red ribbon lion king

Chapter 32 Animal Files - Lions

[Latin name for lion]
Lion: Panthera Leo
Zoological classification of lions
Lions, mammals, cats.The male lion has a majestic physique, about three meters in length from the nose to the tip of the tail.With a big head and a broad face, it is covered with long mane from neck to shoulder, and can weigh up to 250 kg. Standing with its head held high, it looks extremely mighty.Female lions do not have manes and are smaller than male lions.Lions are the only dimorphic cats.

In addition to lions, there are two other animals named "lion".One is a sea lion and the other is a puma.Sea lions actually belong to the class Mammalia and the fur seal family. Because the male beast has long hair on the neck like a lion, it has gained the false name of "lion", and has nothing to do with a real lion.The puma is smaller than the lion, has no mane, and has the ability to climb trees. It is classified as a leopard by most zoologists.

Geographical distribution of lions

Lions used to live widely in southeastern Europe, the Middle East, India and the African continent.The lions living in Europe were extinct due to human activities around the first century AD, and there were very few Asian lions living in India.The current lions, to be precise, should be called African lions, and most of them inhabit the savannahs south of the Sahara Desert in Africa.

The lion's body coat is short and glossy, usually tan or taupe, with a black tuft at the end of the tail.The color of the lion's coat is closely related to the environment in which the lion lives. Lions live in deserts and grasslands, and their coat color is similar to that of sand and grass, which is good for hiding themselves and launching surprise attacks on their prey.

my country does not produce lions, but since the Han Dynasty, lions have been introduced to my country through the "Silk Road". The image and habits of lions have long been familiar to Chinese people.

The lion's place in nature

Lions are one of the most powerful cats on earth, and they live in an environment where other cats are at a disadvantage.The perfect combination of beautiful appearance, mighty figure, king-like power and dream-like speed has won the reputation of "King of Beasts".Lions are undoubtedly at the top of the natural food chain and are top killers.

The status of the lion in people's mind

Lions occupy a prominent place in Western culture.The lion is a symbol of kingship and bravery, and its standing posture conveys a sense of rising and explosive power.The huge sculpture "Sphinx" in ancient Egypt is a human head and lion body, which represents the majesty and heroism of the pharaoh.

In Eastern culture, lions are also regarded as heroes because of their majesty, valor and majesty.In India, the lion is regarded as a "sacred beast".In Chinese culture, lions are also regarded as "auspicious beasts".In front of the main gates of palace halls and private mansions in ancient China, on the left and right sit majestic lions carved in stone or bronze.

In Chinese traditional culture, lion dance occupies an important position.Lion dance is an excellent folk art in my country. Every Lantern Festival or gathering celebration, folks use lion dance to celebrate.This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms period and became popular during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and has a history of more than 1000 years.Under the music of gongs and drums, performers dress up as lions and perform various forms of lion movements.According to Chinese folk tradition, lion dance can drive away evil spirits.Therefore, whenever there are festive festivals, such as opening ceremony, spring festival, etc., they like to beat gongs and drums and dance lions to help celebrate.Lion dance is also famous all over the world following the emigration of Chinese people overseas. Lion dance is very popular in Malaysia, Singapore and other places.Overseas Chinese living in Europe and the United States also form many lion dance clubs. Every year during the Spring Festival or major festivals, they dance lions all over the world to celebrate.

The image of the lion has even entered the Chinese food culture.There is a famous dish in Huaiyang cuisine called "lion head".The huge meatball is like a huge lion's head, so the common people call it "lion's head".According to legend, this dish was invented and named in the Sui Dynasty, and it has been passed down to this day, and it is still one of the traditional delicacies popular with diners in banquets.

behavioral characteristics of lions

Lions are the only cat species that like to live in groups.A lion pride has about twenty to thirty members, often consisting of successive generations of lionesses.Lionesses form the core of the pride, and they generally stay in the same pride from birth until death, rarely leaving the place of birth.They share territory and get along well, grooming each other, helping each other with babysitting, and of course hunting together.

A lion group usually has one or two adult male lions to rule, commonly known as the lion king.

The gestation period of a lioness is generally four months, and each litter gives birth to two to four cubs.

The female lions of reproductive age in the lion group enter the mating state at about the same time, and their births are synchronized. Scientists have not yet fully understood the mechanism behind this strange and interesting phenomenon.However, this ensures that the children in the lion group are basically the same age, and each mother can breastfeed different children. When some mothers go out to hunt, the remaining mothers will be obliged to act as nannies for all the children.And barren lionesses also take on the responsibility of caring for the pride's cubs, licking their fur and playing with them.

Lionesses often hunt in groups. The members of the lion group spread out and form a fan to surround a group of prey. They surround the prey in the middle, and then approach from all directions, waiting for an opportunity to find an unlucky guy when the herd panics.

Lions have a wide range of prey, ranging from small gazelles and baboons to huge buffaloes and even hippopotamuses, but they prefer to prey on ungulates with upper-medium size, such as zebras and black-spotted animals. Antelope and other species of antelope.Sometimes lions will also hunt wild boars and ostriches.Lions eat virtually any meat they can find, including carrion they snatch from thylacines by force or intimidation.If you had to list a diet for lions, it would probably include all mammals on the African continent that can weigh more than one kilogram, as well as many kinds of birds and some reptiles, such as turtles.

In a lion pride, the lionesses are the main hunters.Male lions do not participate in hunting, but are basically only responsible for "eating".Although the male lion does not hunt, the booty of the lioness is enjoyed first by the male lion, and after they have finished eating, it is the turn of the lioness with the highest status, and finally the children.Animal behaviorists call the phenomenon of lions reaping for nothing "male parasitic domination society".

Lions are the most competitive cats of their kind, and lion prides try to avoid encounters with other prides.Male lions mark territory with roars and the smell of urine.They usually growl before hunting every night and before waking up at dawn to start their activities.Male lions urinate in bushes, bushes or simply on the ground, or leave marks of these pungent odors on the passages they often walk to declare their territory.Once the same kind invades their territory, a life-and-death struggle is inevitable.

Lions love to roar, and they roar frequently, not because of anger, but to swear their territory, deter other lions or predators from entering their territory, and show its majesty.The lion is the cat with the loudest roar and the furthest infrasound transmission among all cats, because its laryngeal cartilage is the most developed.The roar of the lion is loud and shocking.After a new lion king defeats the old lion king, he will roar for a long time, even for several nights in a row, to announce the birth of a new lion king.

Interesting Facts About Lions
There is a layer of mane around the neck of a male lion, also known as "lion mane".Lion mane colors vary, including golden brown, brown and black.The mane of some lions is thick and messy, while others are sparse and smooth.

Scientists have found that male lions with dark, thick and messy manes are less likely to be attacked because of their scary appearance, while male lions with too few manes and too light colors are often attacked. Lion manes are used in hunting ambushes And no help.

Animal experts have found that the features of the mane of each lion will not be exactly the same, just like the fingerprints of humans will not be the same, and the features of the mane will not change due to age, so the identification of a lion can rely on the features of the mane as an identification method.

Some lions are pure white, not because of albinism, but because of mutations in pigment cells. White lions are considered weak and will affect hunting, but white lions are very rare.

Lions, raised by human beings since they were young, are clever and clever. After training, they can perform on stage such as rolling balls, jumping through fire rings, and seesaws. They have become outstanding animal actors in circuses.

My close encounter with a lion

I was fortunate enough to experience life in the Sunshine Circus, and the first job assigned to me was to assist the breeder A Yi to bathe a male lion named Big Trumpet.It roars very loudly and is deafening, so it was given the stage name Big Trumpet.According to regulations, Da Horan should be given a hot bath once a week.It is an animal actor and must maintain a clean and tidy image.To bathe the big horn, the most important thing is to wash its mane.The mane is dense and extends from the cheeks, chin to the back shoulders.It should be rubbed vigorously with shampoo and rinsed with warm water to make it look majestic, majestic, and glamorous, attracting more attention from the audience.

What scares me is not that the lion's mane is difficult to clean, but that it is too dangerous.When rubbing the mane, both hands are busy beside its big mouth. If it is wild, ah, come and take a bite, and your hands will be eaten by it as a snack.Fortunately, I am only assisting Ah Yi in his work. Of course, Ah Yi will wash the lion's mane, and I will wash the lion's legs and tail. I feel that the danger is much smaller.

Suddenly one day, Ah Yi and I had just brought the loudspeaker into the bathroom, when Ah Yi suddenly received a call saying that there was something urgent at home and we had to leave for a while.No way, I had to bathe the big horn alone.The other parts of the lion's body have been washed step by step. It's time to wash the lion's mane. I muttered in my heart, this is not a paper lion, a clay lion, or a toy lion. I yawned, showing my sharp teeth, spouting bloody air, those big eyes with copper bells seemed to emit a murderous look, and the hairs all over my body stood on end.I thought, I just came to the circus as a writer to experience life, there is absolutely no need to risk my life to please a male lion, and it is rare that I don’t wash the lion’s mane once, and I think it will not be a big problem.

So, I drenched the lion's mane with water. I didn't use shampoo, let alone rub and rinse it. I poured water indiscriminately and wiped it with a cloth to wash it.The loudspeaker looked at me with a strange expression, and made a low growl from his throat, as if protesting my cutting corners.I don't pay attention to it, it can't speak, it can't expose my shortcoming, what am I afraid of!
More than an hour later, Ah Yi came back in a hurry. As soon as Big Horn saw Ah Yi, he rubbed his trouser legs with a lion's mane, so Ah Yi asked me if I washed Big Horn's mane?I'm a man, so I don't want to admit that I'm timid, so I said: "I washed it, I used a lot of shampoo, and after rubbing it for a long time, my hands are sore. Look, the lion's mane is not dry yet. Well, smell it, it smells delicious."

As soon as I finished speaking, the loudspeaker suddenly jumped in front of me, opened its huge mouth and yelled at me again and again. As expected of a loudspeaker, the sound made my eardrums hurt.Ah Yi smiled and said, "Look, it's angry. You must not have washed its mane." I blushed and wanted to argue, but the big horn bared my teeth and roared again, this time even louder, shaking the roof tiles. It's not an exaggeration to describe it, and it's like snapping your teeth and claws, as if warning me: Don't blame me for being rude if you dare to talk nonsense again!I took two steps back, my legs gave way and I fell to the ground, not daring to speak anymore, my heart was beating wildly, and I almost had a heart attack.

Ah Yi quickly grabbed the loudspeaker, and yelled: "Don't act wild! Forget it, I'll wash your mane again." I was so angry that my chest felt tight. Alas, all kinds of strange things happen these days, even lions Learn to sue!I really want to kick the big horn's ass hard to vent my hatred, but I just think about it. Except for those who want to commit suicide, who would dare to kick a lion's ass?
Living conditions of lions

African lions are in decline as populations squeeze out living space for lions, but they are not currently listed as endangered or threatened.According to survey statistics, there are still more than [-] wild African lions in the world.

But as early as the 20s, Asiatic lions were listed as endangered.So far, there are only more than 70 Asian lions living in the Gir National Forest Park covering an area of ​​more than 400 square kilometers in Gujarat, northwest India. The living space is narrow, the food pressure is high, and survival is worrying.

One thing that is gratifying to human beings is that lions are relatively easy to raise, so all zoos of any size around the world have lions on display.Many zoos in big cities in my country have "lion and tiger mountains", where lions and tigers are kept together in enclosures. In some places, male lions and female tigers, or male tigers and female lions are hybridized to produce animals that are neither lions nor tigers. I don't know whether to call these freaks lions or tigers, so I have to follow the law of inheritance. All offspring of male lions and female tigers with faces like lions are called "ligers". The hybrid offspring, whose face looks like a tiger, are called "tiger lions".Neither "ligers" nor "tigers" can breed offspring.

A message about lions

There are many subspecies of lions. According to the statistics of animal taxonomists, modern lions are divided into thirteen subspecies: Barbary lion, Cape lion, East African lion, Kruger lion, Congo lion, Masai lion, and Brunbell lion , Somali Lion, Northern Congo Lion, Kalahari Lion, Asiatic Lion, Ethiopian Lion, Senegalese Lion.

Among them, the Cape lion, which lived in the Cape Province of South Africa, became extinct in 1865, leaving only one specimen in the British Royal Museum.The last wild Barbary lion living in North Africa was also declared extinct one morning in 1922 with the roar of a shotgun.

Interestingly, there are still several living Barbary lions in zoos in the United Kingdom and the United States, which have become living specimens to accuse human atrocities.I hope this phenomenon can awaken human beings and treat these beautiful and majestic big cats well, so that our future generations can only see them in zoos in the future.

(End of this chapter)