Lion king of forest..

The lion (Panthera leo) is a huge felid of the genus Panthera native mainly to Africa. It has a muscular, deep-chested frame, quick, rounded head, spherical ears, and a bushy tuft on the give up of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; grownup male lions are larger than girls and have a outstanding mane. It is a social species, forming companies called prides. A lion satisfaction consists of a few grownup adult males, related ladies and cubs. Groups of lady lions commonly hunt together, preying totally on big ungulates. The lion is an apex and keystone predator; although some lions scavenge when opportunities arise and were regarded to seek human beings, the species commonly does not.

Lion

Temporal variety: Pleistocene–Present 

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Lion waiting in Namibia.Jpg

Male lion in Okonjima, Namibia

Okonjima Lioness.Jpg

Female (lioness) in Okonjima

Conservation popularity

Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)[2]

Scientific classificationedit

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:

Chordata

Class:

Mammalia

Order:

Carnivora

Suborder:

Feliformia

Family:

Felidae

Subfamily:

Pantherinae

Genus:

Panthera

Species:

P. Leo[1]

Binomial call

Panthera leo[1]

(Linnaeus, 1758)[3]

Subspecies

P. L. Leo

P. L. Melanochaita

daggerP. L. Fossilis

daggerP. L. Sinhaleyus

Lion distribution.Png

Historical and gift distribution of the lion in Africa, Asia and Europe

Typically, the lion inhabits grasslands and savannas, but is absent in dense forests. It is generally more diurnal than other wild cats, but whilst persecuted, it adapts to being energetic at night time and at twilight. During the Neolithic duration, the lion ranged in the course of Africa, Southeast Europe, and Western and South Asia, but it's been reduced to fragmented populations in sub-Saharan Africa and one population in western India. It has been indexed as Vulnerable at the IUCN Red List for the reason that 1996 due to the fact populations in African international locations have declined by using about 43% since the early Nineteen Nineties. Lion populations are untenable outdoor designated protected regions. Although the cause of the decline isn't always absolutely understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are the finest causes for issue.

One of the most broadly known animal symbols in human lifestyle, the lion has been drastically depicted in sculptures and artwork, on countrywide flags, and in modern-day movies and literature. Lions were stored in menageries since the time of the Roman Empire and had been a key species searched for exhibition in zoological gardens internationally for the reason that late 18th century. Cultural depictions of lions had been distinguished in Ancient Egypt, and depictions have came about in truely all historic and medieval cultures inside the lion's historical and current variety.

Etymology

The phrase 'lion' is derived from Latin: leo[4] and Ancient Greek: λέων (leon).[5] The phrase lavi (Hebrew: לָבִיא‎) will also be associated.[6] The general call Panthera is traceable to the classical Latin word 'panthēra' and the ancient Greek phrase πάνθηρ 'panther'.[7] Panthera is phonetically much like the Sanskrit phrase पाण्डर pând-ara that means 'light yellow, whitish, white'.[8]

Taxonomy

The upper cladogram is primarily based at the 2006 observe,[9][10] the lower one on the 2010[11] and 2011[12] studies.

Felis leo was the clinical call utilized by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, who defined the lion in his paintings Systema Naturae.[3] The genus name Panthera changed into coined by means of Lorenz Oken in 1816.[13] Between the mid-18th and mid-20th centuries, 26 lion specimens have been described and proposed as subspecies, of which 11 have been recognized as legitimate in 2005.[1] They had been prominent commonly by using the size and color of their manes and skins.[14]

Subspecies

Range map displaying distribution of subspecies and clades

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, several lion kind specimens have been described and proposed as subspecies, with about a dozen known as legitimate taxa till 2017.[1] Between 2008 and 2016, IUCN Red List assessors used simplest two subspecific names: P. L. Leo for African lion populations, and P. L. Persica for the Asiatic lion population.[2][15][16] In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the Cat Specialist Group revised lion taxonomy, and recognises  subspecies primarily based on results of several phylogeographic research on lion evolution, namely:[17]

P. L. Leo (Linnaeus, 1758) − the nominate lion subspecies consists of the Asiatic lion, the domestically extinct Barbary lion, and lion populations in West and northern parts of Central Africa.[17] Synonyms consist of P. L. Persica (Meyer, 1826), P. L. Senegalensis (Meyer, 1826), P. L. Kamptzi (Matschie, 1900), and P. L. Azandica (Allen, 1924).[1] Multiple authors cited it as 'northern lion' and 'northern subspecies'.[18][19]

P. L. Melanochaita (Smith, 1842) − consists of the extinct Cape lion and lion populations in East and Southern African regions.[17] Synonyms include P. L. Somaliensis (Noack 1891), P. L. Massaica (Neumann, 1900), P. L. Sabakiensis (Lönnberg, 1910), P. L. Bleyenberghi (Lönnberg, 1914), P. L. Roosevelti (Heller, 1914), P. L. Nyanzae (Heller, 1914), P. L. Hollisteri (Allen, 1924), P. L. Krugeri (Roberts, 1929), P. L. Vernayi (Roberts, 1948), and P. L. Webbiensis (Zukowsky, 1964).[1][14] It has been referred to as 'southern subspecies' and 'southern lion'.[19]

Lion samples from some parts of the Ethiopian Highlands cluster genetically with those from Cameroon and Chad, even as lions from other regions of Ethiopia cluster with samples from East Africa. Researchers consequently expect Ethiopia is a touch region between the two subspecies.[20]Genome-wide statistics of a wild-born historical lion pattern from Sudan confirmed that it clustered with P. L. Leo in mtDNA-primarily based phylogenies, however with a excessive affinity to P. L. Melanochaita. This result cautioned that the taxonomic role of lions in Central Africa may also require revision.[21]

Fossil facts

Skull of an American lion on display on the National Museum of Natural History

Other lion subspecies or sister species to the contemporary lion existed in prehistoric instances:[22]

P. L. Sinhaleyus become a fossil carnassial excavated in Sri Lanka, which turned into attributed to a lion. It is notion to have emerge as extinct around 39,000 years ago.[23]

P. Leo fossilis turned into larger than the cutting-edge lion and lived within the Middle Pleistocene. Bone fragments had been excavated in caves inside the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Czech Republic.[24][25]

P. Spelaea, or the cave lion, lived in Eurasia and Beringia throughout the Late Pleistocene. It have become extinct because of climate warming or human growth modern day through 11,900 years in the past.[26] Bone fragments excavated in European, North Asian, Canadian and Alaskan caves suggest that it ranged from Europe across Siberia into western Alaska.[27] It probable derived from P. Fossilis,[28] and was genetically isolated and tremendously distinct from the cutting-edge lion in Africa and Eurasia.[29][28] It is depicted in Paleolithic cave paintings, ivory carvings, and clay busts.[30]

P. Atrox, or the American lion, ranged in the Americas from Canada to possibly Patagonia.[31] It arose whilst a cave lion population in Beringia became isolated south of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet approximately 370,000 years in the past.[32][33] A fossil from Edmonton dates to 11,355 ± fifty five years ago.[34]

Evolution

crimson Panthera spelaea

blue P. Atrox

green P. Leo

Maximal range of the modern lion

and its prehistoric loved ones

within the overdue Pleistocene

The Panthera lineage is anticipated to have genetically diverged from the commonplace ancestor of the Felidae round 9.32 to 4.47 million years in the past to 11.75 to zero.97 million years in the past,[9][35][36] and the geographic foundation of the genus is most likely northern Central Asia.[37] Results of analyses range within the phylogenetic dating of the lion; it was notion to shape a sister organization with the jaguar (P. Onca) that diverged 3.46 to 1.22 million years ago,[9] however also with the leopard (P. Pardus) that diverged 3.1 to at least one.95 million years ago[11][12] to four.32 to 0.02 million years ago. Hybridisation between lion and snow leopard (P. Uncia) ancestors likely persevered until approximately 2.1 million years ago.[36] The lion-leopard clade became allotted within the Asian and African Palearctic considering the fact that as a minimum the early Pliocene.[37] The earliest fossils recognisable as lions have been observed at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and are expected to be up to 2 million years vintage.[35]

Estimates for the divergence time of the present day and cave lion lineages variety from 529,000 to 392,000 years in the past based totally on mutation charge consistent with technology time of the present day lion. There is no evidence for gene drift between the two lineages, indicating that they did not percentage the equal geographic place.[21] The Eurasian and American cave lions have become extinct on the quit of the last glacial period with out mitochondrial descendants on different continents.[29][38][39] The modern-day lion changed into possibly broadly distributed in Africa in the course of the Middle Pleistocene and began to diverge in sub-Saharan Africa at some stage in the Late Pleistocene. Lion populations in East and Southern Africa have become separated from populations in West and North Africa when the equatorial rainforest elevated 183,500 to eighty one,800 years in the past.[40] They shared a commonplace ancestor likely between ninety eight,000 and fifty two,000 years in the past.[21] Due to the expansion of the Sahara among eighty three,a hundred and 26,600 years ago, lion populations in West and North Africa have become separated. As the rainforest decreased and consequently gave upward push to more open habitats, lions moved from West to Central Africa. Lions from North Africa dispersed to southern Europe and Asia among 38,800 and eight,three hundred years ago.[40]

Extinction of lions in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East interrupted gene flow between lion populations in Asia and Africa. Genetic proof revealed severa mutations in lion samples from East and Southern Africa, which suggests that this institution has an extended evolutionary records than genetically less numerous lion samples from Asia and West and Central Africa.[41] A entire genome-wide sequence of lion samples confirmed that samples from West Africa shared alleles with samples from Southern Africa, and samples from Central Africa shared alleles with samples from Asia. This phenomenon suggests that Central Africa was a melting pot of lion populations once they had come to be remoted, possibly migrating via corridors inside the Nile Basin throughout the early Holocene.[21]

Hybrids

Further information: Panthera hybrid

In zoos, lions had been bred with tigers to create hybrids for the curiosity of site visitors or for clinical reason.[42][43] The liger is greater than a lion and a tiger, whereas most tigons are particularly small compared to their dad and mom because of reciprocal gene results.[44][45] The leopon is a hybrid among a lion and leopard.[46]

Description

A tuft on the stop of the tail is a wonderful function of the lion.

Skeleton

The lion is a muscular, deep-chested cat with a quick, rounded head, a discounted neck and spherical ears. Its fur varies in shade from mild buff to silvery grey, yellowish crimson and dark brown. The colorings of the underparts are generally lighter. A new-born lion has dark spots, which fade as the cub reaches adulthood, despite the fact that faint spots regularly may also nevertheless be visible at the legs and underparts. The lion is the handiest member of the cat own family that shows apparent sexual dimorphism. Males have broader heads and a prominent mane that grows downwards and backwards overlaying most of the pinnacle, neck, shoulders, and chest. The mane is generally brownish and tinged with yellow, rust and black hairs.[47][48]

The tail of all lions leads to a dark, hairy tuft that in some lions conceals an about 5 mm (0.20 in)-lengthy, difficult "spine" or "spur" this is formed from the final, fused sections of tail bone. The functions of the spur are unknown. The tuft is absent at birth and develops at round five+1⁄2 months of age. It is without difficulty identifiable by using the age of 7 months.[49]

Of the dwelling felid species, the lion is rivaled simplest by using the tiger in period, weight, and peak at the shoulder.[50] Its skull may be very much like that of the tiger, even though the frontal vicinity is normally more depressed and flattened, and has a barely shorter postorbital vicinity and broader nasal openings than the ones of the tiger. Due to the amount of cranium version inside the two species, usually handiest the structure of the decrease jaw may be used as a dependable indicator of species.[51][52]

Skeletal muscle tissue of the lion make up fifty eight.Eight% of its body weight and represents the best percentage of muscles amongst mammals.[53][54]

Size

The length and weight of adult lions varies across worldwide range and habitats.[55][56][57][58] Accounts of some people that had been large than average exist from Africa and India.[47][59][60][61]

Average Female lions Male lions

Head-and-frame length one hundred sixty–184 cm (sixty three–seventy two in)[62] 184–208 cm (72–eighty two in)[62]

Tail duration seventy two–89.Five cm (28.Three–35.2 in)[62] eighty two.Five–ninety three.5 cm (32.Five–36.8 in)[62]

Weight 118.37–143.Fifty two kg (261.Zero–316.4 lb) in Southern Africa,[55]

119.5 kg (263 lb) in East Africa,[55]

110–one hundred twenty kg (240–260 lb) in India[56] 186.55–225 kg (411.3–496.Zero lb) in Southern Africa,[55]

174.Nine kg (386 lb) in East Africa,[55]

160–a hundred ninety kg (350–420 lb) in India[56]

Mane

A six-12 months-antique male with a massive mane at Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa

Male with quick mane at Pendjari National Park, Benin, West Africa

The male lion's mane is the maximum recognisable characteristic of the species.[14] It may have developed around 320,000–one hundred ninety,000 years in the past.[63] It starts growing while lions are approximately a year old. Mane coloration varies and darkens with age; research shows its coloration and size are prompted with the aid of environmental factors consisting of common ambient temperature. Mane length apparently alerts preventing success in male–male relationships; darker-maned people might also have longer reproductive lives and better offspring survival, despite the fact that they go through within the freshest months of the 12 months. The presence, absence, coloration and length of the mane are associated with genetic precondition, sexual adulthood, climate and testosterone manufacturing; the rule of thumb of thumb is that a darker, fuller mane indicates a healthier animal. In Serengeti National Park, lady lions favour men with dense, darkish manes as mates. Male lions usually goal for the backs or hindquarters of rivals, instead of their necks.[64][65] Cool ambient temperature in European and North American zoos can also result in a heavier mane.[66] Asiatic lions typically have sparser manes than common African lions.[67]

Almost all male lions in Pendjari National Park are either maneless or have very quick manes.[68] Maneless lions have additionally been stated in Senegal, in Sudan's Dinder National Park and in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya.[69] The original male white lion from Timbavati in South Africa turned into also maneless. The hormone testosterone has been linked to mane growth; castrated lions often have little to no mane due to the fact the removal of the gonads inhibits testosterone production.[70] Increased testosterone may be the cause of maned lionesses mentioned in northern Botswana.[71]

Colour version

Further information: White lion

The white lion is a rare morph with a genetic situation referred to as leucism which is because of a double recessive allele. It isn't albino; it has normal pigmentation in the eyes and skin. White lions have sometimes been encountered in and round Kruger National Park and the adjoining Timbavati Private Game Reserve in eastern South Africa. They had been eliminated from the wild inside the 1970s, accordingly decreasing the white lion gene pool. Nevertheless, 17 births have been recorded in five prides between 2007 and 2015.[72] White lions are decided on for breeding in captivity.[73] They have reportedly been bred in camps in South Africa to be used as trophies to be killed throughout canned hunts.[74]

Distribution and habitat

Lion in Gir National Park

African lions live in scattered populations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. The lion prefers grassy plains and savannahs, scrub bordering rivers and open woodlands with bushes. It is absent from rainforests and rarely enters closed forests. On Mount Elgon, the lion has been recorded as much as an elevation of three,six hundred m (11,800 ft) and near the snow line on Mount Kenya.[47] Lions arise in savannah grasslands with scattered acacia trees, which function coloration.[75] The Asiatic lion now survives only in and round Gir National Park in Gujarat, western India. Its habitat is a combination of dry savannah wooded area and really dry, deciduous scrub woodland.[15]

Historical variety

In Africa, the range of the lion at the start spanned most of the vital rainforest quarter and the Sahara wasteland.[76] In the Nineteen Sixties, it became extinct in North Africa, except in the southern a part of Sudan.[77][78][79]

In southern Europe and Asia, the lion once ranged in regions where climatic situations supported an abundance of prey.[80] In Greece, it turned into common as pronounced by Herodotus in 480 BC; it changed into considered uncommon through 300 BC and extirpated with the aid of AD 100.[47] It become gift inside the Caucasus till the tenth century.[52] It lived in Palestine until the Middle Ages, and in Southwest Asia until the late nineteenth century. By the late 19th century, it have been extirpated in maximum of Turkey.[81] The final live lion in Iran become sighted in 1942 approximately sixty five km (40 mi) northwest of Dezful,[82] despite the fact that the corpse of a lioness was observed at the banks of the Karun river in Khūzestān Province in 1944.[83] It once ranged from Sind and Punjab in Pakistan to Bengal and the Narmada River in valuable India..