In like a lioness

+ happy International Women's Day!

Welcome to the new animal family of the month… felines! For the rest of March, we’ll be sharing information about the ecological importance (and, in the case of house cats, sometime challenges) of different species of cats, wild and domestic, big and small. We already tackled the world’s largest cat, the tiger, and we thought that on this, International Women’s Day, it would be a good time to explore lions.

Why lions? They are the world’s second-largest species of cat, and live in matriarchal prides. They’re the only wild cats to live in groups, and these groups are dominated by the females. Yes, forget everything you learned about lions from The Lion King or the phrase “King of the Jungle.” Lions don’t even live in jungles!

They mostly live in the grasslands, savannas, and open woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa, where they stalk and hunt their preferred prey: antelope, zebras, wildebeests, and other large hoofed animals (they have also been known to scavenge). Female lions do most of the hunting, and they guard and stay with the same pride all their lives. Lions are born in litters averaging 2-4 cubs, and stay with their mothers for about two years. Usually the lion moms in a pride will give birth at roughly the same time, and will share nursing and caregiving duties. This collaborative approach helps all the cubs survive. Erin Biba writes in National Geographic:

A lion pride is all females all the time. They catch the vast majority of the food, and they guard the territory from intruders—mostly other females that live nearby looking to expand their own territories.

“Females are the core. The heart and soul of the pride. The males come and go,” says Craig Packer, one of the world’s leading lion researchers and director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

But unless you’re a Lion King superfan, it’s a pretty good bet that you can’t remember the name of Simba’s mom. All the male lions have central and memorable roles in the film: Simba, the main character destined to become king. Mufasa, his father, who dies when Simba’s uncle, the black-maned Scar, plots to take his throne. But Simba’s mother? What was her name again?

Sarabi, Simba’s mom, would actually be the Lion Queen. Male lions spend most of their time napping, eating, and getting into fights with other males… so, yeah, like a king.

Male lions do help protect the pride, and also teach younger males survival skills. They have impressive manes, and roars that can be heard from five miles away. Both male and female lions roar, and will often roar together (including the cubs) to establish the dominance of their pride. Here’s an impressive video we found of a lion and lioness roaring together:

Lions used to live in much of Europe, Asia, and all over Africa, but now live in 26 African countries and in the Gujarat state of India. Want artistic proof of the previous range of lions? The beautiful, ancient paintings of lions (likely made by women, though for years men got the credit!) in the Chauvet cave of Southeastern France:

Today, these are only about 600 Asiatic lions in India, but these numbers are increasing, and many more lions in Africa. One hundred years ago, there were around 200,000 lions, but now there are only about 23,000 lions in the wild. As with tigers, the main threats to lions are all human-caused: loss of habitat, dwindling prey species, and human hunting and poaching. Shifting weather patterns caused by climate change are also harmful to lions.

We wondered about women working to save lions, and found this story of Samburu women of Northern Kenya working on lion conservation and education. The Mama Simbas have worked to monitor the population of lions, protect livestock without hurting or killing lions, and educate their communities about the importance of this keystone species. In their community, there were few enough lions (around 50) that part of their training included individually identifying lions to overcome aversion and fear. Through the decade-long work of the Mama Simbas and the Ewaso Lions, that group has tripled.

How can you help lions?

Donate to locally-led groups like Ewaso Lions.

Learn all you can about lions and ecologically-friendly efforts to reduce lion-human conflicts, like this “lion lights” program, which uses solar-powered deterrent lights to help Masai pastoralists protect their livestock (and offers solar lights for the home as well):

Finally, you can spread the word about their importance. Do you have any favorite lion books, facts, or experiences at zoos or conservation centers? Please share below! We’d also love to know how you’re celebrating or recognizing International Women’s Day! Bea has the day off so we’re reading, hiking, and doing some yoga between meetings.

We’ll be back with a new big cat on Friday, plus a foraged recipe that has nothing to do with cats.

Coco would like you to know that she is a very big cat.