Animals are placed in different categories depending on their specific characteristics. Some are known as the fastest, largest and most dangerous, while others are just plain cute. The ones I am interested in at the moment are members of the Big Five. The African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard and the black/ white rhinceros. The Big Five were chosen as the five most challenging animals in Africa to hunt on foot.
My attention is drawn to the king, the African lion, considered by many to be the best of the Big Five. Hunters are intrigued by lions because of the real danger involved. So what makes them so menacing? In order to answer that question we have to know more about their basic traits. What most people know about lions is that they are a part of the cat family ( Felidea ), but what you might not know is that they are also the only social members. They live in large family groups called ''prides'' which usually consist of more females than males.
African lions live in the savanna where tall grassess, shrubs, and bushes are their allies providing cover and camouflage. They are ambush hunters that use natural cover when stalking their prey. Although they were known to exist in most areas of Africa, they are now found only in the south Sahara desert and in parts of southern and eastern Africa.
These big cats enjoy relaxing and laying around. That being said it's not that surprising that female lions are the groups primary hunters. Female lions work as a team when hunting zebra, wildebeast, antelopes and other prey because those animals are usually faster and team work pays off in those situations.
Lionesses with cubs should be approached with caution, after all a woman's wrath is a woman's wrath. Still at the end of the day, once dinner is served, male lions eat first.
Lions are hunted using three methods: stalking, baiting and hounding. Stalking is done by following paths that lions are known to inhabit and is done in daylight. Night stalking using electric light sources is against the law in most countries. Baiting involves hunting a prey species beforehand to be used as bait. Usually the hunter will lie and wait in a natural or assembled blind. Finally hounding, the method least used today, involves using dogs to track a lion by scent, and then keeping it at bay until the hunting party arrives.
As I mentioned earlier the African lion is considered by many to be the best of the Big Five. A nocturnal, mighty beast, whose roar can be heard up to 5m away. A lion can run 50 mph and is more likely to stand and fight rather than flee when confronted. Now that we know the basic facts I guess the only question is, how fast is your trigger finger?
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