The lion symbolizes strength, power, and courage. You may ask: Despite, there are number of brutal predators in the wild, why the lion is crowned as the “King of Jungle”? right? But the raw power & strength, fearless attitude, brilliant teamwork, & extreme focus, make the Lion a complete package to be the king of jungle. Lion is the most sociable predator among all the predators. They are even very protective towards their territory. With a perfect team work & strategy they can even hunt down the mammoth elephant. Although known as the king of the jungle, lions are not seen in jungle. They prefer to live in the long grassland savannahs. East African countries like Tanzania are the most suitable place for these animals to nourish.
The Social lifestyle of lions
Despite aggressive and ferocity in nature, the lion is most sociable among all predators. They can be found living in groups having up to 30 members called pride. The size of a pride depends upon the area and prey. In a pride, you will get to see majority of lionesses with a few cubs. The number of adult male lions in a group is generally in between 2-3. In the pride, lions generally do watch and protect the territory from another pride, where the lionesses do hunting for the pride. In hunting, their teamwork plays an important role. Lionesses are like caring mothers, who even take care of an unknown cub.
Role of male & females in the hunting
When it comes to hunting, lionesses are the primary hunters in the pride. As because of the slimmer and lighter body of lioness than a lion, they are the efficient hunters.
When the lion and lioness hunt together, the teamwork of lions works very well but it is a little straightforward method of hunting. In this method, the lions hunt their prey in face to face fight after cornering. In hunting, the lion/lioness bites their throat to make the body dormant.
As Lioness are the best in hunting, they hide themselves in the grass until they reach nearer to the prey. With the opposite corner watched by another one, there is a chase for the prey in between them. Then the lion mauls the prey with its powerful claws. After a little moment, lions hunt their prey by biting the throat.
Sometimes, the male lions also participate in the hunting. Their larger manes makes it tough to disguise them in the grasses of the savannah. Moreover they are bulkier than the female ones, which force it to have a lesser running speed. But the bigger size of the lions actually comes into the play, while hunting down massive preys like hippos, buffalos & elephants. This may satisfy the hunger of the pride for a longer duration.
They are not so expert in hunting alone
If you want to see how lions hunt, then the Serengeti National park and the Savannah or grasslands is the best place to watch it live. They are born to hunt in group. Despite having a precise hunting skill, the success rate while hunting alone is quite less than the solitary creatures like leopards & tigers.
As because of their weight, size, and speed, they cannot hunt alone. If you are going to count the number of hunts by lions, most the hunts go under the darkness of night.
In the group, the lions attack big prey. They use a basic plan for a hunting process. In this process, one lion spot the prey, while other lions look in the same direction. One hides and does not show off until the prey itself arrives. They encircle the prey and catch the prey by scratching the rear of the prey and kills by biting the neck of the prey. This is also an example of the incredible teamwork of lions.
For the smaller prey, they use their paw to scratch the rear side of the prey and drag it down. After biting the throat of the prey, it dies.
For the larger animal like wildebeests or giraffes, they use their own weight to drag down the prey to the ground or mostly the lion bites and injures the spinal cord of the big prey. After that, they bite the face or throat of the prey. This is how lions hunt.
They can even hunt down a mammoth elephant
Watch the incredible Teamwork of lions wile hunting down an elphant...
credit: BBC earth
As because of the extendable claws, power, and courage, the size doesn’t matter to them. They also apply different strategies while hunting. As a symbol of courage, they fear no one.
In the case of the elephant, they attack in a group. They climb the elephant by their claws and after that; they bite the central nervous system to damage bone marrow. The action can make any big or strong animal weak. After dragging it down, they hunt the elephant.
Mostly the group attacks are done by the lionesses. The lion usually hunts in the night and attacks in single. But the teamwork of lions in hunting always gave a positive result both in the case of .
You can see the truth that the lion is not only made for fighting with others but also to kill the gigantic animals. Though the size matters when it comes for stealth hunting, but the courage to bring down an animal who is 10 times heavier and powerful than the lion, then it proves that Lion is literally “The king of the beasts”
