Lion feeding

Just a short video I shot the other day at the local zoo to observe the feeding technique of lions. Notice how the big cat uses his jaw and tongue to manoeuvre the meat pieces in its mouth. In captivity meat servings are already sliced up in appropriate sizes. It's fascinating though how the cat manages to consume it readily without using its paws and the lack of crushing teeth in its jaw (cats lack molars - all of their teeth are sharp and serve the cutting purpose).

In the wild it is presumable that the lion would restrict its bite size on a carcass to ingest a piece that it can easily chew up and swallow. I think I'll be able to understand better after reading The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations (Wildlife Behavior and Ecology series) by George B. Schaller. Oughta receive it from Amazon in the next few days. Published in 1976 it's still believed to be the most comprehensive scientific study of lion behavior in the wild. Btw it's the same lion cub that I posted about an year or so ago. It's so heartening to see him growing up into such a wonderful young male lion :)

In other news - I was the hundred thousandth visitor to my blog...

It's been a fun eleven months. Most visitors still come from google and the counter has recorded hits from nearly every country in the world - encouraging evidence that people all over the globe care for the big cats and would love to keep seeing them in the wild. Lately though it's been kinda tough updating and posting articles on this blog owing to the sometimes unforgiving routine of a doctor's life. It'll be great though if a platform can be created online where people can voice and convey their opinions to the authorities responsible for the conservation of wild cats internationally in a centralized and efficient manner.

I've still gotta cover some species of wild cats. Then I'll post about some significant subspecies of the big cats e.g. Siberian Tiger, Asiatic Lion etc that deserve highlight owing to their endangered status. After that I'm thinking of touching on some domestic cat breeds. After all our closest interaction to felines is through our understanding of the household cat!