The Mighty Lion Trivia Quiz

Answer: Panthera leo

Carl Linnaeus gave the name Felis leo to describe the lion in 1758. He did this in his work titled "Systema Naturae." In 1816 German biologist Lorenz Oken gave the name Panthera to the lion. Between the mid eighteenth and mid twentieth centuries, twenty-six lion sub-species were proposed.

In 2005, this number was reduced to eleven that were confirmed. The taxonomy was further updated and in 2017 two sub-species were validated. Those were Panthera leo leo and Panthera leo melanochaita.

Answer: Sexually dimorphic

Female lions and male lions have different and distinctive characteristics. This is known as being sexually dimorphic. Examples of the differences between male and female lions are body size and the mane. Typically male lions are larger in size than females and most adult male lions have the recognizable mane.

The mane starts to grow when a lion reaches a year old, can vary in color but does darken with age.

Answer: Grasslands

African lions are found across sub-Saharan Africa while Asiatic lions are found in western India. They inhabit grasslands and savannahs that have scattered trees for shade. They do not live in dense, tropical forests. They have been found at an elevation as high as thirty six hundred metres, around Mount Elgon and Mount Kenya.

They do also inhabit scrub forest or bush, where there are dry grasses and brush.

Answer: No

While the mane is one of the most recognizable features of an adult male lion, not all lions have manes. Most of the adult male lions in Pendjari National Park in Burkina Faso either have no mane at all or a short mane. Further, lions without manes have also been recorded in Senegal and Kenya.

The original white lion of South Africa was also completely maneless. Testosterone is linked to mane growth and castrated lions are unable to grow manes.

Answer: Leucism

The white lion is not an albino (this surprised me) as it has normal pigmentation in the eyes and skin. It does have a condition known as leucism which is a partial loss of pigmentation in parts such as the skin, fur, feathers or scales (depending on the animal).

In the case of white lions, the eyes are colored normally and the fur has abnormal pigmentation. The white lion was removed from the wild in the 1970s, but there have been live births in the wild recorded since then. Between 2007 and 2015, seventeen live births were recorded.

They have been bred in captivity too. Disgustingly, they are bred for trophy hunts.

Answer: Twenty

Lions spend a great deal of their time resting. I suppose when you have no natural predators you can organize your day however you like! A breakdown of a lion's day usually starts at dusk when they engage in socializing and grooming. These activities continue off and on through to dawn when hunting typically takes place. Hunting usually takes place just under cover of darkness, which gives the lion an advantage. About two hours a day is spent walking and almost an hour eating.

Answer: Hypercarnivore

The lion is an apex predator meaning it is pretty much at the top of the food chain. It is also a hypercarnivore meaning that more than seventy percent of its diet is meat. Lions eat mostly mammals and will eat giraffes, wildebeest, zebra, African buffalo, warthogs and, in India, deer.

They will also eat dead animals where the opportunity arises. They will avoid extremely large prey such as elephants or hippopotamuses. Female lions take on the responsibility of hunting and each lioness will take on a specific role in the hunt.

They don't have a great deal of stamina, will run quickly in short stints and need to be pretty close to their prey before attacking.

Answer: Spotted hyena

Spotted hyenas and lions share quite a bit of habitat and compete for live prey and dead animal carcasses. Spotted hyenas have been recorded either waiting close by while lions eat or attacking lions for the food. For the most part, lions will ignore the spotted hyena unless there is food involved. On some occasions both lions and spotted hyenas have attacked each other where no food is involved. Unfortunately for cheetahs and leopards, lions will attack them, steal their food and kill their cubs. African wild dogs are also completely dominated by lions.

Their numbers are low wherever they share habitats with lions.

Answer: 3.6 months

The average gestation period for the lion is about one hundred and ten days. A lioness is ready to reproduce by about the age of four and may mate with more than one male lion when in heat. She will give birth to between one and four cubs at a time in a concealed den and will keep the cubs away from the pride until they are between six and eight weeks old. Lion cubs are born blind and are quite helpless.

Their eyes open around day seven, they start crawling after a couple of days and start walking around their third week of life.

The lioness will move to a new site with the cubs often in order to keep them safe from predators who may pick up their scent. During this time she hunts alone but keeps close to the den.

Answer: Flehmen response

Lions are quite communicative. They engage in head rubbing and social licking which are peaceful, friendly, reciprocal and playful gestures. They also make a number of different vocal noises which include humming, purring, bleating and roaring. A lion's roar can be heard as far away as five miles.

They have a number of expressive facial gestures. A common facial expression is known as the 'grimace gesture' or flehmen response. This gesture includes bared teeth and a snorting behavior that includes inhalation and the transfer of scents.

It is generally used when an animal is exploring odors.