The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a                          member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger.

Wild lions currently exist in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia with an endangered remnant population in Gir Forest National Park in India, having disappeared from North Africa and Southwest Asia in historic times. 

Until the late Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans.

Lions are unusually social compared to other cats.