97 Fun Facts About Lions

How long does a lion typically live in the wild, as opposed to in a zoo?

12-17 years in the wild; in captivity they can pass twenty, and three sibling lions at Honolulu Zoo reached 22 in 2007.

What is the primary role of male lions in a pride?

Defending territory is the males' main job: they patrol the edges of the pride range, roar and scent-mark, and fight off rival coalitions, while the lionesses do most of the hunting.

At roughly what age does a male lion's mane reach its full size?

Around 4 years: the mane starts growing when testosterone rises in adolescence and is full-sized by about age four, though almost all males in Benin's Pendjari National Park stay maneless or nearly so.

For roughly how much of each day are lions inactive?

About 20 hours of rest leaves an average of two hours a day walking and fifty minutes eating.

What top speed did a 2018 study record for a running lion?

About 46 mph (74 km/h) was the top speed recorded in a 2018 study; typical hunting bursts are only 30-37 mph, so lions stalk to within a short distance before charging.

How far can a lion's roar be heard?

Up to 5 miles (8 km): a lion's roar carries that far across open savanna, mostly at night, and advertises the pride's territory to rivals and scattered pride members.

What is the typical size of a lioness's litter?

Litters are 1-4 cubs, born in a thicket, reed-bed or cave away from the pride; the mother moves them to a new den several times a month so scent does not build up.

What commonly befalls a pride's young cubs when a rival coalition ousts the resident males?

The new male often kills them: lionesses do not come back into oestrus until their cubs mature or die, so infanticide brings them back into breeding condition sooner for the new coalition.

What is the approximate weight of an adult male African lion?

330-550 lbs (150-250 kg) is the adult male range; females weigh roughly 265-400 pounds, and among cats only the tiger is larger.

Male lions with which mane trait have greater reproductive success and hold their place in a pride longer?

Darker manes: in Serengeti studies dark-maned males held prides longer and sired more surviving cubs, carrying higher testosterone but suffering more heat stress; cool zoo climates also produce heavier manes.

In which Indian state can you find the last remaining wild Asiatic lions?

Gujarat: the Gir Forest and surrounding Saurashtra districts are the Asiatic lion's only wild home; a 2020 census counted 674 lions, and the state long resisted relocating any to Madhya Pradesh.

How long is a lioness pregnant?

About 110 days: lion gestation runs roughly 100-115 days, after which the lioness gives birth in a secluded den away from the pride.

Which country's Serengeti National Park holds the largest lion population in Africa?

Tanzania: the Serengeti ecosystem holds around 3,000 lions, the largest population on the continent; a 1994 canine distemper outbreak there killed roughly a third of the park's lions.

Lion cubs are born with what markings, which fade as they grow up?

Faint spots can persist on the legs and underparts into adulthood; the tail tuft, by contrast, is absent at birth and only appears at about five and a half months.

What may be hidden inside the dark tuft at the tip of some lions' tails?

A small hard spur, roughly 5 mm long, lies hidden in the tail tuft of some lions; the tuft itself only appears at about five months of age, and the spur's function is unknown.

What is the IUCN Red List conservation status of the African lion?

Vulnerable: the IUCN assessment found lion numbers fell about 43 percent between 1993 and 2014, driven by habitat loss, prey depletion, and conflict with people.

Roughly how many lions are estimated to remain in the wild?

About 20,000: most estimates put wild lions at 20,000-25,000, down from the roughly 200,000 Norman Myers estimated in 1975, with the steepest losses in West and Central Africa.

Which famous lion was controversially killed by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe in 2015?

Cecil, a black-maned Hwange National Park lion wearing a research collar, was shot with an arrow by American dentist Walter Palmer in July 2015 and killed hours later; Palmer was never charged.

What is a 'coalition' in lion social behavior?

Serengeti research found nomadic coalitions gain residency in a pride between 3.5 and 7.3 years of age, and larger coalitions hold territory longer.

How long do young male lions typically stay with their birth pride before being expelled?

2-3 years: young males leave or are driven from their birth pride as they near maturity, then spend years as nomads, often in a coalition of brothers, before winning a pride of their own.

Which Egyptian goddess has the head of a lioness?

Sekhmet, the lioness-headed warrior goddess of Memphis whose name means 'She Who Is Powerful', was also a goddess of plague and healing.

The Lion of Judah was the hereditary title of which country's Solomonic emperors?

Ethiopia: the Solomonic dynasty claimed descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba through the tribe of Judah, and Haile Selassie styled himself Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

Which king, crowned in 1189, was called 'the Lionheart' for his reputation as a warrior?

Richard I, crowned at Westminster in September 1189, earned the name Coeur de Lion for his prowess as a commander; his second great seal of 1198 introduced the three lions passant guardant.

Three lions appear on the coat of arms of which country's football (soccer) team?

England: the three lions passant guardant, taken from the royal arms, have been on the shirt since the first international against Scotland in 1872, and the Euro 96 anthem 'Three Lions' fixed the nickname.

What famous real-life lioness became the subject of the book and film 'Born Free'?

Elsa was the lioness Joy and George Adamson raised in Kenya after George shot her mother in self-defence in 1956; her two sisters went to Rotterdam Zoo while Elsa was taught to hunt and released.

What is the Swahili word for lion, famously used in 'The Lion King'?

Simba is Swahili for lion; the film's other names are Swahili too, with rafiki meaning friend, pumbaa meaning foolish and hakuna matata meaning no worries.

Whose palace gates were guarded by winged, human-headed lions?

The Assyrians: pairs of lamassu, winged bulls or lions with human heads, flanked palace gates at Nimrud, Khorsabad and Nineveh; the winged human-headed motif is older, recorded at Ebla around 3000 BC.

The Tsavo man-eaters were a pair of lions infamous for killing railway workers in which country?

Kenya: the two maneless males killed workers building the Uganda Railway bridge over the Tsavo River in 1898 until Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson shot them; his book claimed 135 victims.

Which type of habitat do African lions primarily occupy?

Grasslands and savannas: lions favour open plains, scrub along rivers and open woodland with bushes, and are absent from rainforest and the interior of the Sahara.

Lion cubs are born blind; roughly how long after birth do their eyes open?

About 7 days: cubs are born blind and open their eyes around a week later; newborns weigh 1.2-2.1 kg, crawl a day or two after birth and walk at about three weeks.

Panthera spelaea, an extinct Ice Age cat of Eurasia and North America, is commonly called what?

Cave lion: Panthera spelaea ranged from Europe across Siberia into Alaska and the Yukon, and died out about 13,000 years ago in the end-Pleistocene extinction.

The Barbary lion, now extinct in the wild, was native to which region?

Genetically it does not differ significantly from the Asiatic lion, and its long mane may reflect the cold winters of the Atlas Mountains.

What anatomical feature do Asiatic lions have that distinguishes them from African lions?

A longitudinal fold of skin along the belly is the Asiatic lion's most distinctive feature; it also has a sparser mane on average and a larger tail tuft, and its whole wild population lives in and around India's Gir Forest.

Roughly how many million years ago did the Panthera lineage split from the cat family's common ancestor?

About 10.8 million years ago, by a widely cited 2006 molecular study of cat phylogeny; the earliest fossils recognisable as lions, from Olduvai Gorge, are up to 2 million years old.

What is a liger?

A lion-tiger hybrid with a lion father and a tigress mother; ligers grow larger than either parent and exist only in captivity, since lion and tiger ranges no longer overlap in the wild.

How many teeth does an adult lion have?

30 teeth: like all cats, an adult lion has 30, including four long canines for gripping and killing and carnassial cheek teeth that shear meat, which lions swallow in chunks rather than chew.

What rare genetic condition causes 'white lions' to exist?

Leucism, a recessive mutation that reduces pigment in the fur but not the eyes or skin, unlike albinism; white lions occur naturally around the Timbavati reserve beside Kruger in South Africa.

Which of these animals is not one of Africa's 'Big Five' alongside the lion?

Big-game hunters coined the term for the five animals hardest to hunt on foot; the cheetah never made the list.

Which '4 Musketeers' coalition member became the Maasai Mara's most famous lion?

Scarface, named for the wound over his right eye, led the Musketeers with Morani, Sikio and Hunter, ruled several prides for years, and died of natural causes in June 2021 aged about 14.

Though the decline is not fully understood, which threat is considered the greatest cause for concern for Africa's lions?

Habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict top the list; livestock losses to lions fall sharply where herders keep animals in improved enclosures.

How do lions mark their territory?

By spraying urine and scraping the ground: males scent-mark bushes and trees along the range and rake the soil; roaring advertises the territory too, and prides prize 'hotspots' near river confluences.

Which researcher is known as the 'Lion Whisperer' for living closely with lions in South Africa?

Kevin Richardson, the self-taught South African sanctuary owner, is the 'Lion Whisperer' of YouTube fame; he also works with hyenas and a black leopard.

The Mapogo coalition of six male lions dominated which South African region between 2006 and 2012?

Sabi Sand, the private reserve on Kruger's western border: the six Mapogo males took the area in 2006 and killed roughly 40 other lions, including cubs, females and rival males, during their reign.

What throat feature, shared by all Panthera species, helps enable a lion to roar?

An incompletely ossified hyoid, shared by all Panthera, lets the larynx hang low and resonate; the lion's large vocal folds also carry a fibro-elastic pad, and the snow leopard alone among Panthera cannot roar.

How many victims are the Njombe man-eating lions estimated to have killed between 1932 and 1947?

1,500 or more: the Njombe pride of southern Tanganyika is blamed for some 1,500 deaths between 1932 and 1947, the worst recorded series of lion attacks, before game warden George Rushby shot the lions; some researchers call the toll inflated.

Skeletal muscle makes up roughly what share of a lion's body weight, the highest of any mammal?

59%: a lion's skeletal muscle makes up about 58.8 percent of its body weight, the highest share among mammals, built for short explosive bursts rather than stamina.

Which naturalist's study The Serengeti Lion won the 1973 National Book Award in Science?

George Schaller: he and his wife Kay moved to the Serengeti in 1966 for a three-year study of lion social behaviour, and The Serengeti Lion won the 1973 National Book Award in Science.

In what year was the last recorded shooting of a wild Barbary lion, in Morocco's Atlas Mountains?

1942: a wild Barbary lion shot on the Moroccan side of the Atlas that year is the last recorded, though small relict groups may have survived in remote mountains of Algeria and Morocco into the 1960s.

The much-filmed 'Marsh Pride' of lions lives in which Kenyan wildlife area?

Masai Mara: the Marsh Pride lives around Musiara Marsh in the reserve; Jonathan Scott has followed them since 1977, the BBC's Big Cat Diary made them famous, and several were poisoned by herders in December 2015.

Which London department store sold the lion cub Christian to two Australians in 1969?

Harrods: the Knightsbridge store's exotic-animals department sold the cub to John Rendall and Ace Bourke, who kept him at their King's Road furniture shop until George Adamson rewilded him at Kora; their 1971 reunion later went viral.

Which publicist chose the lion as Goldwyn Pictures' mascot in 1916, honoring his college?

Dietz was a Columbia University graduate, and Columbia's mascot is a lion; the roaring cat survived the 1924 merger into MGM.

Which was the only MGM logo lion that never roared on screen?

Slats fronted silent black-and-white films from 1924 to 1928 and merely looked around; his successor Jackie was the first to be heard.

The Lion Capital of Ashoka, now India's state emblem, topped a pillar at which site?

The capital was unearthed in the 1904-05 excavations and is displayed in the Sarnath Museum, the oldest site museum of the Archaeological Survey of India.

Who urged the Lions Clubs in 1925 to become 'Knights of the Blind'?

Helen Keller, addressing the Lions' 1925 convention at Cedar Point, Ohio, asked them to become 'Knights of the Blind in the crusade against darkness', setting the organization's long focus on sight.

The 40,000-year-old Lion-man figurine from Hohlenstein-Stadel was carved from what?

Mammoth ivory: the Lowenmensch, found in a German cave in 1939 and pieced together over decades from hundreds of fragments, stands about 31 cm tall and is displayed in Museum Ulm.

The Lion of Lucerne honours Swiss Guards killed in 1792 defending which Paris palace?

The Tuileries: on 10 August 1792 the Swiss Guards defending the Tuileries Palace were overwhelmed and around 760 died; Bertel Thorvaldsen designed the dying lion, hewn into a former sandstone quarry in 1820-21.

Who called the Lion of Lucerne 'the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world'?

Twain wrote the line in 1880 in A Tramp Abroad, describing the wounded lion carved from the living rock of a cliff.

The Lion's Mound at Waterloo marks where which royal heir was believed wounded in 1815?

His father King William I of the Netherlands ordered the artificial hill in 1820; the cast-iron lion was finished in 1826.

The 'Sickle' of stars forming Leo's head is often said to look like a backwards what?

A question mark: six stars trace the Sickle asterism, a backwards question mark that outlines the Lion's head and mane; Leo is one of the few constellations whose shape resembles its namesake.

Which star in Leo did Babylonian astronomers place 'at the breast of the Lion'?

Regulus, Alpha Leonis, was the Babylonian 'King' star standing at the Lion's breast; its Latin name means 'little king', and it lies almost on the ecliptic, so the Moon regularly passes it.

In a pair of Chinese guardian lions, what does the male traditionally rest a paw on?

The female restrains a cub instead; facing the entrance, the male stands on the right and the female on the left.

The Southern Lion dance, the style best known outside China, originated in which province?

Guangdong: the Southern or Cantonese lion spread worldwide with the southern Chinese diaspora; its single-horned head is linked to the legend of the monster Nian.

Which prince, according to the Malay Annals, named Singapura after sighting a lion?

Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan prince, is said in the Malay Annals to have landed on Temasek around 1299, seen a lion-like beast and founded Singapura, the lion city; the Merlion's head recalls the tale.

On Sri Lanka's flag, what does the golden lion hold in its right forepaw?

The kastane sword sits on a maroon field with a bo leaf in each corner; the orange and green stripes represent the Tamil and Moor minorities.

C.S. Lewis's Aslan takes his name from the word for 'lion' in which language?

Aslan means 'lion' in Turkish; he is the only character to appear in all seven Chronicles of Narnia.

Who played the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz?

Bert Lahr, the vaudeville and Broadway comic, had many of his trademark mannerisms written into the part; his son John Lahr titled his 1969 biography Notes on a Cowardly Lion.

In the 2016 film Lion, what tool does Saroo use to hunt for his lost Indian hometown?

Google Earth: Saroo, separated from his brother at a train station at age five and adopted by Tasmanians, spends years scanning satellite imagery until he recognises his hometown; the film adapts his memoir A Long Way Home.

The Lions NFL team took its name in 1934 as a nod to which other local club?

The Detroit Tigers: owner George Richards wanted a name to match the city's baseball club, calling the lion 'the monarch of the jungle'; the franchise began as the Portsmouth Spartans and has played on Thanksgiving since 1934.

Roman lawyers used 'societas leonina', from Aesop's lion's-share fable, to mean what?

A one-sided partnership, where one party takes the gains and the other bears the losses: in the fable the lion keeps every portion of the shared kill, and Phaedrus opened his version 'Partnership with the mighty is never trustworthy'.

In the Book of Daniel, which ruler reluctantly has Daniel thrown into the lions' den?

Darius the Mede was tricked by rivals into decreeing a 30-day ban on prayer to anyone but himself; Daniel later credits an angel with shutting the lions' jaws.

In the classical tale, what does the runaway slave Androcles remove from a lion's paw?

A large thorn: Androcles pulls it from the lion's paw while sheltering in its cave, and the grateful beast later spares him in the arena; the earliest surviving version is in Aulus Gellius's 2nd-century Attic Nights.

Who sculpted the four bronze lions guarding Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square?

Though part of the original design, the lions were only added in 1867; Landseer had a dead lion from London Zoo brought to his studio as a model.

Hercules, the liger Guinness recognised in 2013 as the largest living cat, weighed about how much?

922 lb (418 kg): Hercules, bred at Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina, measured 3.33 m long and 1.25 m at the shoulder for his 2013 Guinness entry as the largest living cat.

Frasier the 'Sensuous Lion', sire of 35 cubs in California, was bought in 1970 from what?

A bankrupt Mexican circus: Lion Country Safari in Irvine bought the toothless, roughly 19-year-old lion in 1970; he got all six of his lionesses pregnant within weeks and became a national celebrity before dying in 1972.

The bronze winged Lion of Venice was hauled off to Paris after whose 1797 conquest?

Napoleon Bonaparte took it to Paris after ending the Venetian Republic in 1797; it came back after his fall in 1815, broken into about 20 pieces, and lead-isotope analysis suggests its ancient core bronze was cast in China.

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, 'the Lion of the North', fell at which 1632 battle?

His side won the day but lost its leader; Sweden still marks 6 November with a special Gustavus Adolphus pastry.

Who gave the lion its first scientific name, Felis leo, in 1758?

Carl Linnaeus named the lion Felis leo in the 1758 tenth edition of Systema Naturae; Lorenz Oken coined the genus Panthera in 1816, giving the modern name Panthera leo.

Ngorongoro Crater's famously inbred lion population numbered about how many in 2001?

62: the crater's lions numbered around 62 in 2001; the crater walls act as a natural enclosure, so very few outside males bring in new bloodlines, and the population has been inbred since a crash in the 1960s.

Kimba the White Lion, known in Japan as Jungle Emperor, was created by which manga artist?

Osamu Tezuka, the 'god of manga', created Jungle Emperor, serialised 1950-54 and animated in 1965; its similarities to Disney's 1994 The Lion King prompted a protest letter signed by hundreds of Japanese cartoonists.

The Lion and Sun was removed from which country's flag after its 1979 revolution?

Iran: the Lion and Sun had flown on Persian flags since the Qajar era and was dropped after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, replaced by the stylised 'Allah' emblem adopted in 1980.

Which carmaker's lion logo was first trademarked in 1858, originally for saw blades?

Peugeot's early lion walked on an arrow to symbolise the speed, strength and flexibility of the blades, decades before the family built cars.

Which disease, caught from infected buffalo, has spread through Kruger National Park's lions?

Bovine tuberculosis, introduced by cattle, spread through Kruger's buffalo and then to the lions that eat them; infected lions waste away, and by the 2000s most prides in the southern park carried it.

Followers of which movement revere the Lion of Judah as a symbol of Haile Selassie I?

Rastafari: the movement that arose in 1930s Jamaica holds Haile Selassie I to be divine and reads the Lion of Judah of Genesis 49:9 and Revelation 5:5 as references to him; he was deposed in 1974.

A lioness's bite force at the canine teeth has been measured at roughly how many newtons?

About 1,600 N: estimates of a lion's bite force at the canines run around 1,600-1,800 newtons, used in a clamping bite to the throat or muzzle after a short rush and final leap.

Which pharaoh is credited in a c. 1380 BC inscription with killing 102 lions in ten years?

Amenhotep III: his commemorative 'lion-hunt scarabs' boast that he killed 102 lions with his own arrows in the first ten years of his reign, around 1380 BC.

In heraldry, what is a lion rearing on its hind legs with forepaws raised called?

Rampant: a lion rampant rears on its hind legs with forepaws raised, as on the Royal Banner of Scotland, while passant means walking, couchant lying down and sejant sitting.

In which national park have large prides been seen hunting young elephants?

Chobe, in Botswana: prides of up to 30 lions around Savuti have been filmed killing elephants, including calves, juveniles and even subadults up to around 15 years old, usually in the dry season.

In 1962 the Ngorongoro Crater's lions were ravaged by an outbreak of what?

Stable flies: a 1962 plague of biting Stomoxys flies after heavy rains left the crater's lions emaciated and covered in bloody bare patches, and the population fell from about 70 to 15.

Lions, common in ancient Greece in Herodotus's day, were wiped out there by roughly when?

AD 100: Herodotus reported lions common in Greece in 480 BC, attacking Xerxes' baggage camels, Aristotle considered them rare by 300 BC, and by about AD 100 they had been wiped out.

Which 1996 film, starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas, dramatised the Tsavo man-eaters?

The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) cast Val Kilmer as Patterson and Michael Douglas as a fictional hunter, Remington; the title uses the names Tsavo workers reportedly gave the two lions.

The Tsavo man-eaters' skins were sold for $5,000 in 1924 to which institution?

Field Museum, Chicago: Patterson sold the skins and skulls to the museum for $5,000 in 1924, and the pair were rebuilt as taxidermy mounts, one standing and one crouching, for its mammal hall.

Gir National Park was set up in 1965 on the former private hunting grounds of which ruler?

The Nawab of Junagadh: the princely state's rulers had protected the last lions since about 1900, when Viceroy Lord Curzon declined to hunt one and urged their conservation, and the sanctuary on their hunting grounds was declared in 1965.

Which Madhya Pradesh national park was prepared as a second home for Asiatic lions?

Kuno was readied from the 1990s as a second home for Gir's lions, and India's Supreme Court ordered the move in 2013, but Gujarat never sent any; African cheetahs were released there in 2022 instead.

Disney's The Lion King borrows its plot chiefly from which Shakespeare play?

Hamlet was the main model: a prince whose uncle murders his father the king and seizes the throne, then returns to avenge him; the filmmakers also cited the Bible's Joseph and Moses stories.

Who voiced the scheming Scar in the 1994 animated The Lion King?

Jeremy Irons, fresh from his Oscar for Reversal of Fortune, voiced Scar; the villain's line 'You have no idea' nods to that film, and Jim Cummings finished 'Be Prepared' when Irons's voice gave out.

Before Elton John, which act did Tim Rice invite to write the songs for The Lion King?

ABBA: Tim Rice first approached Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, his Chess collaborators, but Andersson was tied up with the musical Kristina fran Duvemala, so Rice turned to Elton John.

A study of 1,000 lion attacks in East Africa found them surging in the weeks after what?

The full moon: in the days after it the Moon rises later each night, leaving the early evening dark, and the study of attacks in Tanzania found most victims were taken soon after dusk in that window.