Are lions "nice"? / How do lions behave?

Perhaps the most well-known existence for a lion is living in a group called a pride. Prides can have more than a dozen adult females (which are usually related to one another), the lionesses' cubs, and an independent band of one to nine adult males (which have a 50 percent chance of being related to the other adult males) that have control over the females and young. I wonder if this could have something to do with having the title, "king of beasts".

The males main activity is to maintain the control of the pride. This consists of marking territory, defending this territory from other prides, and warding off attempts from nomadic males to take possession of the pride. Scent marking is used to define a pride's territory. Of this, spraying trees, bushes, and boulders with urine is widely used. "Scratching" is a variation of this method of staking a claim to an area. To do this, the lion scratches at the ground with its hind legs and sprays urine on the ground. Another method of leaving a scent is to "greet" a tree or boulder (see the last paragraph of this page).

In a pride, the females do most of the hunting and hunting is usually done as a group. The most common prey animals are antelope, gazelles, water buck, wildebeest, and zebra. When game is scarce, lions will resort to smaller or larger animals (Adult elephants and hippos have on very rare occasion been successfully taken down). Most hunting is done during twilight although some is also done at night. The most common method of hunting herd animals is to pick out the easiest animal to take down (very young, injured, sick, or very old) and separate it from the herd and/or mother. Lions cannot run for long periods. This requires the lions to creep up on the animal undetected, until the lions are within sprinting range. Another method of preying on herd animals is to drive the herd into awaiting lions in hiding and ambush the prey. Lions also acquire some two-fifths of their food from stealing from other predators or by finding an already dead animal.

An adult lion can eat 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of meat at a time, and possible up to 75 pounds (34 kilograms) in one meal. [What gluttony!]

Lions sleep up to twenty-four hours after a heavy feeding and will go almost a week before hunting again. [After eating like that, who would want to?]

Although pride life may be the most famous, for the male lion, a lot of its life consists of a being both nomadic and a loner (or sometimes, in a pair or trio companionship, usually with other males). In fact, more than 60 percent of male lions (solitary or in companionships) do not acquire a pride during their lifetime and therefore, most likely, do not participate in reproduction. Companions are usually close in age and, in fact, may be brothers, although about half of all companionships include unrelated individuals. Females occasionally form companionships with each other as well, when they are no longer a member of a pride and are very similar to their male counterparts. About 47 percent of all companionships involving adult lions are between only males, and about 37 percent are between only females. Some male groups of nomadic lions will take on prey take is normally left alone, such as a giraffe.

Most nomadic males, in their prime age, search for a pride to take over. To seize a pride, the males occasionally engage in a "staring contest", with only a few feet apart and face to face, the first to break the stare loses the pride. However, Most pride takeovers involve physical battles. Sometimes this is "to the death" and other times the defeated male(s) are forced back into nomadic life. When a new group of males takes over control of a pride they cannibalize any cubs. As I vaguely remember from C.S. Lewis' book series 'The Chronicles of Narnia', "...it not as if he were a TAME lion..."

Lions can survive in the wild for about 15 years.

Most cats rub heads both as a greeting and as a method of showing affection, and lions are no exception. This mutual head-rubbing (often accompanied by a low moaning or humming noise), leaves the scent of the rubbing feline onto the recipient from glands at the corners of the mouth. The scent helps the lion to recognize a friend from a foe. A house cat rubbing its body on your ankles is a sign friendship. I once thought it was just to shed fur on my white trousers!

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