ROAR! Lions
By Sydney Bruns
Body Parts of a Lion
Lions are the king of the jungle and the biggest cat too. Male lions weigh about 500 pounds or more. Female lions weigh less than male lions. Female lions weigh about 400 pounds.
The Sharp Teeth
Lions have very sharp teeth that help them bite into their prey. Lions have 30 teeth and 4 of the 30 teeth are canines. Since lions have such sharp teeth, it is easy to get the meat out of the animals they kill.
The Lions Mane
Lions manes are big and light brown. Lions are not that big. If you take away the mane, they look smaller. The mane just makes the lion look big and fierce.
The Lions Legs
The lions legs are really powerful. Their legs help them jump really high, so they can jump onto big prey. The lions legs are short, but really strong.
The Paw
The lions claws and paws help them bring down the prey. Lions have 5 sharp claws. Their sharp claws help them at lest get a scratch on the animal. Lions paws are not furry, but on the top of the paws they do have fur.
The Tail
Lions tails are light brown like its rest of its body. The tail is 2-3.3 feet long. Male and Female tails are the same length.
Life Cycle of a Lion
Mother lions give birth to 2 or 5 cubs. When cubs are born, they weigh about 3 pounds. Lions keep their cubs close so they don't get lost or starve. Baby lions are always hungry. Mom lions carry their cubs in their mouth very carefully to safer places. When cubs are born they are weak, blind, and they can't even stand!
Growing up
When lions learn to be adult lions, they need a lot of sleep. When they start to grow up they love to play fighting games and hinting games to get stronger. When lions are about 18 months old, they hunt for themselves. When the get to a certain age they don't need their family. After 2 years, they don't need to rely on their prey to live.
Lions vs. Hyenas
Lions and hyenas have a lot in common, but they don't have a lot of differences. Hyenas can kill a full-grown lion only in a group. Lions on the other hand, they do not need to go in a group to kill a hyena. A lion would kill a hyena, but a lion would not eat the hyena after killing it. But hyenas would eat a lion after killing it. Lions kill hyenas for many reason, but one reason that lions kill hyenas are because they both hunt the same prey. LIons don't like sharing their food with other animals. It seems as though hyenas are more powerful than lions.
Similarities
Even though hyenas and lions are enemies, they still have a lot in common. They both live in the same area, hyenas and lions hunt the same food, and they both steal food from other animals. The only thing that is bad about how they are in common is, they both kill each other. Lions and hyenas may or may not like each other, but they still have a lot in common.
Innocent Victims
There are many problems that lions have to face. For instance, lions are dying because of humans. People are shooting lions because they want lion fur, claws, paws, and heads. Most people are trying to make laws. Some people follow the laws and some people don't follow the laws. People want body parts of a lion so they can sell the body parts for a high price. Some people want to shoot lions, so then they would move somewhere you can shoot lions.
Solution
There is a solution to all of these problems with lions. Since people are shooting lions, people are making more and more laws about how you can't shoot lions. Now people are trying to help lions by, feeding them and taking care of them. Now if you hunt, kill, or capture a lion you get arrested. People are killing a innocent animal.
In danger of becoming extinct...
The reason why lions are dying out is because people are capturing them, hunting them, and people don't care about lions. People just want to sell lions for money. All they care about is the money, not the lions.
Endanger
Sadly, the lion population is decreasing. To start there was 100,000 lions, but now there is less then 16,000 lions left. There is only a little population of lions because if they don't eat that day, they would eat each other . Did you know that some times lions even eat their own cubs! Some of the lion cubs don't even live till their first birthday. Sadly, since the lion population going down so fast, in 2050 lions won't exist.