Lion

How do you identify a lion?

The lion is a big cat 1.7 to 2.5 meters long without the tail, about 1.2 meters tall at the shoulder, with a plain tawny coat. The male grows a mane from around 3 years old that darkens with age, while the female has none and looks leaner. Both have a black tuft at the tip of the tail, which cubs do not have yet. Nothing in Tanzania looks like it: the leopard and the cheetah are spotted and much lighter. From a distance, in tall grass, a lioness lying down blends in with a termite mound or a rock, and the flick of an ear often gives her away.

How do lions live?

The lion is the only cat that lives in groups. A pride has 3 to 30 animals: related females with their cubs, and one or more males that defend a territory of 20 to 500 km². The females do the hunting, mostly at night, and the pride sleeps about twenty hours a day. In the Serengeti, prides follow the migrating wildebeest, and in Ngorongoro they live confined to the crater, at the highest density in Africa. A roar carries for several kilometers and marks the territory, often at nightfall.

Where and when can you see lions on safari?

Dawn is the time to go, when the pride comes back from the hunt, walks down the track or finishes off a kill. As soon as the sun gets hot, lions lie down in the shade until evening. In Tanzania, you see them all over the Serengeti, where they follow the migration. At Lake Manyara and in Tarangire, look up into the acacias, which they climb in the heat of the day. Ngorongoro shows them in broad daylight on the short grass, and Ruaha in large prides near the buffalo herds in the dry season.

In Kenya, the Masai Mara shows them on almost every game drive. At Ol Pejeta, if you stay overnight, you track them at dawn with the rangers. In Tsavo East, the short-maned lions live around the waterholes in the south.

In South Africa, Kruger's lions are often on the roads in the early morning, in the south and center of the park. In Sabi Sand, they live in stable prides whose positions the lodges pass on to each other by radio. A lion lying down ignores a stationary 4x4 with its engine off.

Are lions endangered?

The IUCN lists the lion as Vulnerable. Between 16,500 and 30,000 lions remain in Africa's savannas, and the population fell by 43% between 1993 and 2017. Tanzania holds a large share, with more than 3,000 in the Serengeti alone and a tenth of the continent's lions in Ruaha. The threats are habitat loss, conflict with herders whose livestock lions kill, and poaching. Your entry fees fund the parks that protect them.