The lion is a member of the Panthera genus and belongs to the Felidae family. It has a strong physique with a deep chest, a small, rounded head, round ears, and a hairy tuft at the tail’s end. Adult male lions have a prominent mane, which is sexually dimorphic. They are bigger than females, who have a mean head-to-body length of 184 to 208 cm (72 to 82 in) (63 to 72 in). It is a sociable animal that organizes itself into prides.

A lion pride is made up of a few adult males, females that are connected, and cubs. Female lions often hunt in packs, preying mostly on big ungulates. Although some lions scavenge when opportunities present themselves and have been known to hunt humans, the lion is an apex and keystone predator.

The lion prefers grasslands and savannas, but is not found in thick woods. It is more diurnal than other wild cats, although when hunted, it adjusts to being active at night and in the twilight. The lion formerly roamed throughout Africa, Southeast Europe, and Western and South Asia during the Neolithic period, but it has now been reduced to scattered populations in Sub-Saharan Africa and a single population in western India.

It has been classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1996, owing to a population reduction of around 43% across African nations during the early 1990s. Outside of specified protected areas, lion numbers are unsustainable. Although the exact reason of the decline is unknown, habitat degradation and human conflict are the most pressing concerns.

The lion has been frequently represented in sculptures and paintings, on national flags, and in contemporary cinema and literature as one of the most widely recognized animal emblems in human civilization. Lions have been maintained in menageries since the Roman Empire, and they have been a popular species for exhibition at zoological parks all over the world since the late 1800s. Lions were important in Ancient Egypt’s cultural images, and they have appeared in almost all ancient and medieval cultures across the lion’s historic and contemporary range.

The term ‘lion’ comes from the Latin leo and the Ancient Greek v. (leon). It’s also possible that the term lavi (Hebrew: ) is connected. Panthera is derived from the classical Latin term ‘panthra’ and the ancient Greek word ‘panther.’ Panthera sounds a lot like the Sanskrit term pând-ara, which means ‘pale yellow, whitish, white.’

Lions from the Ethiopian Highlands are genetically linked to those from Cameroon and Chad, whereas lions from other regions of Ethiopia are linked to those from East Africa. As a result, researchers believe Ethiopia represents a crossroads for the two subspecies. A wild-born historical lion sample from Sudan grouped with P. l. leo in mtDNA-based phylogenies, but had a strong affinity for P. l. melanochaita, according to genome-wide data. As a result of this finding, the taxonomic status of lions in Central Africa may need to be revised.

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