Lion Facts

Latin name: Panthera leo

Weights and weight records:

The average adult female weighs 160 kg. A really large female will reach 200 kg.

The average adult male weighs 230 kg, with really large males reaching 280kg.

The heaviest recorded wild lion in South Africa was a man-eating lion that was shot, just south of the Kruger National Park. He weighed 313kg.

The heaviest living lion today, if he is still alive, is one that lives in a Canadian zoo weighing at 366kg.

The World Record is 375kg!

Lifespan:

On average, the females live for 17 years and the males 15.

The oldest lion that I've heard of was a male in a Zoo in Sri Lanka that reached the age of 26 years. Lions living in Zoo's don't have the stress of defending their territories against other males and don't have to hunt for themselves, which could possibly be the reason for living a longer life span.

Feeding and temperature control:

The females hunt more than the males do. They are also more successful at hunting as they have a better camouflage and are far more paient.. Mature male lions are often seen by their prey from long distances, especially if they have full dark manes. The males are very capable of hunting and will often join the hunt when it involves large prey such as buffalo or even rhino and young elephant where extra weight and power is needed to pull down such large animals. Once a kill has been made the males will often take over. The males being stronger and larger will get more to eat, leaving the females to feed off the scraps or nothing at all.                                              

A big male lion will very easily eat 20kg of meat! It can eat equivalent to 10% of its own body mass. Once a lion has eaten as much as it can, it starts to breathe very heavily. With the stomach being so full, it puts pressure on the ribcage, making breathing more difficult. The heavy breathing cools down the lion and slows its metabolism down as well. On a full stomach they can go 4 days quite comfortably without having to hunt again.

The under-part of the lions’ belly is very light in colour, almost white and when their bellies are full they will often lay down on their backs exposing the lighter colour to the sun. The light colour absorbs less heat from the sun, thus keeping them cooler, especially in areas with limited shade.  Lying on their backs also helps with the uncomfortable pressure off their full stomachs.

On a hot day lions will often lick the pads of their feet, especially the front feet and then turn them upwards to cool them down in the breeze. 

Running Speed:

From standstill too sprinting, a lion can reach a speed of close on 80km/h in just 3 seconds! It can run at this speed for 300 - 400 meters.

 Interesting Lion Theory

In many game reserves in Africa there are over-populations of lion and what is often noticeable is how many of the pregnant females are giving birth to more male cubs than females. On average a mother will give birth to three cubs, normally 2 females and 1 male, but in over-populated areas this is often the reverse with the mother giving birth to 2 males and 1 female cub.  

Over a period of time as the population increases, there will be far too many males. At the age of about 3 and a half years these males will be forced out of their prides by their parents and then start living a nomadic life until they are old enough to fight for their own territories. Competition between the males is very tough with there being so many of them in the same area and not enough space, resulting in more fighting and thus an increase in the male mortality rate. Gradually the male lion population will drop, leaving only the strong and healthy ones behind.

At the same time, with there being so few female cubs, this will also slow the population growth as there are now fewer females to give birth to their own young in the future.

So nature seems to control its own animal numbers is some way or another.