African Lion (Season Finale)

hello everyone welcome back to relax with the animal facts I am staff wharf and today I am going to be learning with you about our furry scaly or possibly even slimy friends ended today's case it is definitely going to be a furry friend of ours because we are covering the %HESITATION soul wonderful African lion this of course is a very special listener episode dedicated to alley Veronica Matt sarin during the and Nick thank you all for the amazing request this episode would not have been possible without you just a couple of things before we actually hop into the episode you may have noticed that last week there was no episode in that now on a Saturday or a Sunday the episode is live this was not a toll intentional for those of you that don't know I work in healthcare and so around this time of year things tend to get a little bit why old more wild than the line we're learning about today maybe and so thank you for your understanding and for your patience I never like to upload things later but sometimes I'm squeezed into some corners the second thing that I'd like to mention is that this is actually the end of season five this is the twenty fifth episode marking the finish of the fifth season and because it is the end of the season the show will be taking a two week break and so do not expect new episodes for the next two weeks but we will be back on the third week now during this time please still send messages to the podcast request your animals and everything else for those of you who are not on the Instagram make sure to go and follow the Instagram because during the break I'm going to be doing a live session in which all of you can give me feedback and advice and ways that you think the show could be better this show is made by you and for you in terms of your animal requests and your listenership and so I want to make the podcast as best as I can and that means taking in all of your feedback and now let's move on if you would like to know how to request an animal and where all the facts came from to make this episode it will be at the end of the episode and it will also be immediately available in the description or the podcast show notes now I would like for all of you to notice perhaps where you were carrying some tension we are in a festive season but with that festive season sometimes comes a lot of Christmas shopping and long lines and traffic and all the rest and so I have two primary exhortations for each of you the first is that your shoes are on tights and ties nicely we are going to need that for where we're going today and the second thing I ask of you is that you do your best to imbibe Jello by that I mean that any of the tension that we're carrying whether it's in the shoulders and the lakes wherever it is we do not need it where we are going and so I encourage you to imagine Jello and try your best to simply impersonated lastly simply allow your mind to wander and journey with me into the savannas where the African lion resides as we were walking through this African savanna you can just notice the dry wind that is brushing up against her cheeks and take in the magnificent colors that are all around us for some of us be Yuge and this Tony brownish color is something that we skip over but there was something special and peculiar to each habitat yes we may not have the lush greenery of the rain forest but we also do not have the craggy mountain tops that sport in entirely different but still breathtaking scenery and here among the Tony graphs and the beige floor we can see a creature that resembles the similar colors that we are seeing here that of course is the African lion I'm not sure if you were as surprised as I am that we are covering the African lion on our fifth season after over a hundred and twenty episodes better late than never these are of course animals that are iconic in the sense that throughout history they have been used as symbols of courage of strength and there is certainly a reason for this it's large paws its posture their main and they're confident countenance or just their facial expression is one that can give us an impression that this animal knows it's a king and of course that is why many kings use the lion as their symbol now in the cat family they are so second in size only to Tigers Tigers are actually slightly larger than alliance while they are similar in size the adult lions coach is going to be quite a different color than that of the striped tiger the line is going to have that yellow gold color all the way through with those characteristic brown mains while the juveniles or the younger lions were going to have some light spots scattered around that will slowly dissipate as they grow up that word main that I'm using is used to describe a fringe of hair that in circles their head I could probably count the amount of creatures that have the main at least the ones that I am aware of on my hand and so there were something about creatures with mains that seem to stir and also greater admiration or curiosity now why exactly are we walking the savannas in sub Saharan Africa instead of somewhere else well if we were beginning our journey two thousand years ago we might be somewhere else that is because many parts of Asia and Europe as well as other parts of Africa used to have large swaths of lions but in our current day lands of old which disappeared from ninety four percent of the range that they used to have in history for those of you that love history we can read in many different historical works say those of the ancient Roman authors in which lions would be brought to Rome from the surrounding areas four games and these different things that they had at the time now how is it that the ancient Romans were able to get to lions all the way a to Rome and the answer is that they didn't have to go all that far lions roamed around much of northern Africa and Europe some time ago in fact many historians exclusively pointed their fingers towards the Roman emperors as being solely responsible for the extinction of many species that used to live in that area the lion is of course one of them and so today we are roaming sub Saharan Africa which comprises about six percent of its total historic range African lions will mainly stick to scrub or open woodlands as well as grasslands this is because it allows them to more easily hunt their prey but lions in general will live in most habitats aside from tropical rainforests and really truly arid climates like desserts well we are covering the African lion there is a lion species known as Asiatic lions which are recorded actually as subspecies of the African lion bite there is only one very small population that continues to live today in India's growth forest now the scientific name of the African lion is the Panthera Leo Penn terra is a Latin word that comes from a Greek word that is used to describe the Panthers or leopards but that's weird Pandera can be broken down into a pan and Serra which means all beast does we are looking at this creature we can see how large and intimidating they are they can be between four and a half to six and a half feet toll while sporting a twenty six to forty inch tail the way somewhere between two hundred and six D. five to four hundred and twenty pounds and the reason why there was such a large difference in the way it is of course accounting for males and females which in African lions can be quite different now just in case we are not sure I don't wish to assume anything but when we say that the African lion lives in sub Saharan Africa I just wish to clarify what exactly that means that adjective that amusing sub Saharan means that the area we are talking about our regions in Africa that are south of the Sahara desert sub usually means below are under and sub Saharan Africa covers a lot of space when we see a few different clients together and they form a group what line groups recalled our rights so like we might say certain birds are a flock or certain aquatic groups are pods in the case of the African lion they are prides prides are very closely knit family groups these family groups will work together in order to not only hunt prey but also to defend their range or their territory you may have noticed that in many documentaries the lions that are hunting the parade don't have these large mains that is because those are female lions the females in the pride tend to do the majority of the hunting for the group and they will oftentimes work together using hunting tactics in order to corner and catch prey which they would obviously have a much more difficult time catching if they were simply on their own lines as a whole but it seems especially the male lions enjoy relaxing and blazing around sort of like many of our domestic house cats the we'll spend somewhere between sixteen and twenty hours each day sleeping and relaxing there is a reason that they do this biologically and so not all of the blame can be put on strict laziness here they actually don't have too many sweat glands and so this is a way of conserving energy by arresting and that this conserved energy will then be used to hunt more effectively at night the reason sweat glands are so important is because it is a mechanism by which we can regulate heat or body temperature so we can imagine that in the blazing temperatures of sub Saharan Africa few sweat glands would make it really challenging to be super active the entire day now this means that the males grow but not the females will grow up to sixteen centimeters long and or a sign of dominance over time their mains will change color growing darker and darker creating a persona of grit and toughness so this means that we would most likely be able to tell the difference between a young lion who has a fully grown man and an older line who also has a fully grown mane the color is the indicator as to their age at least from a former melt in the specific prides of lions while the females are going to be doing a lot of the hunting the mail or sometimes small groups of males will defend their pride the lionesses with of course the feeding the young until they are of age to go and hunt themselves now a recent the lion will be hunting at night is because they have specialized highs that are very keen in the dark this will provide the lion with an exceptional advantage especially over pray that do not have any such mechanism or at least not to the extent that the lion has and unlike many cats that I have come in contact with these huge wild cats will hunt more during storms because storms provide lions something like an auditory camouflage the wind and the noise and the wrestling will make it much harder for prey to distinguish the steps and moves of the lion over just any regular natural ambience with the decreased visibility and auditory cues this will make hunting prey of much is your business for the lion and during these hunts which will sometimes be during a storm the lionesses which we remember do the majority of the hunting they will take specific roles in their hunting pack some will play the role of center while the lionesses that take the wings the left or the right will be correcting the prey not allowing the prey to run out to the left or to the right and keeping them in a straight line this is a great tactic for creatures that will often evade predators not simply by how fast they run or how long they can run for but by doing these impressively quick zigzag movements that will wear out any large predator so we can see how hunting in groups and specifically in these groups with intelligent hunting tactics can allow the lionesses to take down some pretty big animals some of the creatures that these lionesses will be going for are going to be antelopes wildebeest zebras and other large animals zebras and antelopes are both pretty big will the beasts even more so so that is how fears of predator the lion can be no after the impeccable teamwork and coordination of the lionesses in their hunting the whole group will often get into some maybe family squabbles over who gets what portion of the kill a kind of pecking order will form with the codes of course at the bottom as young lions do not have the opportunity or they do not help to hunt until they are about a year old so they will have to wait while the adult males and the lionesses get their share first sometimes it is not necessary for the lion to have to go out and do these coordinated tactics and they will instead employ a kind of scavenging approach in which they will steal the kills of other creatures like hyenas were wild dogs now when they're eating apart from of course they're incredibly sharp teeth the tongue of a lion is exceedingly rough that is because on their tongue they are covered with these sharp spines that are cold happy life or populate they will cover the tongue of the lion and will be used to scrape meat off the bones that function for us as human beings is mostly relegated to using our teeth but they have such rough tongues that they can simply licked the meat off the bones literally lions are the only known cat species where the individuals of the group will roar together often times in the cast world it is something of an individual behavior but not for the lion sometimes even the young cubs who joined in with their little mews the roaring sequence will last usually for about forty seconds and a pride of lions will offer and to this kind of roaring to mark their territory creating something like an auditory marker into this roar can be heard up to five miles away now for those of you who have cats at home you might be surprised to learn that the pause of your house count will be very similar to that of a lion's paws of course with the exception of size there pose with the same except the lions will have polls that are much much bigger on the back they will have four toes while on the front they will have five toes and it's just like your pet cat lions have those similar retractable claws that they can choose to engage whenever they see fit it is pretty amazing that you can get a little bit of lion anatomy like going to your little house cat now let us move on to the name lion what exactly does this word mean and where does it come from now we have sort of imported to the word lions from old French Leo and we did this around the twelfth century but this word comes from Latin and then from Greek the word lay on which is used in Greek was of course used to describe the creature were learning about today but was also ascribes to the constellation Leo which is in the sky the word has been used figuratively and English from about twelve hundred eighty D. so this is a very old tradition it would be used if certain people that had lion like attributes or qualities someone that is fiercely brave what would also be used in a derogatory sense when it came to people or leaders who are specifically to radical or greedy the word lion hearted can specifically be traced to the year seventeen %HESITATION H. as its usage we use the term lion's share when we're talking about the greatest portion of something so you may have a Turkey dinner in which the lion's share is allotted to you meaning that you get to boast of the Turkey or the greatest portion of it we also use the term the lion's mouth when we're talking about a place of great danger so which would be used something like that key is the lion's mouth of this island so the lion is richly intertwined with our human history in the sense that many people of course physically lived near Lyons but also in the sense of affecting human art and poetry and metaphor and the line is one of the most culturally significant creatures that I can think of and now let us move on to the review portion of the show this review is coming all the way from the United States of America and it was written by Mrs J. rooks and Mrs J. rooks rights I have been listening for a while I like how this podcast has evolved but one of the best things that has improved is the introduction it really helps me get relaxed and like Jello so I can imagine the learning journey I am intrigued to become a patron so I can access the extinct animals however I appreciate the ability to listen for free with no commercials until my financial situation improves questions to Seth have you done the key bird I heard it was fearsome but beautiful thank you Mrs rooks for writing such a wonderful review I'm so glad that you've been listening for a long time I am so grateful for your listenership I'm also grateful that you are enjoying the changes of the podcast one of the most popular episodes on this podcast is actually the very first one I believe it's the %HESITATION rang a tank and sometimes when I think of how I recorded that show what they did I am honestly a little too embarrassed to go back and listen I fear that if I go back and listen I will be motivated to delete it and so I am going to leave it as it is in terms of the patriarch I know how challenging these specific times or in regards to finances and that is why I have made all of the tears on patrie on exactly the same whether you pay one dollar a month or whether you pay ten dollars a month all of the access is exactly the same and the difference in prices however much you want to give to the show any amount is a result of generosity and of course I invite all of you there if you are able in regards to Seth's question I have not done the keeper and I have not even heard that it was fearsome but beautiful because it is the first time I'm hearing of such a creature so I will be sure to give Seth a big shout out when the keeper is done in the future if you wish to leave a review for the show it is one of the greatest ways that you can give back if the show has helped you thank you all so much for listening to this podcast episode the facts used in this episode come from W. W. F. dot org National Geographic dot com at him online dot com one kind planet dot org and at him online dot com all of the specific links are in the show notes with a description of the episode in this episode would not have been possible without their contributions if you wish to request an animal for the show and have your very own episode you can do so in one of three ways you can message relax with animal facts on Instagram you can go to relax with animal facts dot com and go to the animal request tab or you can send an email to relax with animal facts at G. mail dot com you can tell me what you like about the show what you don't like about it your animal suggestion and I will be sure to get back to you as soon as I can I do my best to reply to each and everyone of you but if for some reason I have not responded it means that you've got lost in the pile and I encourage you to send the same message again or another one if you want because I want to respond to each and everyone of you on behalf of me personally I wish everyone listening a very merry Christmas and I hope you enjoyed plenty of family time and food this time of year especially as a Canadian this time of year is one of my favorites of course it is a little bit more busy but everyone just seems to be in such a jolly mood and so I hope you all enjoy this festive season and they will see you in the next podcast episode with the next animal take care.