When resting, lion socialization occurs through a number of behaviours, and the animal's expressive movements are highly developed. The most common peaceful tactile gestures are head rubbing and social licking,[122] which have been compared with grooming in primates.[123] Head rubbing – nuzzling one's forehead, face and neck against another lion – appears to be a form of greeting,[124] as it is seen often after an animal has been apart from others, or after a fight or confrontation. Males tend to rub other males, while cubs and females rub females.[125] Social licking often occurs in tandem with head rubbing; it is generally mutual and the recipient appears to express pleasure. The head and neck are the most common parts of the body licked, which may have arisen out of utility, as a lion cannot lick these areas individually.[126]
Lion roar
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A lion in captivity roaring
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Lions have an array of facial expressions and body postures that serve as visual gestures.[127] Their repertoire of vocalizations is also large; variations in intensity and pitch, rather than discrete signals, appear central to communication. Lion sounds include snarling, hissing, coughing, miaowing, woofing, and roaring. Lions tend to roar in a very characteristic manner, starting with a few deep, long roars that trail off into a series of shorter ones. [128] [129] They most often roar at night; the sound, which can be heard from a distance of 8 kilometres (5.0 mi), is used to advertise the animal's presence.[130] Lions have the loudest roar of any big cat.
Distribution and habitat
Two male Asiatic lions in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai, India. The wild population of the endangered Asiatic lions is restricted to the Gir Forest National Park in western India.[131]
In Africa, lions can be found in savanna grasslands with scattered Acacia trees which serve as shade;[132] their habitat in India is a mixture of dry savanna forest and very dry deciduous scrub forest.[133] The habitat of lions originally spanned the southern parts of Eurasia, ranging from Greece to India, and most of Africa except the central rainforest-zone and the Sahara desert. Herodotus reported that lions had been common in Greece in 480 BC; they attacked the baggage camels of the Persian king Xerxes on his march through the country. Aristotle considered them rare by 300 BC. By 100 AD they were extirpated.[134] A population of Asiatic lions survived until the tenth century in the Caucasus, their last European outpost.[135]
The species was eradicated from Palestine by the Middle Ages and from most of the rest of Asia after the arrival of readily available firearms in the eighteenth century. Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, they became extinct in North Africa and Southwest Asia. By the late nineteenth century, the lion had disappeared from Turkey and most of northern India,[16][136] while the last sighting of a live Asiatic lion in Iran was in 1941 (between Shiraz and Jahrom, Fars Province), although the corpse of a lioness was found on the banks of the Karun river, Khuzestan Province in 1944. There are no subsequent reliable reports from Iran.[84] The subspecies now survives only in and around the Gir Forest of northwestern India.[23] Approximately 400 lions live in the area of the 1,412 km2 (545 sq mi) sanctuary in the state of Gujarat, which covers most of the forest. Their numbers have increased from 180 in 1974 mainly because the natural prey species have recovered.[
Lion roar
MENU0:00
A lion in captivity roaring
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Lions have an array of facial expressions and body postures that serve as visual gestures.[127] Their repertoire of vocalizations is also large; variations in intensity and pitch, rather than discrete signals, appear central to communication. Lion sounds include snarling, hissing, coughing, miaowing, woofing, and roaring. Lions tend to roar in a very characteristic manner, starting with a few deep, long roars that trail off into a series of shorter ones. [128] [129] They most often roar at night; the sound, which can be heard from a distance of 8 kilometres (5.0 mi), is used to advertise the animal's presence.[130] Lions have the loudest roar of any big cat.
Distribution and habitat
Two male Asiatic lions in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai, India. The wild population of the endangered Asiatic lions is restricted to the Gir Forest National Park in western India.[131]
In Africa, lions can be found in savanna grasslands with scattered Acacia trees which serve as shade;[132] their habitat in India is a mixture of dry savanna forest and very dry deciduous scrub forest.[133] The habitat of lions originally spanned the southern parts of Eurasia, ranging from Greece to India, and most of Africa except the central rainforest-zone and the Sahara desert. Herodotus reported that lions had been common in Greece in 480 BC; they attacked the baggage camels of the Persian king Xerxes on his march through the country. Aristotle considered them rare by 300 BC. By 100 AD they were extirpated.[134] A population of Asiatic lions survived until the tenth century in the Caucasus, their last European outpost.[135]
The species was eradicated from Palestine by the Middle Ages and from most of the rest of Asia after the arrival of readily available firearms in the eighteenth century. Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, they became extinct in North Africa and Southwest Asia. By the late nineteenth century, the lion had disappeared from Turkey and most of northern India,[16][136] while the last sighting of a live Asiatic lion in Iran was in 1941 (between Shiraz and Jahrom, Fars Province), although the corpse of a lioness was found on the banks of the Karun river, Khuzestan Province in 1944. There are no subsequent reliable reports from Iran.[84] The subspecies now survives only in and around the Gir Forest of northwestern India.[23] Approximately 400 lions live in the area of the 1,412 km2 (545 sq mi) sanctuary in the state of Gujarat, which covers most of the forest. Their numbers have increased from 180 in 1974 mainly because the natural prey species have recovered.[
