See also: Owls of The World, N orth America, C entral America, S outh America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania. Talk about a dramatic contrast in lifestyle! Lion prides adapt to the seasons as well. They will eat and eat when times are good, for example, when the great wildebeest migration passes through their territory. © 2020 Africa Freak | All Rights Reserved, Game rangers – Why they are so important to any African safari, 7 incredible black and white animals – Africa’s monochrome wonders. It is also known as the Common Grass Owl. owl that was easy to catch they sure would gobble it down. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Africa is home to more than 30 species of owl including some that eat fish. Yes, owls eat foxes. They are completely dependent on milk for their first three months. Read on for the complete story of what do lions eat, from milk-sucking infants to the kings and queens of African savanna. So yes, a lion will eat you, but only if you’re stupid enough to get too close or not respect the wildlife world. Both these incredible animals do a lot of both. A few online sources will claim a lion drinks a gallon a day, or around three to four litres. 20. Do Lions Eat Mice. Captive lions are usually fed farmyard animals, typically red meat like beef. How long does it take to cook a 23 pound turkey in an oven? Copyright © 2020 Multiply Media, LLC. They will eat any prey they can catch. Other African predators have a more varied diet. In fact, most African lions like to chomp on a warthog – while they may seem small, they’re relatively easy to catch. Why? It’s simplistic to think of hyenas as scavengers and lions purely hunters. In severe cases of food shortage, they may even find themselves as prey instead of predator. An owl motif appears in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Young buffalo will be tucked inside a barrier of fur and horns. Cape buffalo will defend themselves ferociously, instead of running away. See also: Owls of The World, N orth America, C entral America, S outh America, Africa, Europe, M iddle East, Oceania. It will take two years for a lion to become proficient at hunting prey, and four years before they have really mastered the art. Required fields are marked *. Moluccan Masked Owl Tyto sororcula. They don’t eat every day, although they have often been observed hunting on days they don’t eat. Zebra are a favourite prey of many lions and it’s believed that zebra stripes evolved as a means of preventing lion attacks after dark (read about all the zebra stripe theories here). Lions, being denizens of open country simply don’t have the luxury of being able to hide or shelter the food. Another large bird, owls, is the second predator on this list of things that eat foxes. Much like eagles, owls hunt at night, putting them in just the right place at the right time when hunting for smaller nocturnal mammals like foxes. Just imagine how strong their digestion is! Minahassa Masked Owl Tyto inexspectata. Lions are lazy cats and can spend up to 20 hours a day doing nothing but rest and sleep. Note that this is similar to animals like springbok and gerenuk. Unfortunately, lions do not have the correct enzymes to process green vegetation. That figure will include the food of lonely old male lions, as well as lions who live in a pride but stumble upon a rare meal. Not only lions even dogs any many other animals eat grass for this reason. As unfortunate as this incident was, the woman was taking photos of nearby lions from the open window of a low vehicle. The African Grass Owl is a medium-sized owl with long legs and no ear-tufts. But times can be hard on the African savanna, especially during the long dry season. Now there are less than 300 of them in the world. Pallid Scops Owl Otus brucei . Andaman Masked Owl Tyto deroepstorffi. Do Lions Eat Foxes. Enter your email for your weekly dose of ‘wild Africa’ directly to your inbox. They raise cattle and survive exclusively on what their cattle provides – meat, milk and blood. So let’s stop putting lions in cages and pens, and let them do what they are best at – ruling the wild savanna. Every mammal needs amino acids for its own survival. Owls. Lion prides will also abandon what’s left of a meal to avoid confrontation with hyenas. In fact, the number of herbivores taken by lions in Africa only represents the amount that would be lost in the region’s next drought. Lions may scavenge 10-50% of their food, dependent on what’s available in their territory. However, this precise hunter eats everything from beetle larvae to eggs and fruit. Witnessing an encounter between a lion cub and a warthog is astonishing, as the lion makes mistakes and the warthog may think attack is the best form of defence! It’s strange because lions are carnivores. Many lions only eat meat – they’re practically the opposite of vegans. It makes absolutely no sense to hand-feed the world’s apex predator with a controlled diet. The big cats are so traumatized by the experience that they forget to eat, and spend all their time trying to hide, climbing up trees and crouching in long grass. Rather than amino acids, lions produce specific enzymes that help them breakdown large quantities of meat and flesh. Healthy lions need to eat around 20% of their body weight each week. They are highly opportunistic hunters that can catch and eat anything from mice to elephants and everything in between. They pounce on mice and other rodents, feed on flightless birds like ostrich, and are quite partial to eating small crocodiles. Many lions only eat meat – they’re practically the opposite of vegans. Nobody likes being woken by hyenas while sleeping off a 30 kg zebra steak! More than that, lions are known as obligate carnivores, because flesh and meat make up more than 75% of their diet. But lions and people have coexisted all across Africa for many millennia. After a few lessons, cubs will happily hunt their own small or weak prey, without support. It would be strange to encounter a black-maned lion chomping on elephant grass. So in order to survive, they must take specific nutrients from the meat and flesh of other mammals. There is a famous story of the Tsavo lions in Kenya, who killed and ate 35 construction workers back in 1899. But when it’s the heart of dry season and they’ve been hunting unsuccessfully throughout the night, lions need a lot more than one gallon of water to keep going. Or a lioness laying in a tree eating some fresh figs. Why don't libraries smell like bookstores? Some pastoralist African tribes, like the Masai, traditionally only eat meat as well. Although lions can run at over 80 km/h, they can only run fast for short distances, so they struggle to keep pace with long-distance runners such as springbok. They are highly opportunistic hunters that can catch and eat anything from mice to elephants and everything in between. But let’s end on a really positive story. It’s much harder in the heart of dry season, as there are very few places to hide on a dry and barren savanna. Much like eagles, owls hunt at night, putting them in just the right place at the right time when hunting for smaller nocturnal mammals like foxes. And why do lions in different places have such different hunting tactics? Editorial Team at Africa Freak is a group of expert Africa writers and influencers. Weighing 200-400 kg, zebra are a hearty meal for an entire pride. Rhinos are one of the basic preys of lions. Lions are known as the king of the jungle but that’s something invented by children’s stories, then perpetuated by Disney and others. Switch a captive lion onto a vegetarian diet and it will die. Considering big male lions weigh up to 200 kg (440 lbs), that’s a whopping 30 kg (66 lbs) of meat and flesh in just one meal! White lions are endemic to the Timbavati region of South Africa, a part of the Greater Kruger National Park area. Serengeti and Ngorongoro lions mostly eat zebra, a very abundant prey. They will eat any prey they can catch, including poachers, and animals more than ten times their weight. Large lion prides have been recorded attacking baby giraffe. eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'africafreak_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_12',180,'0','0']));Ask what do lions eat and you don’t think of anything green. If you see a lion eating grass or fruit, it will usually be saving off the feeling of starvation. Different lions have different diets, just like early humans had different diets based on the availability of food in their territories. It’s generally believed that lions can eat up to 15% of their body mass in a single sitting. Another large bird, owls, is the second predator on this list of things that eat foxes. Lions sometimes eat mice. At such times lions don’t need much water. In fact, lions have a relatively low hunting success rate. So lions usually avoid foxes, however, in case of food scarcity lions would definitely eat foxes. Studies have also shown that almost half lion kills are made by a single animal. Family: Strigidae (Typical Owls) Genus: Otus (Scops Owls) Eurasian Scops Owl Otus scops. reside in many places around the world.