Lion

Lions are the most iconic predator on Earth — and one of the most misrepresented. They don't live in jungles. Males sleep approximately 20 hours a day. Females do roughly 85–90% of the hunting. The dramatic mane exists not for protection but as a fitness signal shaped by female mate choice. Almost everything the average person believes about lions is at least partly wrong.

Facts you didn't know

• 1

  Lionesses do approximately 85–90% of the hunting for the pride. Males eat first when present — often consuming the majority of a kill the females caught — but their role is primarily territorial defense and protection of cubs from rival males.

• 2

  Lions sleep 18–20 hours per day — more than almost any other mammal. Their enormous body size requires exceptional caloric efficiency, which means spending nearly all non-hunting time at rest.

• 3

  A male lion's roar can be heard 8 kilometers away and carries information about the size, health, and number of roaring individuals. Lionesses can determine from a roar alone whether an approaching male is familiar or a stranger, and whether they're outnumbered — and adjust their response accordingly.

• 4

  Lions are the only cats that live in social groups (prides). This sociality appears to have evolved for cooperative hunting of large prey and defense of cubs against infanticidal rival males — not from any inherent preference for company.

• 5

  When a new male takes over a pride, he typically kills all existing cubs to bring females back into estrous immediately. Lionesses fight fiercely to protect their cubs, but infanticide is a consistent feature of lion social biology — not a pathology, a strategy.