71 Epic Photos of the King of the Jungle

From adorable cubs to snarling, no-nonsense apex predators, there’s a lot to admire about lions. Maybe, more than anything, the fact that they spend between 16 and 20 hours each day resting and sleeping. That’s got to fill them with ‘pride.’

The only social member of the cat family, lions mostly hunt from dusk till dawn. Well, the females do. Male lions defend the pride’s territory while females do most of the hunting. Despite this, the males eat first.

Before we jump into the incredible photos – mostly coming from our year-long photography competition, Africa’s Photographer of the Year – here are a few more interesting facts about lions;

• A lion’s roar is the loudest of any big cat and can be heard up to 8 km away.
• Lions were once found throughout Africa, Asia and Europe but now exist only in Africa with one exception. The last remaining Asiatic lions are found in Sasan-Gir National Park in India, which was primarily created to protect the species. Currently, there are approximately 350-400 lions in the park.
• Entrance to the Tower of London used to be free if you brought a dog or a cat to feed to the lions.
• Lions’ tongues are huge, pink and covered with sharp papillae, they are rough enough to scrape meat from bones or make human skin bleed.
• During the mating season, lionesses have sex up to 50 times a day for four days and nights in a row with as many as five males – but each bout lasts only ten seconds.