The photo below is of the famous Sopa Boys, a coalition of lion in Kenya’s Masaai Mara. This gorgeous photograph was taken by Cam Whitnall. If you see other photographs of the Sopa boys, you can see how battered and scarred they are. It’s a hard life.
These four males are grandsons of famous brothers Blackie and Lipstick, and sons of Mandevu and his two brothers, Chungwa and Droopy.
Lions live in groups call prides, consisting of about 40 indviduals – males, females and cubs. Females do most of the hunting, and rear the cubs. Older males are pushed out of the pride after being defeated by younger males, and tend to live the rest of their lives in vulnerable solitude after that. Females stay in the pride for life.
Prides of lions can be more complicated sometimes:
- a pride of females where the male has died or been pushed out
- a pride of (usually) related males. This is called a coaltion
- a coalition taking over several separate prides of females
Other interesting facts
- A female lion needs about 5 kg of meat a day, while a male needs 7 kg or more
- Females tend to live longer (10 – 15 years) than males (8 – 12 years).
- A male lion’s roar can be heard 8km away
- The largest known lion measured 3.35 m (11.0 ft) in length and weighed 375 kg (825 lb)
- Males with dark and black manes have higher testosterone and are found more attractive by females
- Larger manes are found in colder climates
- Neutered lions lose their manes
- A group of lionesses in Botswana developed manes due to overproducing testosterone