Lion copulation information

Lions copulate in a way that puts humans to shame in terms of frequency and speed! Here are some statistics. This is a slightly sensitive subject but the information that I have is interesting so I thought I would present it to the public. When a male lion attempts to mount a female, she may evade his advances and swot him away or growl and snarl.

When he is finally allowed to mate with his chosen female, which might be his daughter, he sometimes grasps the female by the neck and the typical way that we see domestic cats mate.

Lions mating. Montage by MikeB based on images in the public domain.

When a lion copulates, the act averages 21 seconds in duration. Across all copulations it lasts from between 8 to 70 seconds (G.B. Schaller 1972). Captive lions under observation in one study copulated 360 times in 8 days (J. Kingdon 1989).

G.B. Schaller, in his study observed one nomadic male lion mating 157 times in 55 hours. During this period, he did not eat despite the fact that some lionesses were feeding on a wildebeest about 100 meters away.

For the female, oestrus lasts on average 4 days and recurs every 2 or 3 weeks until the she conceives.

As is the case with domestic cats, when the male lion withdraws his penis is very painful because it is barbed just like the penis of domestic cats. She may twist around and attack the male who has finished copulating. This is why the males grasps her by the scruff in his jaws. This helps to pacify the female. It invokes the kitten response - the response the female desires when carrying cubs.

Female lions, like domestic cats, are stimulated to ovulate by the trigger of the pain caused by the withdrawal of the male's spiny penis. Cats do not ovulate like humans. They only ovulate after they have been mated by a male. It takes a little while, about 25 to 30 hours.

Females differ from other large wild cat species in that they don't advertise their impending sexual receptivity in the way other cats do with calling or by increasing their scent marking. The females don't need to do this as males in the pride are already there.

The males can figure out if a lioness is receptive by smelling her anal area and by her willingness to mate. If she's in heat or about to be in heat the male lion will attempt to stay with her.

Female lions in oestrus are restless, they roll, turn, twist and jump up and walk a few paces and lie down in front of the males who are close by. They move as the males move.

Female lion in Indian zoo the first cat to die of Covid-19?

A lioness who was asymptomatic of Covid-19 at the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, near the city of Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, has reportedly died of the disease and eight other big cats in the zoo had tested positive for the virus. I have been following the Covid-19 pandemic in relation to cats quite closely and I have not read a report until today of a cat dying of the virus. 

 Female lion in Indian zoo the first cat to die of Covid-19?

In fact, the reporting is that domestic and wild cats who contract the disease have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic and they resolve the matter quite quickly. So, this is an unusual story. Of course, India is having a disastrous time of trying to control the virus for various reasons including bad management, a slow rollout of vaccinations and what appears to be an ill-disciplined approach by citizens with respect to social distancing and lockdowns which are understandably difficult to do because it results in job losses in huge numbers.

The lioness concerned was named Neela. She died on June 3 while samples taken from her to test for Covid 19 were being processed.

It is also reported in The Sun newspaper that two white tiger cubs died of Covid-19 in a Pakistan zoo in the early part of 2021 after an outbreak. They were 11-week-old cubs at the Lahore Zoo. They were being treated at the zoo but sadly died. Veterinary staff believed that there were suffering from feline panleukopenia.

The lions at the Indian zoo are being treated in house by their veterinary team together with experts of the Tamil Naidu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.