--- title: The lion: why people call it «king of the beasts»; prides and roars — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The lion: why people call it «king of the beasts»; prides and roars», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: People have called the lion king of the beasts for thousands of years: the big golden male with his ma --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / The lion: why people call it «king of… # The lion: why people call it «king of the beasts»; prides and roars Lesson 18 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/0/) — People have called the lion king of the beasts for thousands of years: the big golden male with his mane, the roar that rolls across the plain at dawn, and the pride that lies in the open without bothering to hide. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/1/) — That royal lion fills our world: statues in city squares, three lions on the England shirt, the lion in Aesop's fables, Simba on Pride Rock, and Richard the Lionheart. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/2/) — But the poster saying king of the jungle is wrong: lions live on savanna, grassland and open woodland in Africa, and one small group in the dry Gir Forest of India, not in jungles. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/3/) — Real lion life is less royal and more teamwork: lionesses do most of the hunting together, the males guard the land, and everyone sleeps up to about 20 hours a day. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/4/) — The real king is in trouble: wild lions have lost most of the land they once roamed across Africa, southern Europe and Asia. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/5/) — Only male lions grow manes; a mane makes a lion look bigger and protects his neck in fights, and a dark full mane shows he is healthy, though in very hot places some males have thin manes or none. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/6/) — A lion's roar can be heard about 8 kilometres away; lions roar to mark their territory and call their pride, mostly at night and dawn, when the air is cool and still and sound carries best. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/7/) — Lions have a special voice box with square-shaped folds that make a very deep, loud sound. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/8/) — Lions do not live in jungles but in African savanna, grassland and open woodland, and in the Gir Forest, a dry forest in India; king of the beasts is the better old name. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/9/) — Lionesses do most of the hunting as a team, some driving the prey and others waiting in ambush; they are lighter and faster than males, while males hunt big prey like buffalo and mostly guard the pride's land. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/10/) — Lions are the only truly social cats; a pride is related females, their cubs and a few males, and together they hunt big prey, guard cubs and defend their land. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/11/) — The lion is on many coats of arms and flags, like England's three lions, Scotland's red lion and Sri Lanka's flag, as a symbol of courage and strength; King Richard I was called the Lionheart for his bravery. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/12/) — In Aesop's fable from ancient Greece, about 2500 years ago, a little mouse saves a lion by gnawing through a net. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/13/) — In The Lion King, Simba is a young lion who will become king; simba means lion in Swahili, a language of East Africa. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/14/) — Lions rest or sleep up to about 20 hours a day to save energy for hunting, and a lion can eat 30 kilograms or more at one meal and then not eat for days. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/15/) — Lion cubs are born with spotty coats that help hide them in the grass, and lionesses in a pride often raise cubs together, letting cubs drink from other mothers. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/16/) — Lions are the only cats with a tuft at the end of the tail, which may help the pride follow each other in long grass; some have a small hard spur hidden in it, and nobody knows what it is for. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/18-the-lion-king-of-the-beasts/17/) — Wild lions now live mainly in parts of Africa, and Asiatic lions only in and around Gir Forest in India, where a 2025 count was reported at about 890; lions lose land to farms and are killed when they attack cattle. - ← previous: [How close are apes to us?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/17-how-close-are-apes-to-us/) - next →: [The tiger: the biggest and strongest cat, a solitary and cunning hunter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/19-the-tiger/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)