As it is Women’s month, we have decided to put the ‘Queen of the Jungle’ in the spotlight and share with you why nature has designed her to be the head hunter and why her male counterpart is the King!
Did you know that lionesses are around 30% faster than male lions according to Stefan Pociask who is a Wildlife researcher from the USA? A lioness can reach speeds of up to 70km per hour, which is around 20km per hour faster than her male counterpart! Females are also a foot shorter in length and around 30kg’s lighter which gives the female the edge when it comes to making the chase for their prey.
The male lion also has a mane as opposed to the females. This beautiful neck and facial hair not only gives the male his sex appeal, but apparently the darker their mane the more attractive they are to the females as darker manes are said to display the most powerful genetics. This dark mane unfortunately has its shortfall, this being a camouflage issue. Lions are not tawny in colour for no reason, this tawny colour is the perfect way for the animal to hide in the tall grasslands when hunting, however the males dark mane stands out and completely gives away their location in the tall grass whereas the female can engage stealth mode and stalk her prey slowly and under cover with her light tawny colour, perfectly hidden in the tall grass!
Colour in the bush is both a blessing and a curse. Males who are just “Lion” around all day, in fact have to conserve their energy as their dark manes can make these majestic creatures overheat and the King of the Jungle always has to be ready to engage fight mode should another male enter his territory looking to take over his pride! The male is built to protect his pride with pure power with dashing good looks. This is hard work for the females who have to keep him well fed with an average feeding of around 7kgs a day for males and 5kg’s for a female in order to keep the males good looks and hunting game at peak performance. Lions are opportunistic hunters and known to take down multiple prey should the opportunity arise, but should the prey be bigger than their average antelope, then the king of the jungle will assist his lionesses to bring down the larger prey.
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