AnAge entry for Panthera leo
Classification (HAGRID: 02127)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
- Species
- Panthera leo
- Common name
- Lion
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 28 years (captivity)
- Source
- ref. 1306
- Sample size
- Large
- Data quality
- Acceptable
- Observations
Some older publications list lions as capable of living up to 30 years [0514], which is based on anecdotal reports and probably incorrect. One wild born male died at Cologne Zoo at about 27 years of age. A hybrid between a leopard and a lion lived for 24 years and a hybrid between a lion and tiger lived for 24.2 years [0671]. One zoo specimen lived 28 years based on data retrieved from ZIMS [1306].
Lions will preferably frequent sites with large prey, causing factors like prey depletion and conflict with humans to be extremely detrimental for these animals [1381].
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- 1,095 days
- Male sexual maturity
- 1,095 days
- Gestation
- 109 days
- Weaning
- Litter size
- 3 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 1
- Inter-litter interval
- 649 days
- Weight at birth
- 1,300 g
- Weight at weaning
- Adult weight
- 175,000 g
- Postnatal growth rate
- 0.0035 days-1 (from Gompertz function)
- Maximum longevity residual
- 90%
Metabolism
- Typical body temperature
- 311ºK or 37.9ºC or 100.2ºF
- Basal metabolic rate
- 94.5800 W
- Body mass
- 98000.0 g
- Metabolic rate per body mass
- 0.000965 W/g
References
- [1381] Abade et al. (2020), The relative effects of prey availability, anthropogenic pressure and environmental variables on lion (Panthera leo) site use in Tanzania's Ruaha landscape during the dry season
- [1306] Peron et al. (2019), Variation in actuarial senescence does not reflect life span variation across mammals (PubMed)
- [1150] Jones et al. (2014), Diversity of ageing across the tree of life (PubMed)
- [1143] Nussey et al. (2013), Senescence in natural populations of animals: widespread evidence and its implications for bio-gerontology (PubMed)
- [1142] Kohler et al. (2006), Comparative mortality levels among selected species of captive animals
- [0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
- [0036] Savage et al. (2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
- [0420] White and Seymour (2003), Mammalian basal metabolic rate is proportional to body mass2/3 (PubMed)
- [0610] Ernest (2003), Life history characteristics of placental non-volant mammals
- [0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
- [0162] Packer et al. (1998), Reproductive cessation in female mammals (PubMed)
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
- [0680] Wootton (1987), The effects of body mass, phylogeny, habitat, and trophic level on mammalian age at first reproduction
- [0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves
- [0514] Theodor Haltenorth and Helmut Diller (1977), A Field Guide to the Mammals of Africa including Madagascar
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 183803
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account (if available)
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Taxonomy ID 9689
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
- Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed
- Images
- Google Image search
- Internet
- Search Google