The African Lion Blog about Endangered Animals from Animal Friends Pet Insurance
The African lion is a beautiful and powerful animal. The Lion is known as the "King of the Jungle", however, lions actually prefer to be in open savanna country. These sleek animals are very skilled at hunting and can be found in Africa and Asia.
The lion was built to hunt. They have sharp teeth and claws, excellent eyesight and hearing. They also have a keen sense of smell and strong jaws. Their thick fur coats are camouflaged to help them blend into the background.
At one time you could find lions throughout Africa and much of Asia, now there are just a few scattered areas of Africa where they can be found. The beautiful animals are symbols of Africa and are disappearing at alarming rates. Africa has lost over 70% of its lions over the past 30 years. Today there are only about 25,000 lions that remain.
There are several reasons why the African lion is decreasing in population. The hunting grounds have been lost to farmers and agriculture. The farmers use poisons, snares and rifles to kill these magnificent big cats. The prey that is a source of food for the lion has been depleted. It is also still legal to shoot lions for "sport".
All big cats are meat eaters and sit at the top of the food chain (bar humans). Most cats are solitary hunters, but lions hunt in groups and prey on antelopes and zebras. Almost all big cats hunt at night. They can see six times better than a human can. They also have a larger field of vision, however, they cannot see colours as well as we can.
The African lion protects its home range territory from others. They rub their scent on trees, spray urine and leave scratch marks to warn other animals to stay out of their territory. Lions live together in groups called prides and the females hunt prey together. The male's responsibility is to protect the territory.
African lions are beautiful animals that need to be protected before they become extinct. As a ethical pet insurance company, Animal Friends is proud to support the works of organisations such as the Born Free Foundation that are doing everything they can do help protect the King of the Jungle.
