Animals

Female builds nest of vegetable debris 4-7 feet in diameter and 2-3 feet high. Courtship begins in April. Mating takes place in water after courtship displays by males. One display, known as the "water dance" is characterized by "fizzing" water around a male's torso, produced by a loud subsonic call. Female constructs a nest of rotting vegetation and lays about 45 hard-shelled white eggs slightly larger than hen’s eggs from late May through June. Nine week incubation. Female guards nest until babies call, then tears the nest open and cracks unhatched eggs with her teeth. She takes them to water and often remains with them. Young are about 9 inches at hatching, weighing 2 ounces. Growth is rapid: one foot in length for each of the first six years. Young alligators are preyed upon by others of their kind and by large fish, turtles, snakes, herons, raccoons, and black bears. They probably live 50-60 years.

Broadly rounded snout distinguishes it from crocodiles. Fourth tooth on each side of lower jaw is hidden when mouth is closed. Young are black with yellowish cross-bars. Mature alligators are coal black when wet, dark gray when dry. Males are 11 to 12 feet long and weigh 450-550 pounds. Females are no longer than 9 feet and weigh about 160 pounds. Record length is 20 feet.
North Carolina to Florida Keys and west to central Texas. Lacking the salt-removing glands found in crocodiles they live in fresh water swamps and waterways only. When given protection, alligator populations rebound and soon reoccupy areas where they have long been absent.
Diet: Large stomach. Carnivorous. Eats fish, snakes, frogs, turtles, birds, and mammals such as muskrats, deer and cows. Big animals are dragged underwater and drowned and then torn to pieces. They are very efficient metabolically; even a big alligator can get by on about 50 pounds of food a year. Eats little or nothing from early October to late March. Feeds heavily during summer to store fat. Newborn starts feeding at once, eating small fishes and water insects.

Life span in the wild is 15-18 years, in captivity 25-30 years.
Backward-curved horny papillae cover the upper surface of the tongue; these are useful both in holding onto meat and removing parasites during grooming. The roar of a lion can be heard up to five miles away and can be most intimidating up close. Territorial roaring is usually heard an hour after sunset. When separated they roar to let each other know where they are; females often call their cubs by roaring. The mature male's mane not only makes him appear larger but protects his throat from his mortal enemies-other marauding lions and the hyenas after his cubs or kill.
A lion is a digitigrade, or toe walker; that is his heel doesn't touch the ground. His loud roar is made possible by the cartilage in his throat having ossified into bone. This is true of all the big cat or "roaring" species. The smaller cats with the softer throat structure can only meow.

Lions feed on a variety of large and medium-size prey. They prefer wildebeast (or gnu) to all others when the annual migration brings the vast herds through the pride's range. Otherwise they eat buffalo, zebra, antelope, giraffe, and warthogs. They also steal kills and carrion from other predators.
Lions are the only cats that live in large family groups. Each pride differs in size and formation, but a typical pride consists of two males and seven females and a variable number of cubs. Females are usually sisters and/or cousins that have grown up together. When the pride hunts as a group they employ an ambush that forces large prey into the waiting paws of the males. Females have the speed but lack the body weight to knock down large "family size" prey such as the wildebeast. Despite their tremendous power and adaptive efficiency, lions are more likely to fail than succeed in their attempts to kill.

Typically a mature male stands 4 feet at the shoulder and is 8 .5 feet long, plus tail. He'll average 450 pounds. Females are considerable smaller, weighing less than 300 pounds. Adult lions usually have a plain unspotted coat, light brown to dark ochre in color. Cubs are marked with spots which sometimes persist on the legs and belly until they are fully grown. Male lions have a brown mane, which tends to grow darker and fuller as the animal ages. The tail has a black tuft at the end. "White" lions occasionally occur in the Transvaal region of southern Africa, but these are not true albinos.
Thousands of years ago, lions were common throughout southern Europe, southern Asia, eastern and central India and over the whole of the African continent. Today, with the exception of some 300 highly protected animals in the Gir National Park of India, the only naturally-occuring lions are found in Africa. (But even in Africa lions have been wiped out in the north; the last Numidian male was shot as a trophy in the 1930s.) Lions do not live in heavy forests and jungles and they do not inhabit desert areas due to a scarcity of game.