Animal Behavior: Lion prides are fission-fusion societies pride members come and go and are rarely all together at once. There can be anywhere from 2 to 40 lions in a pride. The resident males of a pride are immigrants that have forcefully gained control of the pride from the previous male members. In order to successfully take over a pride, males form coalitions, usually consisting of brothers. Lions have the great ability to critically injure or kill other lions when engaged in a fight.

Eating Habits: Lions are predatory carnivores. They usually hunt in groups, but the actual killing is done by an individual lion. They frequently bring down prey much bigger than they are themselves. Showy males have more difficulty hunting than females because of their conspicuousness, therefore females in a pride do the majority of hunting. Males are still more aggressive during feeding than are females, even though they are less likely to have killed the prey.

Range: African lions live in most of sub-Saharan Africa except in desert and rainforest habitats.

Conservation Efforts: African lion populations have greatly declined in West Africa and in many African countries they are restricted to protected areas. If there are no connecting corridors between wildlife reserves genetic viability will likely become a problem.

Animal Facts: African lions live in plains or savanna habitat with a large prey base (mostly ungulates) and sufficient cover available. In these optimal habitats, lions are the second most abundant large predator, after spotted hyenas.