A little tired

by Stephan Scheffer

The lion is the only feline that has a social rather than a solitary lifestyle. It normally lives in groups of varying composition, but usually consists of an average of five adult females (two to twenty), one or two adult males (up to eight) and their young and immature offspring. Sometimes a group consists of more than 30 lions. Most of the time, the animals move around separately or in smaller groups. When animals from the same group meet, a ritual of rubbing, licking and purring follows. Strange lions, both males and females, are usually chased away. Lionesses stay with the same group their whole lives, males usually not for more than three or four years. Males that don't belong to a group live a roaming existence, alone or with other males. Because of this roaming existence males generally don't live as long as females.

The group usually has a fixed territory. In the Serengeti however, they usually follow the large migrating herds of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle.
Lions rest for a large part of the day

The lion is inactive for the biggest part of the day. Sometimes he rests up to twenty hours a day in the shade, and is only active for hunting. The lion mainly feeds on prey between 50 and 300 kg, but if these are not around it will go for smaller and bigger animals, between fifteen and thousand kg. It is mainly the females that hunt; 81% of all food within a group is caught by females. Males, however, are also capable of killing prey.