Lion

The lion is a member of the cat family The fore body of the lion is very powerfully built, and has the greatest front body strength of any cat, except possibly the tiger. This enables the lion to deliver blows with it's forepaws heavy enough to break a zebra's back. Each paw is equipped with soft pads to make it's movements quiet. But the majority of the animals weight is borne by the main paw pads, which would correspond on a human to the palm of the hand at the base of the fingers. Extra bones in the toe joints give the toes a wide range of motion.The claws are retractable and very sharp. The retractable feature helps keep the claws sharp, and prevents injury during play, etc. The dewclaw on the front limbs is often used as a toothpick. The claws grow as a series of layers. As a layer wears, it is shed, and a new sharp-pointed claw is exposed. The body is covered with a sandy brown coat. Lions with a very dark brown coat, the coat color of a lion is not determined so much by the color of the hair, but by the ratio of light-colored hairs to dark-colored hairs.The mature male lion has a mane that covers the backside of the head, and the shoulders. But some have no mane at all, while others have a large mane that runs onto the body, along the abdomen, and even onto the fronts of the back legs. The mane varies in color from the rest of the body, and tends to grow darker with age. Just like the body hair. The mane hair is stiff and wiry, like stiff horse hair. The lion's tail is the only one in the cat family with a tassel (tuff of hair) at the tip. This tassel conceals a spine, which is the last few tail bones fused together. What function this spine serves, if any, is unknown. The tail is very important for overall balance. Females also use their raised tail as a 'follow me' signal for the cubs. They also use it to signal each other during a group hunt.The lion's teeth are well adapted for killing their prey and eating it. The great canine teeth are spaced such that they can slip between the cervical vertebrae of their favorite-sized prey animals, and sever the spinal cord. Lions, like all cats, do not chew their food, but swallow it in chunks. They also use only one side of their mouth at a time. This trait is also common to all cats, and is caused by the inability of the jaw to move side-to-side. The tongue is covered with rough spines, called papialle. This helps the lion scrape meat off of bones, and acts like a comb for grooming.Lions are social animals. By hunting together, they can go after bigger game. Bigger game means more food for everyone. The typical prey animal that is taken by lions is in the 250 pound range, but much larger game. Prey species more commonly taken include zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, antelope and waterbuck. Lions will also hunt smaller animals, when they are hungry and nothing bigger is available. Lions are also expert scavengers, and obtain as much as 40 percent of their food by stealing it from other predators, or finding already dead animals. Although they are the largest, lions are by no means the best hunters in their ecosystem. (Cheetahs are probably the best.) They do not do simple things that solitary predators tend to do, like keep the wind before them. Instead, lions survive because there is so much food available around them, and they tend to hunt in groups. Even their impact on prey populations is smaller than might be suspected. About one in fifteen of any given popular prey animal will become a lion meal in a given year. On average, a single lion will kill 15-20 large herbivores a year. Hunting is done most frequently in the evening, or early morning. Credits for the information goes to: Lion Facts