All About The Lion : A King in The Jungle.

All About The Lion : A King in The Jungle. It is a topic about Lion life, it classifications, habitual life's, fighting, and much more about lion.

American Lion
The American lion (Panthera leo atrox) also known as the North American lion, American cave lion,or Panthera is an extinct feline known from fossils. It was one of the largest subspecies of lion ever to have existed, comparable in size to the Early Middle Pleistocene primitive cave lion, Panthera leo fossilis, and about twenty-five percent larger than the modern African lion, though some estimates of the weight of this animal are as high as 300 kg. The term "American lion" has sometimes been used to mean the cougar .

The American lion is an extinct animal which originated in North America and went on to colonize part of South America as part of the Great American Interchange. The body length of the American lion is estimated to have been 1.6-2.5 m (5.25-8.20 feet). Approximately one hundred specimens of American lions have been recovered from the La Brea Tar Pits, in Los Angeles, so their body structure is well known. The features and teeth of the extinct American lion strongly resemble modern lions, but they were considerably larger.

In South of Alaska, the American lion first appeared during the Sangamonian Stage (the last interglacial). After that it was widespread in the Americas from Alaska to Peru, although it was absent from eastern North America and peninsular Florida. As did many other large mammals, it went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago. By then the American lion was one of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna, a wide variety of very large mammals who lived during the Pleistocene. Remains are most common in the Yukon and from the La Brea Tar Pits. In some areas of its range, the American lion lived under cold climatic conditions. They probably used caves or fissures for shelter from the cold weather, They may have lined their dens with grass or leaves, as the Siberian tiger does, another great cat that currently lives in the north.

There are fewer American lions in the La Brea tar pits than other predators such as saber-toothed cats (Smilodon fatalis) or dire wolves (Canis dirus), which suggests they may have been smart enough to avoid the hazard, or their hunting methods and strategies simply didn't include preying upon entrapped animals to the same degree. American lions likely preyed on deer, North American horses (now extinct), American bison, mammoths, and other large, herbivorous animals.

American Lion
Fossil range: Pleistocene

Reconstruction of the American Lion

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. leo
Subspecies:	†P. l. atrox

Trinomial name

Panthera leo atrox

AFRICAN LION
African Lions are the only truly social cat species, and usually every female in a pride of 5-37 individuals is closely related. An adult lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away and warns off intruders or reunites scattered pride members. While lions are inactive up to 21 hours a day, in the darkest, coolest hours of early morning the "queens of beasts" hunt as a team to catch a communal meal. Pride lionesses frequently enter breeding season together and later give birth at the same time which allows them to share nursing and other maternal duties. Although only one out of four hunting events is successful, dominant males always eat first, lionesses next, and cubs scramble for scraps and leftovers. Lions are the largest African carnivores and a hungry lion pride feeds on many animals that pass through or share its home range. As specialized communal predators, a pride's role includes keeping herbivore populations in balance with the resources available in their area of the plains.

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION

COMMON NAME:	African lion
KINGDOM:	Animalia
PHYLUM:	Chordata
CLASS:	Mammalia
ORDER:	Carnivora
FAMILY:	Felidae
GENUS SPECIES:	Panthera (panther, leopard) leo (lion)

FAST FACTS

DESCRIPTION:	Short-haired, tawny cat; black tail tuft, ears, and lips; newborns with grayish spots which fade to adult color by three months
MALE	At maturity, exhibit blond to black manes

SIZE:
MALE	1.7-2.5 m (5.5-8 ft), and 1.2 m (4 ft) at the shoulder
FEMALE	1.4-1.7 m (4.5-5.5 ft), and 1.06 m (3.5 ft) at the shoulder

WEIGHT:
MALE	150-250 kg (330-550 lb)
FEMALE	120-180 kg (265-395 lb)

DIET:

Antelopes, gazelles, warthogs, smaller carnivores, and occasionally Cape buffalo, giraffe, and young elephants

GESTATION:

98-105 days; on average 2-4 cubs born

SEXUAL MATURITY:
MALE	5 years
FEMALE	4 years

LIFE SPAN:

Up to 30 years in captivity, 15 years average

RANGE:

sub-Saharan Africa

HABITAT:

Grasslands and semi-arid plains

POPULATION:

GLOBAL

Unknown

Asiatic Lion

The Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica) is a subspecies of the lion which survives today only in India where it is also known as the Indian lion. They once ranged from the Mediterranean to India, covering most of Southwest Asia, and hence it is also known as the Persian lion.The current wild population consists of 250-350 individuals restricted to the Gir Forest in the state of Gujarat, India. The historic distribution included the Caucasus to Yemen and from Macedonia in Greece to present-day India through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan through to the borders of Bangladesh.

Compared to their African cousins, Asiatic lions have shaggier coats, with a longer tassel on the end of the tail and longer tufts of hair on the elbows. Both sexes have a distinctive fold of skin that runs along the belly. Males are 1.7-2.2 m long and weigh 150-225 kg, while females are 1.4-1.7 m in length and weigh in at 100-150 kg. The largest known wild male was exactly 3 m (9.9 ft) in length.Asian lions are highly social animals, living in units called prides. Asiatic lion prides are smaller than those of African lions, with an average of only two females, whereas an African pride has an average of four to six. The Asian males are less social and only associate with the pride when mating or on a large kill. It has been suggested that this may be because their prey animals are smaller than those in Africa, requiring fewer hunters to tackle them.Asiatic lions prey predominantly on sambar, chital, nilgai, chinkara, wild boar and livestock.

Asiatic Lion