Most kinds of cats live alone, but lions live together in groups called prides; a pride is built around related adult females and their young, plus a few adult males who are not their relatives. Female lions usually stay in the pride they were born into, often for life; lionesses in a pride raise their cubs together. A lion cub can drink milk from other lionesses in the pride, not just from its own mother; a pride can have as few as two lions or as many as 40. Prides are smaller where food is scarce and larger where there is plenty of prey.

Young male lions leave the pride they were born in when they grow big enough to compete with the older males; male lions form teams called coalitions, usually of brothers, to take over a pride. A male lion who wins a pride usually holds it for about two years before another group of males replaces him; male lions guard the pride and patrol its territory. A pride does not welcome stranger lions.

Female lions, called lionesses, do most of the hunting for the pride; male lions hunt too, but much less than females. Lions mostly hunt at night, around dusk and dawn; lions hunt together, which gives them a better chance of getting food. Hunting lionesses fan out and come at their prey from different directions; lions rely on stalking and a short chase rather than a long run. Together, lions can take down animals as big as buffalo and giraffe; most lion hunts do not succeed.

Lions are meat eaters that hunt big animals such as zebra and wildebeest; when prey is scarce, lions will eat almost any animal and scavenge the kills of other predators. Lions steal food from other hunters such as hyenas and leopards; when wild prey becomes scarce, lions may turn to hunting farm animals. Farmers who lose livestock to lions sometimes kill lions in revenge; lions are top predators that help keep their ecosystem healthy.

The lions of Tanzania's Serengeti have been studied without a break since 1966, so scientists can follow the same lions from birth to death. George Schaller's 1972 book The Serengeti Lion, from his study of the lions of Tanzania's Serengeti, won a National Book Award and became the foundational text on lions.

Lions roar to mark their territory and to keep in touch with their own pride. A lion's roar helps strengthen the bond among members of a pride. A lion's roar can be heard from up to five miles (8 kilometers) away. Male lions start to roar when they are about one year old, and females start a few months later.

The lion is a big cat, in the same group as tigers, leopards and jaguars. It is the second-largest big cat in the world, after the tiger. Male lions weigh about 330 to 550 pounds (150 to 250 kilograms), and females weigh about 265 to 395 pounds. Male lions grow a shaggy mane, and no other kind of wild cat grows one. A male lion's mane gets darker as he gets older. A male lion's mane makes him look bigger and more impressive to rivals and to females.

A lioness carries her cubs for about three and a half months before they are born. A lioness has a litter of cubs about every two years. Lion cubs are born with dark spots on their fur. A lioness hides her newborn cubs for the first several weeks while they grow strong. Lion cubs drink their mother's milk for about six months.

Almost all wild lions live in Africa, and a small group lives in India. Thousands of years ago, lions lived across much more of the world, including parts of Europe and Asia. Lions do not live in tropical rainforests. Lions are threatened by habitat loss and by conflict with people over livestock. As of November 2026, the IUCN Red List lists the lion as Vulnerable to extinction.

Words to know

• coalitions: teams of males
• prides: lion family groups
• livestock: farm animals
• foundational: base text
• scavenge: eat others' kills