Lion facts: prides, hunting, habitat and conservation status

What does a lion look like?

Lions have a plain tawny coat, a long tail ending in a dark tuft and, in adult males, a mane around the head and neck. The mane makes males look larger and is the most obvious difference between the sexes; no other wild cat shows such a striking visual difference between males and females. Cubs are born with faint spots that usually fade as they grow.

Size varies by region and sex. Adult males are clearly bigger and heavier than lionesses, and large male lions can match or exceed smaller tigers, although the tiger is the largest cat species overall. See the big cat comparison table for side by side sizes.

How does a lion pride work?

A pride is a group of related adult females, their cubs and one or more adult males. The IUCN Cat Specialist Group gives an average of four to six adult lionesses per pride in Africa, with prides ranging from 1 to 21 females. Lionesses usually stay in the pride where they were born, while young males leave and try to win a pride of their own later.

Males often team up in coalitions, frequently brothers or other males that grew up together. A coalition that takes over a pride may kill young cubs fathered by the previous males, which brings the females back into breeding condition sooner. Competition is intense, and a single male rarely holds a pride for long except where lions are scarce.

Pride territories vary hugely with prey. Where prey is plentiful, lions can live at 10 to 40 per 100 km² with territories of 50 to 200 km²; in dry, prey poor areas, home ranges can grow to thousands of square kilometres.

Do male lions hunt?

Yes. Lionesses do much of the cooperative hunting, often stalking and surrounding prey as a group, but males hunt too, especially larger and more dangerous animals such as buffalo, and they hunt alone when they are not with a pride. Lions are also frequent scavengers and will take carcasses from other predators, which makes them especially vulnerable to poisoned carcasses.

Typical prey includes wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, antelope and warthog, depending on what is common locally. Lions spend a large part of each day resting and are most active from dusk to dawn.

Why do lions roar?

A lion's roar advertises territory and helps pride members locate each other. It can carry over several kilometres. Lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars can roar thanks to the structure of their larynx and vocal folds; the snow leopard and cheetah cannot. Our post which big cats can roar explains the anatomy.

Where do lions live?

Lions live mainly in savanna, grassland, open woodland and scrub, not in dense rainforest, so the phrase "king of the jungle" is misleading. They have been recorded as high as 4,240 m in Ethiopia's Bale Mountains. In 2025 their known range was estimated at about 6 percent of their historical range.

The IUCN recognises two subspecies. Panthera leo melanochaita lives in southern and eastern Africa. Panthera leo leo covers West and Central Africa and the Asiatic lions of India, which survive as a single population centred on Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat. That population grew from a tiny remnant in the late 1800s to about 670 adult and subadult lions in 2020, and lions now range across a wider area known as the Greater Gir Landscape.

Lions have disappeared from many African countries, including all of North Africa, and in West Africa they survive only in small, isolated populations.

How many lions are left and why are they declining?

Estimates for Africa compiled by the IUCN Cat Specialist Group fell from about 33,000 lions in 2006 to about 25,000 in 2018, and the 2025 estimate was roughly 22,000 to 25,000 adults and subadults. Populations in southern Africa, many in fenced reserves, are stable or increasing, while the steepest losses are in West and Central Africa.

The main threats are conflict with people over livestock, loss of habitat and of the wild prey lions depend on (often through snaring and the bushmeat trade), and a growing illegal trade in lion bones and other parts. The Asiatic population is protected but vulnerable because all of it sits in one landscape, so a single disease outbreak could hit the whole population. Read more on our big cat conservation page.

Frequently asked questions

Where do lions live besides Africa?

The only wild lions outside Africa live in and around Gir forest in Gujarat, western India. They belong to the northern subspecies Panthera leo leo.

How many lions are left in the wild?

The IUCN Cat Specialist Group estimated roughly 22,000 to 25,000 adult and subadult lions in Africa in 2025, plus about 670 adult and subadult Asiatic lions counted in India in 2020.

Do lions really live in the jungle?

No. Lions prefer savanna, grassland and open woodland. The nickname king of the jungle is a figure of speech, not a description of their habitat.