Lions - FUNtastic Facts

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2 Contents Lions - FUNtastic Facts What s inside! All about lions What do lions look like? What s the mane for? How many kinds of lion? How big, tall, fast and far? Lion senses What s in a name! Population and distribution Habitat Evolution A cubs life Pride life Hunting What s for dinner? White lions Protection status Threats to lions Hope for lions

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5 Lions - FUNtastic Facts Book 1 : The Big Cat Series Learn all about lions with big beautiful pictures, comparison graphics, easy to read maps, and interesting facts and figures. A great resource for the family to have fun learning together

6 ~ To Danielle ~ Keep on saving the world, one cat at a time! Sign up to be the first to know when new FUNtastic Fact Books are being released: or follow us on Facebook Copyright 2016 Professor U. Knowitall All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.

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8 What s inside!

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12 All about lions The best known of all the Big Cats is the lion, one of the greatest hunters in Africa. This book of FUNtastic Facts about lions is part of my Big Cat Series. Turn the page and I will share with you some fascinating facts; beautiful photos; informative graphics and maps; and lots of information about how lions live, hunt and look after their families. Learning is fun and helps us understand our world and those we share it with. Enjoy Professor U. Knowitall

13 What do lions look like?

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15 Lions can vary in color depending on where they live. Lions in hot, dry areas are usually lighter in color, and those that live in more dense vegetation are usually darker. Male lions have a mane that covers their head and shoulders. A lion s body is very muscular and they have great strength. They walk on their toes and have soft pads on their feet so they can walk quietly. Lions have long whiskers just like all cats. At the root of each whisker is a black spot called a whisker spot. Every lion has a different spot pattern, just like we all have different fingerprints. This helps scientists and researchers tell one lion from another in the wild. Lions have long tails that end in a horny spine. But you can t see that, because it s covered in a tuft of hair.

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17 What s the mane for?

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19 Male lions are famous for their manes! The mane begins to grow when a lion is about 12 months old, and usually gets longer and darker as they get older. No one knows for sure why lions have manes, but it may be to protect them when they fight each other, and to show off. Lionesses seem to be more attracted to lions with big dark manes, probably because it makes them look larger and stronger.

20 There is more than one kind of lion! How many kinds of lion? There are two very different sub-species of lions living today the African lion and the Asiatic lion. Some scientists believe the African lion could actually be six or seven different sub-species, but not everyone can agree if this is correct. When we use the word lion in this book we will usually be referring to the African lion, but we will also tell you about the very rare Asiatic lion too.

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22 How big, tall, fast and far? The lion is the second biggest of the Big Cats (the tiger is bigger), and a male lion is usually a lot bigger than a female lion (known as a lioness). The male African lion is bigger than the male Asiatic lion but they all can run fast over short distances and jump further and higher than you would expect for such big animals. NEXT PAGE: Find out how big lions are >

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25 A lion s measurements

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27 You can see that the African lion is bigger than the Asiatic lion, and that females are usually smaller in both species. NEXT PAGE: How high, how fast and how heavy? >

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30 For such a big animal, the lion can really cover some distance when running or jumping.

31 Lion senses

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33 Sight A lion has large eyes and pupils three times the size of ours. But they can t move their eyes from side to side so have to move their whole head to see in different directions. They have a special coating on the back of their eyes that reflects moonlight and helps them see better at night.

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36 Taste Taste isn t as important to lions as it is to us. Recent research suggests that lions can t taste sweet things, so they won t steal your chocolate!

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39 Hearing Even though a lion has to turn its head to see, it can turn its ears in many different directions to hear what is going on all around them. They can hear sounds up to a mile away.

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41 Touch Lions rub their heads together and lick each other when they want to say hello. Their whiskers are very long and very sensitive and help them to feel things around them.

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43 Smell Lions have something called a Jacobson s organ. This is a small area on the roof of their mouth that helps them to taste smells in the air. That s why if a lion shows you its teeth and sticks out its tongue, it isn t being rude. It s trying to smell you to decide if you might be tasty for dinner.

44 What s in a name! Scientists group animals according to how they look and how they evolved. Lions are part of the scientific Family called Felidae, a name for all the different kinds of cats, big and small. Lions are in a subfamily called Pantherinae and the Genus Panthera, which includes most of the recognized Big Cats. All lions are of the species leo (that s why there are so many lions called Leo!) NEXT PAGE: Chart of the lion s Scientific Classification >

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47 Scientific classification

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49 This chart helps you to understand how scientists group animals. We can see lions are part of the Cat family (Felindae), and they are closely related to leopards, tigers and jaguars.

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51 Population and distribution Once upon a time lions roamed across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. But today they are mainly found in small groups in different parts of Africa, with a few small prides of Asiatic Lions still found in India. In the 1800s it was estimated there were 1.2 million lions in the world. In 1975 it was estimated there were 250,000 lions in Africa. Today scientists estimate there may be less than 30,000 lions in the wild. There are only about 400 Asiatic lions living in one location in India. NEXT PAGE: Where in the world do lions live >

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53 Population and distribution

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55 There are very few lions left in the wild, and if we don t find ways to protect them, one day there may be no lions left in the world.

56 Habitat

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58 Most African lions live in the savannah. A savannah is a large grassy plain with a few trees scattered around. Much of the time it is very hot and dry, with a short rainy season occurring each year. Some African lions live in open woodlands. Asiatic lions are only found in one place today, the Gir Forest National Park in India. It is a mix of forest, grasslands and rocky hills.

59 Evolution Scientists believe that all Big Cats evolved from common ancestors and that lions, leopards and jaguars are all closely related. Lions first appeared in East Africa and spread across Eurasia and North America. The first lions didn t have manes. But lions with manes seemed to appear about 300,000 years ago in Africa. NEXT PAGE: Find out more about the lion s evolution >

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62 Evolution of the lion

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64 Scientists believe that the domestic cat and the lion have the same ancestor, but that was around 10 million years.

65 A cubs life

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67 Baby lions are called cubs and usually two to four are born at the same time. This group of brothers and/or sisters is called a litter. Two or three lionesses may give birth around the same time so that means there can be six to twelve new babies in a pride. Although the cubs may have different mothers, they usually all have the same father.

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69 Cubs learn by playing together. Just like kittens, they love to chase anything that moves. This helps them learn how to hunt.

70 Pride life Lions are very social animals and live together in groups called prides, which is like one big family. The head of the family is a male lion and it s his job to protect the pride from danger and patrol his territory. But he doesn t have to do that all the time, so a lot of the day he just lies around and sleeps.

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72 Lionesses do most of the work. They look after the cubs and have to do most of the hunting too. That s because they are faster, more agile, and work well together as a group. For lion cubs life it s easier if you re a girl cub. They stay with family all their lives. But boy cubs leave home when they are around two years old. Many young males end up living alone, or with other males. When they get bigger they may challenge older males to try to become head of their own pride.

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75 Hunting Lionesses usually hunt as a group, mostly in the evening or early morning. Hunts are well organized. Sometimes they creep up on a herd, other times the younger lionesses chase animals towards the more experienced older lionesses so they can ambush their prey. By themselves lions aren t the best of the Big Cat hunters, but working as a group they are usually very efficient.

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77 What s for dinner? African lions eat lots of different animals. They like wildebeest, impala, zebra, giraffe and buffalo. Sometimes they even try to eat hippos and rhinos. Lions are scavengers too! Because they are bigger than hyenas, cheetahs and leopards they will sometimes steal their food. On the Serengeti plains more than 50% of a lion s food is scavenged.

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79 White lions

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81 The beautiful white lion is very rare in the wild and is mostly found in an area of South Africa called Timbavati. A white lion isn t an albino or a different species of lion. They are just born very pale, like some leopards are born almost black. Some people in Africa believe that a white lion is a child of a Sun God - if you see one you will be blessed with health, happiness and luck.

82 Protection status The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List describes the African lion as a threatened sub-species and as vulnerable. The Asiatic lion is even more threatened and considered endangered. This means that unless we protect the lion one day it may become extinct in the wild and you may only be able to see them in zoos.

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84 The greatest threat to lions is people. Threats to lions Throughout history lions have been hunted by young Maasai men to show they are brave enough to become a warrior. In Ancient Egypt the Pharaohs used to hunt lions and nearly killed all the lions in Egypt. In recent history lions were shot by hunters. Sometimes this was done to keep them away from farms and people, other times just for trophies. The growth of farms and cities across Africa and Asia has reduced the lion s natural habitat. Today, farmers and ranchers may still poison lions if they come onto their land. Poachers also kill lions so they can sell their skins, paws and other body parts as trophies.

85 Hope for lions Forty years ago there were 250,000 lions in the wild. Today there may be as few as 30,000. But there is hope for lions. People want to see lions in the wild, so this can attract tourists to visit the countries where they live. This creates jobs and brings money to those countries and it can be used to protect lions in the wild. Hopefully this will help make it possible for lions to continue to live in the wild so you can visit them one day!

86 I hope you had a FUNtastic time learning all about lions. If you have any feedback about the information in this book you can write to me at professor@knowitallfacts.com If you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you, then I d love to see your reviews and hear your feedback! Why not visit my website and sign up to be the first to know when new FUNtastic Fact Books are being released.

87 Research All material for this book has been researched using a diverse range of online resources. It has been cross-referenced against as many sources as possible to ensure integrity of facts. Please contact us at professor@knowitall.com if you feel any facts are incorrect. Photos Unless indicated below, all photos are from