OUR PLANET
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT LIONS
. Lions are native to Africa and Northwest India
. The common habitat are both open plains and open woodlands
. The diet of consists of meat - both large and small game
. The name of a male is referred to as a lion or tom
. The name of a female is referred to as a she-lion or lioness
. The name or offspring, or a baby Lion, is a cub, whelp or lionet who live in a lions den
. The average size of a litter is two
. The collective name for a group of Lions is a pride
. The sound made by a Lion is referred to as a roar or growl
. Fully grown males reach the height of 4 feet
. An adult male weighs between 330-530 pounds
. Lions are active during and at night but they prefer hunting at night
. A Lions lifespan is 15 years in the wild
. Cross- breeding between lions and tigers resulting in a 'tiglon'
. The lion is the second biggest cat in the world
. A lion can run up to a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per hour
. There are seven different species of Lions:
.African lion
.Asiatic lion
.American Lion
.Mountain Lion
.Cave lion
.White lion
. The females of the pride do most of the hunting, while the males sleep, get first pick of the dinner, and defend the pride's
territory from invaders
. A lion's roar can be heard up to 8km away – it's the loudest of any big cat.
. With eyes that are six times more sensitive to light than ours, lions are most active at night.
. A lion will only make one kill for every five attempts, so scavenging is an important source of food.
. In a single sitting an adult may consume 30kg of meat (a wildebeest weighs about 200kg).
. It has been estimated that a lion will copulate 3,000 times for every young that reaches one year old.
. Lions and other big cats have few sweat glands but can pant up to 200 times per minute to cool down.
. Individual lions can be identified by a unique pattern of whisker spots.
Free Foundation & the Born Free Movie
The Born Free Foundation is strongly associated with
lions / lioness due to the story of Elsa, the lioness, whose story
was told by Joy and George Adamson and immortalised in the
famous Movie 'Born Free' starring Virginia McKenna. Virginia
McKenna played the role of Joy Adamson working with lions to
portray the story of returning the orphaned lioness 'Elsa' to the
wild.
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