Lion

• Lions are capable of killing leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and eating animals that have died from disease or other predators.
• Lions are able to eat up to 40 kg of meat in a single meal — about a quarter of their body weight — and use a tongue with sharp papillae to scrape meat off bones.
• The heaviest known lion weighed 313 kg and was a man-eater; it was shot in 1936 in Eastern Transvaal, South Africa.
• Lions avoid attacking adult giraffes due to the risk of injury, despite hunting in groups and being capable of killing large mammals.
• The lion is capable of producing sounds that vary in strength and pitch. It can roar, purr, hiss, cough, bark, and roar.
• Lions have canines up to 8 cm long, and their legs and jaws are very strong, enabling them to kill large animals.
• Male lions of the subspecies Panthera leo leo can reach a body length of 3–3.3 m and a weight of over 200 kg, making them among the largest lions of all subspecies.
• A lion’s roar can be heard up to 8 kilometres away, and sometimes a pride roars in chorus — it is the only cat species in which individuals roar together, including even the cubs.
• The lion is the only truly social species among all wild cats: it lives in permanent groups called prides, where females usually stay for life and young males are expelled.
• Male lions reach sexual maturity at 3 years old and by 4–5 years old are capable of displacing other males from any pride.
• Every lion has a unique pattern on its nose which, like fingerprints, allows researchers to identify individual animals.
• Lions begin to hunt effectively at two years old. Before that, they watch adults hunt but do not participate.
• Lions are among the few terrestrial predators with pronounced sexual dimorphism: lionesses are smaller and lack manes.
• The lioness moves her cubs to a new location several times a month to avoid the accumulation of scent in the den, which could attract predators.
• Not all males have a luxurious mane: in some regions, such as Tsavo, almost “maneless” lions occur, and the mane itself can reach 16 cm and serves as a signal of health and strength.
• Male lions often form coalitions of two or three (and sometimes more) individuals that together take over prides and defend territory, increasing their chances of success.
• Sometimes lions hunt very dangerous prey, including crocodiles and even young elephants, especially in certain regions where such prey is available.
• Newborn lion cubs are born with characteristic spots on their fur that help them camouflage in the grass, but these spots gradually disappear with age.