Carnivores   Pachydermata   Ongulates   Reptiles   Primates, rodents and others   Birds    Birds of prey    Terrestrial birds    Waders and water birds

A good gauge of a male lion's age is the darkness of his mane : the darker the mane the older the lion.

A female lion needs 5kg of meat a day, a male 7kg or more.

Lions live an average of 12 years and up to 16 years.

An adult male's roar can be heard up to 8km away.

Lions can run at a speed of up to 80km/h.

Lions have 4 claws on their back feet, but 5  on the front  where the dew claw is found. The dew claw does not show in their foot print and acts like a thumb that is used to hold down a prey.

Lions have  round pupils instead of vertical slits that are found in domestic cats.

Lions cubs are born with blue eyes that change to amber or brown when around the age of 2 or 3 months.

Lions will mate roughly every 30 minutes (each mating lasting for around 20 seconds) for 3 days non stop.

Lions historically roamed the greater part of the african continent but are now limited to pockets occupying less than 20% of their historic range. The current estimate of lion population stands at around 2000 individuals (Vs 23,000 in Africa and 200,000 a century ago).  In 2016, studies indicate that  the country loses about 100 lions annually bacause of habitat loss, reduction of prey base, human-carnivore conflicts, poisoning, deseases etc. The biggest threat to lions in Kenya is conflicts with humans, especially herders who poison lions who attack cattles.Lions are becoming extremey rare outside protected areas.

Kenya has 6 big areas that contain lions :

- Serengeti (Tanzania) / Masai Mara area : 3673 lions in 35,852 km².

- Tsavo - Mkomazi : 880 lions in 39,216 km².

- Arawale - Bush Bush shared with Somalia : 750 lions in 22,540 km².

- Laikipa - samburu : 271 lions in 35,511 km².

- Meru : 40 lions in 7,365 km².

- Nairobi National Park : 40 lions in 117 km².