Lion Information Website

Mating Patterns

The lioness reaches sexual maturity at the age of four years and the male at five years.

Lions are induced ovulators, which means that they can make themselves ovulate at any time. It’s the male lions that starts the female ovulation by mating with her several times. The female is also polyestrous, which means that she will come in heat several times a year. The female lion estrus period last for four days during which time the male and female mate approximately 2.2 times per awaken hour that is 20 to 40 times per day. At this time, they are very likely to even give up eating. Despite of this the mating success of the lions is very low. This frequency makes it impossible for the males to know which cubs are theirs and thereby reduces the competition among the males and increases pride stability. It’s estimated that only one in every five-estrus result in a litter. The female has about one litter every other year. The survival rate for the cubs is quite low. It is estimated that the lions copulate 3000 times for every cub that makes it through the first year.

As mentioned before the cubs are killed when a new group of males take over a pride. Since the males only have about two or three years in a pride before younger males take over, they strive is to reproduce before then. They can’t afford to wait until the lionesses are done bringing the old cubs up. After losing the cubs the lioness will become estrous again after two to three weeks. Although it happens that the females vigorously defend their young and are killed to.