Lion Facts and Mating Season – Everything You need to know.

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Lion Facts

• Lions are smaller than tigers. Yes, it is true. Lions are the second largest big cat after the tiger.
• Lion cubs weigh just 1.5 kg when they are born and they have spots on their skins. The spots blot out when they grow older.
• A male lion’s roar can be heard from 5- 8 km away. Males have a deeper roar than the lionesses.
• As a result of all the fights they get into, a male lion usually lives around 10 years in the wild, while in captivity they live to about 20 years.
• Male lions don’t hunt often because their mane causes them to overheat
• A single swipe of a lions paw can break a zebras spine

There are eight types of lions species found on earth

• Barbary lion
• Asiatic lion
• West African lion
• Masai lion
• Congo lion
• Southwest African lion
• Transvaal lion
• Ethiopian lion

Except for the Asiatic lions, all are inhabitants of the African continent.

• A good gauge of a male lion’s age is the darkness of his mane. The darker the mane, the older the lion. Male lions are the only big cat species with manes
• The most brutal aspect of a Lion’s life, when taking over new territory and pride, some male lions will form a “coalition,” or a group of 3 or 4 males. They will fight the resident male lion, often to the death, and kill all his cubs.
• Another surprising fact is lions don’t live in the jungle. Lions mostly live on grasslands and savannahs. Sometimes they inhabit forests, shrubland, and desert. But never the jungle.
• Lions are extinct in 26 countries they previously roamed – This list includes Congo, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Gabon, Nigeria Gambia, Iraq, etc.
• Lions are the only cats to live in social groups called “pride.” all other members of the feline family are solitary. Why do lions live in Pride?
• A lion’s Nightvision is 6x better than that of a humans

Lions sleep for around 16 to 20 hours a day.

All the females are usually related as they remain with the pride they were born into. Males on the other hand tend to go off on their own and when they are old enough, attempt to create their own pride. 8 Most Unique Lions in the world

Mating Season of Lion

Female and male lions usually associate only for a few days when mating, do their thing, and then go their separate ways. No strings attached!

While on the subject of mating, which typically lasts three to six days, they usually do not hunt, but only drink water.

Females in the pride all tend to mate roughly at the same time and this means they also give birth generally at about the same time. Why are lions so strong?

When the Lionesses are in heat, they have a lot of sex with the male lion at once in a single day. Lions mate 20 to 40 times and the Lioness is the one who demands to mate. So if the male is tired and can’t keep up with her, She bites his private.

The cubs are taken care of by all the females in pride and it is perfectly normal for cubs to nurse from a female that is not their mother.

Why Do Male Lions Kill Their Cubs?

Infanticide.

When referring to the wild world, you may come across the term ‘infanticide’.

This happens when an adult, typically a male kills a young member of the same species.

The often-overlooked method of ensuring the survival of the fittest is infanticide.

Throughout the animal kingdom, it has been observed in a number of animals, most notably in primates.

In addition to fish, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and even unpredictable animals like hippos, it also includes mammals like dolphins.

Scientific research shows it can provide benefits to the perpetrator, such as increased reproductive opportunities, access to limited resources, direct nutritional benefits, or the prevention of misdirected parental care.

we’ll explain why lions frequently commit the crime of infanticide.

There may be a lot of reasons for lions to kill their cubs.

Male lions in the wild

Male lions in the wild have reportedly shown little interest in raising the young of another lion. Therefore, they choose to kill them or expel them from the pride.

Additionally, it has been observed in the wild that young male lions and other nomadic male lions would frequently attempt to murder the pups of other lionesses if the cubs are not properly secured by their parents.

Lions that are alone constantly seek to form their own pride.

As a result, they constantly attempt to engage in combat with the male lions of pride in order to force them out of the area and seize control over the females.

Once they are successful, reproduction becomes their primary concern.

Therefore, they must kill the newborn cubs in order to reproduce and mate with the females because female lions can become pregnant when they have no pups to care for.

Because of this, it frequently occurs that the new male would attempt to murder the cubs so that the females could choose to mate with him.

Additionally, it has been observed that male lions have been known to kill cubs that are not directly related to them, such as the young of their brothers or cousins.

Infanticide by males

Since they are not biologically connected to the pride’s cubs and do not want to spend energy making sure that other lions’ genes will be passed on, a new coalition of males that takes control of the pride almost usually kills the cubs.

Killing the cubs allows the male lions to reproduce because female lions will not be open to mating while they are nursing.

Although, as in other species, the female will attempt to prevent infanticide by hiding or directly defending their cubs.

The lionesses are typically more successful at protecting older cubs because they would be leaving the pride sooner.

The lions that are migrating seem to target any cubs that are roughly nine months old or younger because the mother will still be nursing them.

Since lionesses only give birth once every two years and males only have an average of two years to pass on their genes, there is strong selective pressure on males to adopt this behavior.

In fact, it is estimated that a quarter of cubs dying in the first year of life are victims of infanticide.

Infanticide by females

It has been observed that the mother of lion cubs will deliberately abandon her litter when only one cub is left, a practice known as filial infanticide.

According to research, females that abandon single cubs in favor of larger litters will have more success reproducing throughout their lives.

It is also noted that abandonment can also occur if the cub is handicapped, weak or suffering from illness.

Of course, lions also take very good care of their offspring. Lions aggressively and truly protect the pride’s cubs while the lionesses go on the hunt.

Additionally, lionesses will care for their babies until they are two or three years old.

Intruding males that try to take control of the pride, claim the territory, or attempt to kill the cubs might be met with a bloody battle by lions and lionesses who really care for their young.

Lionesses care for their cub

Lionesses care for their cub as it is well seen in the wild that she gives birth to her cubs away from the pride.

The mother of a lion cub hides the cubs from other animals, even her own pride, because the babies are born utterly defenseless and must be protected from predators and intruders.

She finally meets her pride when the cubs are around eight weeks old. That is how much attention they provide them beginning at birth.

The lionesses in the pride equally care for each other’s cubs. They provide excellent food, care, and protection for each other’s offspring.

There may be several reasons why male lions don’t like cubs.

In comparison, an intruder male lion would always hate the cubs of another pride and be ready to kill those cubs if the cubs are not properly secured.

A father lion will constantly attempt to defend his cubs.

According to zoologists and wildlife researchers

According to zoologists and wildlife researchers, the most likely explanation is that the male lions don’t like cubs that aren’t theirs and kill the cubs to force the females back into estrus so they can mate.

Additionally, after assuming control of a new pride, intruder male lions are found to hate the pride’s cubs since they are unable to tolerate waiting around without having sex with the lioness.

When assuming control of a new pride, intruder males won’t be hanging around until the cubs are fully grown.

It is also frequently observed in the wild that the new dominant and invading male will always choose to murder the offspring that are not their own after taking control of the pride and beginning a new generation that is genetically their own.

Females are smart, so they take action when they notice that an outside male has taken control of the pride.

So, they opt to better mate with the new males, and bring their cubs out later making the male think that these are his cubs.

This saves the cubs from getting killed. If you examine this from a genetic perspective, you’ll discover that, if the cubs are not properly secured, the new male almost invariably kills the new pride cubs after taking over the pride.

In order to prevent the genes of the other lions from being passed on, this selection carefully removes the cubs that are not biologically related.

This guarantees the lineage’s continuation with enough long-term survival chances.