genus Panthera. Some males reach weights over 250 kilogrammes making it the second largest cat in the world after the tiger. Lions are unique among cats in many ways; it is the only cat with a tail tuft, they have an obvious sexual dimorphism (the males are easily distinguished from the females), it is the only cat that grows a mane (males only) and it is the only cat species with a truly social lifestyle, living in groups called prides.

Historically lions were distributed all over Africa (except the Sahara Desert and Congo basin) as well as in south-eastern Europe and the Middle-East to the Indian subcontinent. Today, except for a small population in the Gir Forest in western India, lions are confined to sub-Saharan Africa. Since the early 1990s, the lion population has decreased by roughly 43% and most of that was in the non-protected areas. The lion species is listed by IUCN as vulnerable and the West-African sub-species as critically endangered. Habitat loss and human conflicts are the main threats to the lion population. About 20,000 lions are estimated to remain today.

The Serengeti ecosystem is home to about 2,500 lions and therefore one of only a handful protected areas in Africa, with a healthy lion population, with an area that is large enough to sustain them on a long-term basis.

Lions are famously associated with the open savannas, but do also inhabit denser bush and woodlands.

A lion pride consists of related females and their offspring. Typically, in Serengeti, a lion pride has between 2 to 8 adult females plus their dependent offspring. They can also live solitary lives. The lions in a pride have an egalitarian system with no leader. Lions are territorial and the territory size depends on the quality of their area. Large prides can defend the best territories. In the Serengeti, the woodlands with rivers are the best areas, offering a year-round access to water, prey and shade. A small pride on the open plains need four to five times as large territory as a large pride in prime habitat.

Lions give birth to up to four cubs who are weaned at about 6 to 8 months of age. Cubs can be born any time of the year but are usually synchronized within a pride so that they can raise same age cubs together. Females in a pride cooperate in raising and nursing each other’s cubs. Young lions reach independence at about two years of age and sexual maturity at about 2.5 to 3 years of age. Female lions live about 14 to 16 years while males normally reach about 10 to 12 years of age. Old females reach menopause which makes lions one of the few animal species, except for humans, where this is known to occur.

A large variety of prey is on a lion’s menu, basically anything they can catch and often scavenge food from other predators. They are specialized to hunt large to very large prey, typically zebra, wildebeest and buffaloes. Occasionally they even take giraffes and hippos and very rarely even elephants. Smaller prey like warthogs and gazelles seasonally make up a large part of their diet. Lions often hunt in groups as well as alone.

The males are not pride members but form their own coalitions of up to 4 members who are often but not always related. Unlike in a female pride, usually there is a slight hierarchy among the males in a coalition. Male territories are larger than the female ones and may include two or three female pride territories. Thus, males often associate with more than one pride of females and father young with them. It is often thought that male lions never hunt. It is true that females hunt more often, but males do hunt. With their much larger body mass, they are better suited to bring down big prey like buffaloes.

The Serengeti Lion Project has been studying lion ecology since 1966. It is the first study of lions in the wild and the second longest running research project of any wild animal in the world. Initially, some very basic questions about lions were answered, e.g. what they eat, how they hunt and what the pride composition looks like. Over the decades, the project has learnt a lot more about lions, like the fact that males with darker manes are better at defending their cubs and therefore preferred by females. It was also this project that discovered that lion males are infanticidal after having taking over a territory form other males, killing their cubs so that the females will go into oestrus and have cubs with them instead. Lions roar to advertise their territory to rival lions as well as to let their pride member know where they are. They can recognize each other by the voices while roaring. Lions can even count the number of lions in a roaring pride, compare with the number of lions in their own pride and make the calculation whether they should attack or retreat.

On a daily basis, demographic data is collected of their movements, hunting success, reproduction and survival. The study area, usually containing around 26 prides, is about 2,000 square kilometres covering the short grass plains, the long grass plains as wells as the woodlands in the central and eastern parts of the national park. The lions are individually recognized using their unique patterns of whisker spots. A camera trapping grid with about 200 cameras has been set up in the study area catching a tremendous amount of data, not only of the lions, but also of their prey and competitors.