habitat_narrative
Terrestrial
Lions have a broad habitat tolerance and are only absent from tropical rainforest and the interior of the Sahara Desert (Nowell & Jackson 1996). They once lived across Eurasia, but now only a remnant population of a different subspecies (Panthera leo persica) survives in India. Lions are largely found in the savannah biome of Africa, which is broadly defined as those areas that receive between 300 and 1500 mm of rain annually, and encompass a wide variety of habitats including grasslands, wetlands, dry woodlands and mosaics of all of these (Riggio et al. 2013). They do locally exist in the Namib Desert in Namibia (Bauer & van Der Merwe 2004). Once extirpated from the tropical thicket biome of the Eastern Cape in South Africa, Lions have recently been successfully reintroduced (Hayward et al. 2007).Although Lions drink regularly when water is available, they are capable of obtaining their moisture requirements from their prey and even plants (such as the tsama melon in the Kalahari Desert), and thus can survive in very arid environments as they are water-independent (Green et al. 1984). Medium- to large-sized ungulates (190â550 kg, including antelopes, zebra and wildebeest) are the bulk of their prey (Hayward & Kerley 2005), but depending on circumstances, Lions will take almost any animal, from rodents to a rhinoceros. They also scavenge, displacing other predators (such as the Spotted Hyaena Crocuta crocuta) from their kills (Hayward 2006). Lions can only exist in areas with sufficient wild prey, and seldom co-exist closely with man. Within their home ranges, Lions require habitats or locations that are suitable for hunting, resting, and breeding. They readily adapt to hunting in varied habitats generally having greater success when hunting in areas with longer grass or cover (Funston et al. 2001). Although landscape features may vary from area to area, Lions tend to select areas where prey is easier to catch, rather than areas where prey densities are highest.
Lions are the most social of the cats, with related females remaining together in prides, and related and unrelated males forming coalitions competing for tenure over prides (West & Packer 2013). Average pride size (including males and females) is four to six adults; prides generally break into smaller groups when hunting (Smuts 1976). Lions tend to live at higher densities than most other felids, but with a wide variation from 1.5 adults / 100 km² in southern African semi-desert to 55 adults / 100 km² in parts of the Serengeti. Small fenced reserves in South Africa had average densities below 10 adults / 100 km2 (Miller & Funston 2014). Pride home ranges can vary widely even in the same region: for example, from 266 to 4,532 km² in the South African part of the KTP (Funston 2001), and 45 km² in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (Hanby et al. 1995). Home ranges also vary widely within South Africa and do not appear to be linked to reserve size (Lehmann et al. 2008). For example, home ranges can vary hugely within a reserve, as evidenced on Makalali where Lions had home ranges from 25 km2 to 107 km2 (Druce et al. 2004).
Key habitat for Lions is directly driven by the presence or density of preferred prey species rather than any particular vegetation types â other than those associated with their preferred prey. As such, the vegetation communities that support the preferred prey of Lions range from semi-desert (Kalahari) through savannah (Kruger/Okavango) and subtropical thicket (Addo). In South Africa, however, the predominant subpopulations all occur within the savannah biome in the northern parts of the country.
Ecosystem and cultural services:
- This species is a keystone species and an apex predator. For example, Lions were reintroduced to Addo Elephant National Park in part to substitute the need to cull overabundant herbivores (Hayward et al. 2007), thus performing an ecosystem service of top-down population control.
- Lions are extensively used for ecotourism and are a prominent member of the âBig 5â (Di Minin et al. 2012; Maciejewski & Kerley 2014).
- Lions have huge commercial value in the trophy hunting industry, though there is controversy over such practices.
