Lions on game drive, Mala Mala, Sabi Sand game reserve, Mpumalanga province

The Lion (Panthera leo) is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kilograms in weight,it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger.

Wild lions currently exist in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia with a critically endangered remnant population in northwest India, having disappeared from North Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia in historic times.

Until the late Pleistocene, which was about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. They were found in most of Africa, much of Eurasia from western Europe to India, and in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru.

PHOTO SOURCE: Lanz von Horsten, courtesy of, and copyright, South Africa Tourism, a department of the government of South Africa, used with permission.

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