Lion Facts

Lion Facts Lions (Panthera leo) are the largest of all African cats. Once roaming most of Africa, as well as large parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, today they are found in patches in Africa and one population on the Indian subcontinent. They are the second largest cat species in the world, smaller than only the tiger. Fast Facts: Lion Scientific Name: Panthera leoCommon Name: LionBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 5.5–8.5 feet longWeight: 330–550 poundsLifespan: 10–14 yearsDiet: CarnivoreHabitat: Groups in Africa, and IndiaPopulation: 23,000–39,000Conservation Status: Vulnerable Description About 73,000 years ago, ancient shifts in the African climate segregated the lions into small groups, and over time characteristics evolved to match the separate environments: some larger, some with larger manes or darker coats. The largest of these was the Barbary lion of North Africa, which measured some 27–30 feet long with a long, serpentine tail of 3.5 feet. Geneticists have identified two subspecies of lion: Panthera leo leo (found in India, North, Central, and West Africa) and P. l. melanochaita (in Eastern and Southern Africa). These lions have coats that range in color from nearly white to tawny yellow, ash brown, ochre, and deep orange-brown. They have a tuft of dark fur at the tip of their tail, are typically about 5.5–8.5 feet long and weigh between 330 and 550 pounds. Male and female lions exhibit sexual dimorphism: Female lions are smaller than males and have a uniformly colored coat of a tawny brown color. Females also lack a mane. Males have a thick, woolly mane of fur that frames their face and covers their neck. Lions closest living relatives are the Jaguars, followed by leopards and tigers. They have two recognized extinct ancestors, the American lion (Panthera atrox) and the cave lion (Panthera fossilis). Aprison Photography/Getty Images Habitat and Range Although they primarily are found in savanna areas, lions can be found everywhere in Africa, except the tropical rainforest and the interior of the Sahara desert. They live in habitats from sea level to the mountain slopes up to 13,700 feet, including Mt. Kilimanjaro. The dry deciduous Gir forest of northwest India contains a lion preserve known as the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary. Surrounding the sanctuary is an area inhabited by ethnic Maldharies pastoralists and their livestock. Diet Lions are carnivores, a subgroup of mammals that also includes animals such as bears, dogs, raccoons, mustelids, civets, hyenas, and the aardwolf. Lion prey preference is for medium to large ungulates like gemsbok and other antelopes, buffalo, giraffes, zebras, and wildebeest; however, they will eat almost any animal, from rodents to rhinoceros. They avoid animals with sharp horns (like sable antelope), or animals smart enough to graze in large herds (like elands). Warthogs are smaller than lion typical preferences, but since they are common in the savannas, they are common parts of lion diets. In India, lions eat domestic cattle when available, but mostly consume wild Chital deer. Lions drink water when available, but otherwise, get required moisture from their prey or from plants like tsamma melons in the Kalahari desert. Behavior Lions live in densities between 1.5 to 55 adult animals per 38.6 square miles (1 square kilometer). They are social creatures and live in groups of about four to six adults called prides. Prides typically include two males and three or four females and their offspring; the adults leave the pride to hunt in pairs or singly. Prides in India tend to be smaller in size, with two females. Lions play-fight as a means of honing their hunting skills. When they play-fight, they dont bare their teeth and keep their claws retracted so as to not inflict injury on their partner. Play-fighting is a training and practice exercise, to assist in efficiency in tackling prey and to establish relationships among the pride members. It is during play that lions work out which members of the pride are to chase and corner their quarry and which members of the pride are the ones to go in for a kill. Reproduction and Offspring Lions reproduce sexually. They mate year-round, but breeding usually peaks during the rainy season. Their gestation lasts between 110 and 119 days. A litter usually consists of between one and six lion cubs, the average is between 2–3. Newborn cubs are born weighing between 27–56 ounces.  They are blind and deaf at first: their eyes and ears open within the first two weeks. Lion cubs begin to hunt at 5–6 months and stay with their mothers until they are between 18 months and 3 years. Females reach sexual maturity at 4 years and males at 5 years. Luxy Images/Getty Images Evolutionary History Today there are less than 40,000 lions on our planet, but lions were much more common and widespread in the past: They disappeared from Europe during the first century CE, and from the Middle East and most of Asia by 1950. Modern cats first appeared about 10.8 million years ago. Lions, along with jaguars, leopards, tigers, snow leopards, and clouded leopards, split off from all other cat lineages early in the evolution of the cat family and today form what is known as the Panthera lineage. Lions shared a common ancestor with jaguars which lived about 810,000 years ago. Conservation Status The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies all subspecies of the lion as vulnerable, and in 2013, the ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System in the United States classified P.l. leo as endangered, and P.l. melanochaita  as threatened. Threats Major threats to lions include habitat and prey loss resulting from a growing human population and climate change, as well as invasive species, agricultural effluents, diseases like canine distemper, and human retaliation for lion attacks. Illegal hunting and poaching for medicinal purposes and trophies have also impacted lion populations. Legal sport hunting is considered a useful management tool, providing needed income at sanctuary facilities if it is conducted at a sustainable offtake of about one male lion per 775 square miles. Levels higher than that have been documented in several countries in Africa as detrimental to the overall lion populations. Sources Bauer, H. et al. Panthera leo (errata version published in 2017). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T15951A115130419, 2016Bauer, H., and S. Van Der Merwe. Inventory of Free-Ranging Lions Panthera Leo in Africa. Oryx 38.1 (2004): 26-31. Print.Evans, Sara. When the Last Lion Roars: The Rise and Fall of the King of the Beasts. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.Hayward, Matt W., and Graham I. H. Kerley. Prey Preferences of the Lion (Panthera Leo). Journal of Zoology 267.3 (2005): 309–22. Print.Riggio, Jason, et al. The Size of Savannah Africa: A Lion’s (Panthera Leo) View. Biodiversity and Conservation 22.1 (2013): 17–35. Print.Singh, H.S. The Gir Lion: Panthera Leo-persica: a Natural History, Conservation Status, and Future Prospect. Gujarat, India: Pugmark Qmulus Consortium, 2007.Species Profile for Lion (Panthera leo ssp. leo). ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2016.Species Profile for Lion (Panthera leo ssp. melanochaita). ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2016.

Gerrymandering - Definition and Examples in Politics

Gerrymandering s in Politics Gerrymandering is the act of drawing congressional, state legislative or other political boundaries to favor a political party or one particular candidate for elected office. The purpose of gerrymandering is to grant one party power over another by creating districts that hold dense concentrations of voters who are favorable to their policies. Impact The physical impact of gerrymandering can be seen on any map of congressional districts. Many boundaries zig and zag east and west, north and south across city, township and county lines as if for no reason at all. But the political impact is much more significant. Gerrymandering reduces the number of competitive congressional races across the United States by segregating like-minded voters from each other. Gerrymandering has become common in American politics and is often blamed for the gridlock in Congress, polarization of the electorate and disenfranchisement among voters. President Barack Obama, speaking in his final State of the Union address in 2016, called on both the Republican and Democratic parties to end the practice. â€Å"If we want a better politics, it’s not enough just to change a congressman or change a senator or even change a president. We have to change the system to reflect our better selves. I think weve got to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around. Let a bipartisan group do it.† In the end, though, most cases of gerrymandering are legal.   Harmful Effects Gerrymandering  often leads to disproportionate politicians from one party being elected to office. And it creates districts of voters who are socioeconomically, racially or politically alike so that members of Congress are safe from potential challengers and, as a result, have little reason to compromise with their colleagues from the other party.   The process is marked by secrecy, self-dealing and backroom logrolling among elected officials. The public is largely shut out of the process, wrote  Erika L. Wood, the director of the Redistricting Representation Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. In the 2012 congressional elections, for example, Republicans won 53 percent of the popular vote but carried three out of four House seats in states where they oversaw redistricting. The same was true for Democrats. In states where they controlled the process of drawing congressional district boundaries, they captured seven out of 10 seats with only 56 percent of the popular vote. Any Laws Against It? The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in 1964, called for a fair and equitable distribution of voters among congressional districts, but its ruling dealt mostly with the actual number of voters in each and whether they were rural or urban, not the partisan or racial makeup of each: Since the achieving of fair and effective representation for all citizens  is concededly the basic aim of legislative apportionment, we conclude that the Equal Protection Clause guarantees the opportunity for equal participation by all voters in the election of state legislators. Diluting the weight of votes because of place of residence impairs basic constitutional rights under the Fourteenth Amendment just as much as invidious discriminations based upon factors such as race  or economic status. The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965  took on the issue of using race as a factor in drawing congressional districts, saying it is illegal to deny minorities their constitutional right  Ã¢â‚¬Å"to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.† The law  was designed to end discrimination against black Americans, particularly those in the South after the Civil War. A state may take race into account as one of several factors when drawing district lines- but without a compelling reason, race cannot be the predominant reason for a district’s shape, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The Supreme Court followed up in 2015 by saying states could form independent, nonpartisan commissions to redraw legislative and congressional boundaries. How It Happens Attempts to gerrymander happen only once a decade and soon after years ending in a zero. That’s because states are required by law to redraw all 435 congressional and legislative boundaries based on the decennial census every 10 years. The redistricting process begins soon after the U.S. Census Bureau completes its work and begins sending data back to the states. Redistricting must be completed in time for the 2012 elections. Redistricting is one of the most important processes in American politics. The way congressional and legislative boundaries are drawn determines who wins federal and state elections, and ultimately which political party holds the power in making crucial policy decisions. Gerrymandering is not hard,  Sam Wang, the founder of Princeton Universitys Election Consortium, wrote in 2012. He continued: The core technique is to jam voters likely to favor your opponents into a few throwaway districts where the other side will win lopsided victories, a strategy known as packing. Arrange other boundaries to win close victories, cracking opposition groups into many districts. Examples The most concerted effort to redraw political boundaries to benefit a political party in modern history happened after the 2010 census. The project, orchestrated by Republicans using sophisticated software and about $30 million, was called  REDMAP, for Redistricting Majority Project. The program began with successful efforts to regain majorities in key states including  Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, and Wisconsin. Republican strategist Karl Rove wrote in The Wall Street Journal before the midterm elections in 2010: The political world is fixated on whether this years elections will deliver an epic rebuke of President Barack Obama and his party. If that happens, it could end up costing Democrats congressional seats for a decade to come. He was right. The Republican victories in statehouses across the country allowed the GOP in those states to then control the redistricting process taking effect in 2012 and shape congressional races, and ultimately policy, until the next census in 2020.   Who is Responsible? Both major political parties are responsible for the misshapen legislative and congressional districts in the United States. In most cases, the process of drawing congressional and legislative boundaries is left to state legislatures. Some states impanel special commissions. Some redistricting commissions are expected to resist political influence and act independently from the parties and the elected officials in that state. But not all. Here’s a breakdown of who is responsible for redistricting in each state: State legislatures: In 30 states, the elected state lawmakers are responsible for drawing their own legislative districts and in 31 states the boundaries for the congressional districts in their states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. The governors in most of those states have the authority to veto the plans. The states that allow their legislatures to perform the redistricting are: AlabamaDelaware (Legislative districts only)FloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaine (Congressional districts only)MarylandMassachusettsMinnesotaMissouri (Congressional districts only)North CarolinaNorth Dakota (Legislative districts only)NebraskaNew HampshireNew MexicoNevadaOklahomaOregonRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth Dakota (Legislative districts only)TennesseeTexasUtahVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming (Legislative districts only) Independent commissions: These apolitical panels are used in four states to redraw legislative districts. To keep politics and the potential for gerrymandering out of the process, state lawmakers and public officials are prohibited from serving on the commissions. Some states also prohibit legislative staffers and lobbyists, as well. The four states that employ independent commissions are: ArizonaCaliforniaColoradoMichigan Advisory commissions: Four states use and advisory commission consisting of a mix of legislators and non-legislators to draw up congressional maps that are then presented to the legislature for a vote. Six states use advisory commissions to draw state legislative districts. The states that use advisory commissions are: ConnecticutIowaMaine (Legislative districts only)New YorkUtahVermont (Legislative districts only) Politician commissions: Ten states create panels made up of state lawmakers and other elected officials to redraw their own legislative boundaries. While these states take redistricting out of the hands of the entire legislature, the process is highly political, or partisan, and often results in gerrymandering districts. The 10 states that use politician commissions are: Alaska (Legislative districts only)Arkansas (Legislative districts only)HawaiiIdahoMissouriMontana (Legislative districts only)New JerseyOhio (Legislative districts only)Pennsylvania (Legislative districts only)Washington Why Is It Called Gerrymandering? The term gerrymander is derived from the name of a Massachusetts governor in the early 1800s, Elbridge Gerry. Charles Ledyard Norton, writing in the 1890 book  Political Americanisms, blamed Gerry for signing into a law a bill in 1811 readjusting the representative districts so as to favor the Democrats and weaken the Federalists, although the last named party polled nearly two-thirds of the votes cast. Norton explained the emergence of the epithet gerrymander this way: A fancied resemblance of a map of the districts thus treated led [Gilbert] Stuart, the painter, to add a few lines with his pencil, and to say to Mr. [Benjamin] Russell, editor of the Boston Centinel, That will do for a salamander. Russell glanced at it: Salamander! said he, Call it a Gerrymander! The epithet took at once and became a Federalist war-cry, the map caricature being published as a campaign document. The late William Safire, a political columnist and linguist for  The New York Times, made note of the words pronunciation in his 1968 book  Safires New Political Dictionary: Gerrys name was pronounced with a hard  g; but because of the similarity of the word with jerrybuilt (meaning rickety, no connection with gerrymander) the letter  g  is pronounced as  j.