--- title: "African Lion (Panthera leo) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Pride king, 114-decibel territorial roar carrying three miles, and cooperative savanna hunt apex." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/african-lion-1.webp" published: "2026-09-01" updated: "2026-09-23" --- # African Lion (*Panthera leo*) > **Status**: Checked against 7 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: Pride king, 114-decibel territorial roar carrying three miles, and cooperative savanna hunt apex. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Art Pop & Baroque Pop // Florence + The Machine, "Shake It Out" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/71iSmEeF0qRVyULABxP75P) > **Vibe Match**: Florence Welch's huge, open-throated voice, for a cat whose roar hits about 114 decibels from a few feet away and can be heard up to three miles off. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Panthera leo* - **Danger Level**: Deadly - **Conservation Status**: Vulnerable ([IUCN Red List](https://www.iucnredlist.org/)) - **Superpower**: Deep-throated 114-decibel square vocal cords that project territorial warning roars across three miles of open savanna. - **Habitat**: Savannas, open grasslands, and dense scrub across sub-Saharan Africa - **Diet**: Zebras, wildebeest, buffaloes, warthogs, and large ungulates ambushed in team pincer maneuvers - **Tags**: big-cat, savanna, desert, apex-predator, pack-hunter ## Natural History & Behavior ## Square Vocal Folds, Stadium Volume A lion's roar hits about 114 decibels from a few feet away, roughly 25 times as loud as a gas lawn mower, and can be heard up to three miles off. The secret is shape. Most species have triangular vocal folds, but a lion's are flat and square, and fat inside each fold helps give them that shape. Square folds respond more easily to the air rushing past them, so a lion gets a louder roar out of less lung pressure. Roaring advertises the pride's territory and keeps pride members in touch with each other. ## Lionesses Run the Hunt Adult males typically weigh about 189 kilograms, and the heaviest on record hit 272 kg. The mane makes a male look impressive to females and intimidating to rivals, and shields his neck from raking claws in a fight. Females average 126 kg and do most of the hunting, because a big, showy male is much easier for prey to spot. In the Serengeti, a lion hunting alone succeeds about 17% of the time, and a group hunt succeeds 30% of the time: smaller lionesses chase prey toward the center of the group while heavier lionesses wait to ambush it. Prides hold anywhere from 2 to 40 lions. Wild females often live 15 to 16 years, sometimes to 18; males rarely survive past 10, though a few reach 16. > **Death by suffocation** A lioness often kills by clamping her jaws over the prey's nose and mouth and holding on until it can't breathe. She has the jaw power for it. A 2005 study that estimated bite force from the skulls of 39 living and fossil predators put a lion's canine bite at 1,768 newtons, the strongest of any cat in the study. Adjusted for body size, though, its bite force quotient is 112, behind the tiger's 127 and the jaguar's 137. ## Night Eyes, Shrinking Range Lions usually hunt at night, especially around dusk and dawn, and their eyes are built for it. Their retinas are packed with rod cells, the cells that work in dim light, and a mirror-like layer behind the retina called the tapetum lucidum gives light a second pass through those rods. The payoff is roughly six to eight times better vision than a human's in low light. None of that protects lions from people. The IUCN lists the African lion as Vulnerable. About 23,000 adult and subadult (nearly grown) lions remain in Africa, down from roughly 33,000 in 2006, and they now live in just 7.4% of their historical range. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How far away can an African lion's roar be heard? Up to about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) across open savanna in good conditions. An adult lion's roar reaches roughly 114 decibels close up, and flat, square-shaped vocal folds let it produce that volume with far less lung pressure than a rounder fold would need. The roar broadcasts territorial ownership and pride location across the pride's home range. *(Source: [San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance]())* ### How does an African lion kill large prey? By suffocation rather than a crushing bite. A lion, usually a lioness, clamps her jaws over the prey animal's nose and mouth and holds on with powerful jaw and neck muscles until it collapses from lack of air. *(Source: [San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance]())* ### How well do African lions see in the dark during nocturnal hunts? Lions see roughly six to eight times better than humans in low light. Their retinas are dominated by light-sensitive rod cells, and a reflective layer behind the retina called the tapetum lucidum gives incoming light a second pass through those rods, nearly doubling how much of it gets absorbed. *(Source: [Lion Landscapes]())* ## Sources 1. [Klemuk et al. (2011). Adapted to Roar: Functional Morphology of Tiger and Lion Vocal Folds. PLoS ONE.]() 2. [Born to Roar: Vocal Cord Shape Explains Loud, Low Pitch of Big Cats. EurekAlert! (University of Utah), 2011.]() 3. [Lion. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.]() 4. [Eyes & Vision. Lion Landscapes.]() 5. [Panthera leo (lion). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 6. [Conservation Status of the African Lion. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), 2023.]() 7. [Wroe, McHenry & Thomason (2005). Bite club: comparative bite force in big biting mammals and the prediction of predatory behaviour in fossil taxa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.]() *Published September 1, 2026. 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