002 Male Lion prowling in the Serengeti National Park Photo by Giles Laurent

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Photo: Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesCarnivoraFelidae

Carnivores

🦁Lion

Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758)

狮（學名：Panthera leo），又稱獅子，是产自非洲和亚洲的大型猫科动物，栖息於热带草原、半沙漠地带、较稀疏的旱林与灌木丛等生境。体呈暗黄色，尾端具棕黑色丛毛，成年雄性的脖颈到脸周有黄褐色及黑色长毛环绕，为其显著特征。狮子拥有现存猫科中最大的平均体重和仅次於虎的极限体重，一般野生成年雌獅重110–150千克，雄獅重160–200千克，最大的雄獅可超过270千克，圈养下则能达到300千克以上。獅是现存唯一以群居为常态的猫科动物，狮群成员通过相互配合进行协作狩猎，主要捕食斑馬、羚羊、水牛、疣豬等大型和中型有蹄動物，獅因此得以位居食物鏈的最顶端，与虎同有“兽王”的美誉。獅起源於更新世的非洲，在过去兩万年间进入西亚、南亚和巴爾幹半島。由于人类的扩张致其栖息地退化和破碎，加之被欧洲人大量猎杀，獅已在许多地区绝迹，野生种群现仅见於撒哈拉以南非洲和印度西北的吉尔国家公园。尽管习惯上称獅的非洲种群为非洲狮，亚洲种群为亞洲獅，但遗传学研究表明，北非、西非及中非的獅和亚洲狮的關係，比和东非、南非的狮子更为亲近。因此，獅现被分为两个亞種，即分布在亚洲、北非、西非和中非的北方狮（P. l. leo），與分布在东非和南非的南方狮（P. l. melanochaita）。

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos

2,957

Photos

Measurements

vs you

≈ 2.4× your weight

Also called

African Lion

Conservation status

VUVulnerable

IUCN Red List assessment, 2025.

Population trendDecreasing

Key measurements

Body mass: 149 kg
Body length: 2.17 m
Shoulder height: 1.15 m
Top speed: 55 km/h
Bite force: 1,768 N
Maximum lifespan: 30 years

All measurements ↓

Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Lion

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass

149 kg

COMBINE

Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

Female126 kgWikidataQ140
Male188 kgWikidataQ140

Figures vary

175 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable

Body length

2.17 m

COMBINE

Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height

1.15 maverage1.07–1.23 m · range across sexes

Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.

By sex

Male1.23 mHaas, Hayssen & Krausman 2005, Mammalian Species 762, p.2Height at the shoulder. Supersedes the 1.10 m seed row, which had no page-level source.
Female1.07 mHaas, Hayssen & Krausman 2005, Mammalian Species 762, p.2Height at the shoulder.

Top speed

55 km/h

Details ↓

Sprint over a short distance, not a sustained pace. Peer-reviewed compilations give 54.95 and 57.35 km/h. The 80 km/h figure in wide circulation, and in the site mock, is Hirt's reference 101 -- speedofanimals.com, which carries no citations at all.

Source: Christiansen 2002, Zool J Linn Soc 136:685 and Bejan & Marden 2006, J Exp Biol 209:238; compiled in Hirt et al. 2017, Nat Ecol Evol 1:1116, Supplementary Data · see citation

Bite force

1,768 N

Details ↓

Canine bite modelled by the dry-skull method (Thomason 1991) from a prepared skull; static bite at the canines, gape not stated. Not a live measurement. The skull's estimated body mass was 294.6 kg. Estimates for this species span 2.4x: 1104 N and 1483 N by two of Thomason's own methods, 2609 N by Rozycka et al. 2024, and c. 3300 N by finite elements for a 267 kg animal (McHenry et al. 2007). The one MEASURED value sits mid-range: 1594 N at the incisors of a captive lioness (van der Meijden et al. 2023, J Exp Biol 226:jeb245255).

Source: Wroe, McHenry & Thomason 2005, Proc R Soc B 272:619, Table 1 · see citation

Bite force for its size

112

Details ↓

Bite force normalised for body mass: the residual of canine bite force regressed on body mass, average across the sample set to 100. Above 100 means the animal bites harder than its size predicts. Do not cross-check against Wikipedia's BFQ table, which silently mixes this paper with Christiansen & Wroe 2007 and cites a popular-science book.

Source: Wroe, McHenry & Thomason 2005, Proc R Soc B 272:619, Table 1 · see citation

Brain mass

237 g

COMBINE

Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan

30 years

COMBINE

Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0