Cape Lion
Species are groups of living organisms, animals, or plants that have similar characteristics and can exchange genes. Cape lion exists in the panther Leo melanochaita population. The Cape lion is ranked under subspecies, phylum- Chordata, and higher class classification as Lion. Cape lion was the second largest and heaviest of the lion subspecies. Its approximate weight was 600 pounds is one and half times larger than the traditional African lion. Female cape lion can grow up to 7- 9 feet long and weigh 300 to 425 pounds. They are smaller in size compared to the male ones.
Male cape lion on can grow up to 9- 11 feet, and their weight goes from 325 to 600 pounds. This lion is distinguished by the enormous size and his thick black mane that extends over the shoulder and under the belly with gold fringe bordering the face. The cape lions were known to be wanderers. They feed on meat as they are carnivorous. They survived on hunting animals like the zebras, buffaloes, giraffes, and antelopes. Once in awhile wandering around, they would attack and kill cattle and donkeys belonging to European settlers. Man-eating ones were generally the old ones that had bad teeth.
The Cape lion was not the only subspecies living in karoo plains of South Africa, and its exact range is unclear to date. Its stronghold in the cape of the province in the area around cape town. One of the largest cape lion ever seen was killed in the year 1858. The cape “black-maned” lions range along the cape in the city on the continent’s southern tip. The last cape lion alive was in Paris zoo around the year1860, and before zoologists could even study them intensively, they had disappeared from the southernmost tip of Africa. Civilization swept away the once vast herd, too, which was mostly the source of cape lions.
The predator was hunted into extinction by the Dutch and English settlers because they resulted in eating their animals. In captivity generally, lions breed every year, and cape lion was no different. The females are to mating for three to four days withing their variable reproductive cycle. During this period, the pair mated every 20 to 30 minutes, leading to more than 50 times in 24 hours. Once the females realized they were pregnant, they would sneak away and give birth to a litter of 2- 6 cubs nurse them for around three months before reappearing. Lions generally are secretive.
The main reason the female lions go into hiding during birth time is to train their cub’s survival tactics, starving. In cases where cubs return to the wild and food is scarce, they starve. Though the pregnancy period is just three months, they hide another approximately three months from feeding their cubs as the other older ones are also competitive for the mother’s milk, just like the brand-new-babies. Another predator of the lions is the lions themselves. If there are more than 1 in the pride, they tend to kill the others’ offspring, so the males are expelled from pride upon maturity.
The cape lions’ average lifespan was 8 to 10 years, and they survived in a warm to a moderate environment. The lion manes’ color was influenced by climatic variables and varied between individuals; they are darker and longer in the cold season. Lions lived in caves, sheltered under trees, and hunted their prey both in the night and in the day. Identifying the male and female lion is easy; they have a different appearance, and their size varies. The females are smaller than males. And like any other specie, the male dominates and rules as they are more robust and more enormous.
The lion has become increasingly endangered in the wild; human activities cause this. To preserve the species under panther Leo since cape lions have disappeared, humans should void hunting and killing them. In as much as they are a danger to the human population, they only attack when attacked or feel threatened. Most of the time, they survive in the wild and eat other animals, and only if there is no food they cross over to the cattle. We should learn which lions carry the genotypes that have been lost and help them procreate to avoid losing the whole population.
The reason for choosing the cape lion is they played a significant role in balancing the food chain by controlling the herbivore population. The fact that the cape lion has the dubious honor of being one of the few big cats to have been hunted and not harassed. They did not go into extinction from starvation or poaching as other animals but from European settlers’ killings. I am impressed that females do the hunting, and in return, males protect the pride. Without this species, some creatures would overpopulate and to remove them is worse for the ecosystem.