- Male: Avg. Length: 9 ft. (2.7 meters), weight: 350-400 lbs. (157-180
Kg.).
Height: 36 in. (90cm.)
Female: Avg. Length: 8 ft. (2.4 meters), weight: 250-300 lbs. (112.5-136
Kg.).
Height: 30 in. (75 cm)
(Lengths include the tail. Height measured at the shoulder.)
- No. of teeth: 30
- Lifespan: 12 years in the wild, 20 years in captivity. Females typically
live a few more years in the wild.
- Maximum speed: 30 mph over 50 yds. ( 48 kph. over 46 m.)
- Biggest Jump: 12 ft. (3.7 m.) vertical, 36 ft. (10.8 m.) horizontal
- .Gestation period: 105-115 days.
- The lion is a member of the cat family, and shares many common traits
of this family.
- The body is very muscular, with less bone mass than other animals
of comparable size.
- The claw on a large lion can be 1 1/2 inches (38 mm) or more from
base to tip along the curve.
- The body is covered with a sandy brown coat in most subspecies of
lions, but there is a white variant that shows up once in a while, especially
in the Timbavati region of South Africa
- The mature male lion has a mane that covers the backside of the head,
and the shoulders.
- The eyes are proportinately larger than in other comparable-sized
animals, and posess round pupils. Lions, like most cats, are visual
animals.
- The eyes are also well-adapted for use under very low light. This
helps the lion hunt at night.
- Like most mammals, lions have a nictitating membrane which serves
to clean and protect the eye in some circumstances.
- Lions, like most cats, have limited ability to move their eyes side-to-side,
and must turn the head to look in a different direction.
- The sense of smell is well developed. Lions mark their territories
by means of scent deposits, necessitating a good sense of smell.
- The sense of hearing is perhaps only slightly above average. The ears
can be swiveled over a wide angle to enable the lion to hear distant
sounds, and know what direction they are coming from.
- The lion's tail is the only one in the cat family with a tassel at
the tip. (
- Females also use their raised tail as a 'follow me' signal for the
cubs. They also use it to signal each other during a group hunt.
- A lion's body temperature ranges from 100.5 to 102.5 degrees farenheit.
(38.05 - 39.16 degrees C.)
- Lions become sexually mature around the age of two to three years
- Lion cubs are born blind, in litters of two to four.
- Unlike most other cats, lions prefer to eat crouching or lying down.
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