A lion’s mane is a product of sexual selection rather than natural selection. This means that females show preferences for bigger, darker manes. Male lions with these traits will then mate more and pass on those genes more frequently.

Prides can hunt and kill even the largest herbivores, such as buffalo, giraffes and even elephant juveniles. However, they more commonly hunt and feed on smaller to medium-sized species like wildebeest, zebra, impala and warthog.

Most big cats, including lions, cannot purr. Instead, they are known for their famous roars. This iconic vocalization is due to the hyoid bone in the cat’s throat being attached to a specialized stretching ligament, drawn down to the chest when lions exhale forcefully.

Only about 24,000 wild lions remain in Africa. We have no estimates of their former numbers, but it is likely that there were at least many hundreds of thousands before European settlers arrived.

The species is threatened by the illegal trade of lion prey for their meat, targeted poaching of lions for body parts, habitat loss and fragmentation and human-cat conflict due to the real or perceived threat lions pose to livestock.

We can save lions by preserving their habitat, protecting them and their prey from poaching and illegal hunting and helping communities coexist alongside them.