In the family of cat lions have always occupied a dominant position. Despite the fact that tigers are faster and more agile, and domestic kittens are cute and pleasant to the touch, the lion will always remain the true king of animals. Lions calmly and with their characteristic greatness lead the pride. Leo is the only representative of the feline family who will carefully monitor the order within the family. He knows for sure who should eat the prey first, quickly adapts to any situation. But the main advantage and advantage is that lions are the largest cats in the world.
Cape lion
It is also called Czech. This is explained by the fact that in this country in one of the provincial museums there is a scarecrow of the largest representative of the cat family on the planet. "Exhibit" has an unusual story. Once upon a time, while on business in Africa, travel enthusiast Emil Golub acquired a small lion cub from the locals. Since he was extremely rare at home, the servant was poorly watching the animals. Poor care and improper feeding led to the fact that the lion died in his second year in captivity. However, the owner wanted to save the animal, making it a stuffed animal.
After the death of the traveler, the lion stuffed animal was transferred to one of the local museums. For many years no one noticed that there was an unusual stuffed animal in front of them. This is a Cape lion. As you know, these are the largest lions in the world. It is proved that Panthera leo melanochaitus inhabited almost the entire territory of Africa, including the southern regions. The Cape hunters, whom the Boers called, knew their job very well. As a result, the lion was completely exterminated. The death of the last representative of this species is dated 1858. Around the world there are 6 stuffed animals, the seventh was a stuffed animal from the Czech Republic. Estimated female weight was about 180 kg, male - 240 kg, body length - more than three meters.
Barbaric lion
He, like the "Czech", is considered the largest lion in the world. The photo proves this, not to mention a full-sized stuffed animal. Unlike the Cape, the Barbarian lion preferred to live in North Africa. At the moment, he no longer lives in the wild. A distinctive feature of this subspecies is considered to be a huge thick “hair” that not only covers the shoulders of the animal, but also hangs on its stomach. The last Barbarian lion was killed in 1922 in the African mountains.
Now about the size of the largest lion in the world. The males weight record was 260 kg, and the body length reached 3.4 m. Females, of course, were slightly less than males. The length of the head of a Barbarian lion alone was more than 2 m. Height at the withers: males - 1.3 m, females - 1 m.
Indian lion
The largest lions in the world can be attributed to the representatives of cats that live in India. More precisely, in Indian zoos. It is proved that lions in captivity grow larger than in the wild. The Indian lion has not a thick mane, but a stocky and squat body organization. Animals perfectly adapt to captivity, perfectly amenable to training. The largest weight of the Indian male is 220 kg, and the females are about 160 kg.
Highscores
Of course, man always fixed, if possible, the size of the king of animals. How much did the largest lion in the world weigh? There is no single answer to this question, since several maximum sizes of different subspecies have been recorded. For example, an Indian lion, who lives in a London zoo in 1970, weighed 375 kg. The length of the body of Simba (which is exactly what the zoo ministers called their lion cub at birth) was 3.3 meters. This is the maximum recorded weight of a captive lion.
In 1936, a real cannibal was hunting people in South Africa. A hunt has been declared. As a result, a huge killer was shot. The weight of the carcass was 313 kg. This weight is a record for wild lions. More than 340 individuals live in an Indian reserve. Workers not only carefully guard and carefully monitor the habitat of the largest lions in the world, but also make attempts to increase the population.
Currently, these beautiful animals live only in Asia and Africa. It is proved that before lions lived in the vastness of Europe and could even live in the territory of the modern Caucasus.
Liger
Speaking of the biggest big lions in the world, one cannot but mention the "product" of the love of the tiger and the lion. Of course, in the wild, such an alliance would have been simply impossible, but in captivity the hybrid turned out. The liger, and this is what the bred individual was called, exceeds the size of both the mother tigress and the lion father. The largest hybrid was bred at the Novosibirsk Zoo. The girl was called Zita. The parents of this wonderful creature are the African lion and the Bengal tigress.
We can say that the kittens of this unusual couple appeared by chance. The young lion, for one reason known only to him, for many days refused to eat. The tigress sitting in the next cage was sad and constantly howled. Zoo workers decided to "introduce" the animals. As a result, two beautiful kittens were born. The girl stayed in Novosibirsk, and the boy went to live in the Kemerovo Zoo.
At the age of seven, the young ligrix already exceeded the size of an adult lion living in the next room. The maximum recorded weight of a ligre is 450 kg. The largest is considered to be Hercules, who lives in Miami.
The only negative is that male ligers cannot fertilize their females. However, ligrits are wonderful with lion grooms. They do not even consider tigers as potential soul mates, since they are very small for them. By the way, Zita already had offspring. Kittens that were born from the union of a lion and a ligrant were called ligers.