Cave Lion

Scientific Classification

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class:Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Suborder: Feliformia

Family: Felidae

Subfamily: Pantherinae

Genus: Panthera

Species: Panthera spelaea

Described by Georg August Goldfuss, 1810

Common Names: Cave Lion, Ice Age Lion, Eurasian Cave Lion, Steppe Lion, and European Cave Lion.

Synonym: Panthera leo spelaea, M. Boule & L. De Villeneuve, 1927

Subspecies:

-Beringian Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea vereshchagini), Baryshnikov & Boeskorov, 2001

-Eurasian Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea spelaea), Goldfuss, 1810

Current Park Population: (2; all young adults; 1 male, 1 female)

Park Diet: Meat mixes, whole prey like cattle or sheep, bones, carcasses, and muscle meat.

Natural Diet: Reindeer, Megaloceros, Red Deer, Wild Horse, Muskox, Aurochs, Wisent, Steppe Bison, Young Woolly rhino, Young Woolly Mammoth, and Bear Cubs.

Lifespan: 12-17 years

Habitat: Open habitats such as the Mammoth Steppe and Grasslands, Open and Temperate Woodlands

Native Ecosystem: Western Europe to northwest North America, Middle-Late Pleistocene.

Breeding Season: All Year-Round

Gestation Period: 110 days

Number of Young: one to four cubs

Danger Level: eight out of ten.

Park Star Rating: 5 Stars

Summary: Panthera spelaea, commonly known as the cave lion (or less commonly as the steppe lion) is an extinct Panthera species native to Eurasia and northwest North America during the Pleistocene epoch. Genetic analysis of ancient DNA has revealed that while closely related, it was a distinct species genetically isolated from the modern lion (Panthera leo), with the genetic divergence between the two species estimated at around 500,000 years ago. The earliest fossils of the P. spelaea lineage (either regarded as the separate species Panthera fossilis or the subspecies P. spelaea fossilis) in Eurasia date to around 700,000 years ago (with possible late Early Pleistocene records). It is closely related and probably ancestral to the American lion (Panthera atrox). The species ranged from Western Europe to eastern Beringia in North America, and was a prominent member of the mammoth steppe fauna, and an important apex predator across its range. It became extinct about 13,000 years ago. It closely resembled living lions with a coat of yellowish-grey fur, though unlike living lions males appear to have lacked manes.

Panthera spelaea interacted with both Neanderthals and modern humans, who used their pelts and in the case of the latter, depicted them in artistic works.

History of Discovery: Felis spelaea was the scientific name used by Georg August Goldfuss in 1810 for a fossil lion skull that was excavated in a cave in southern Germany. It possibly dates to the Würm glaciation.

Taxonomy: Several authors regarded Panthera spelaea as a subspecies of the modern lion, and therefore as Panthera leo spelaea. One author considered the cave lion to be more closely related to the tiger based on a comparison of skull shapes, and proposed the scientific name Panthera tigris spelaea. Some authors regard the larger Middle Pleisto

Results from morphological studies showed that it is distinct in cranial and dental anatomy to justify the specific status of Panthera spelaea. Results of phylogenetic studies also support this assessment.

In 2001, the subspecies Panthera spelaea vereshchagini was proposed for seven specimens found in Siberia and Yukon, which have smaller skulls and teeth than the average P. spelaea. Before 2020, genetic analysis using ancient DNA provided no evidence for their distinct subspecific status; DNA signatures from P. spelaea from Europe and Alaska were indistinguishable, suggesting one large panmictic population. However, analysis of mitochondrial genome sequences from 31 cave lions showed that they fall into two monophyletic clades. One lived across western Europe and the other was restricted to Beringia during the Pleistocene. For this reason, the Beringian population is considered a distinct subspecies, P. s. vereshchagini.

Evolution: Lion-like pantherine felids first appeared in the Tanzanian Olduvai Gorge about 1.7 to 1.2 million years ago. These cats dispersed into Eurasia from East Africa around the end of the Early Pleistocene and the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, giving rise to Panthera fossilis. The oldest widely accepted fossils of P. fossilis in Europe date to around 700,000 years ago with possible older fossils from Western Siberia dating to the late Early Pleistocene. Different authors considered Panthera fossils as either a distinct species ancestral to P. spelaea, or as a subspecies of P. spelaea. Recent nuclear genomic evidence suggest that interbreeding between modern lions and all Eurasian fossil lions took place up until 500,000 years ago, but by 470,000 years ago, no subsequent interbreeding between the two lineages occurred.

Specimens intermediate between P. fossilis and Late Pleistocene P. spelaea are referred to as the subspecies P. s. intermedia. The transition from P. fossilis to Late Pleistocene P. spelaea involved significant changes in skull and tooth morphology. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data from fossil lion remains show that the American lion represents a sister group of Late Pleistocene P. spelaea, and likely arose when an early P. spelaea population became isolated south of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Initially this was suggested to be around 340,000 years ago, but later studies suggested that the split between the two species was probably younger, around 165,000 years ago, consistent with the late first appearance of P. spelaea in Eastern Beringia (now Alaska and adjacent regions) during the Illinoian (around 190-130,000 years ago).

Description: They are tannish in color with a white underbelly with some black spots, a black hair tuft end, black side stripes, short grayish brown manes with the front being pale, along with hair elbow tufts, and mane underbellies. Grey fur in older individuals and Males have short manes which grows when lions enter adolescence, when testosterone levels increase, and reach their full size at around four years old.

Carvings and cave paintings of cave lions, which were discovered in the Lascaux and Chauvet Caves in France, were dated to 15,000 to 17,000 years old. A drawing in the Chauvet cave depicts two cave lions walking together. The one in the foreground is slightly smaller than the one in the background, which has been drawn with a scrotum and without a cave paintings suggest that male cave lions completely lacked manes, or at most had very small manes.

Size: Early members of the cave lion lineage (including those assigned Panthera fossilis) during the Middle Pleistocene were considerably larger than individuals of P. spelaea from the Last Glacial Period and modern lions, with some of these individuals having an estimated length of 2.5–2.9 metres (8.2–9.5 ft), shoulder height of 1.4–1.5 metres (4.6–4.9 ft) and body mass of 400–500 kilograms (880–1,100 lb), respectively, making them among the largest cats to have ever lived. The Late Pleistocene Panthera spelaea spelaea was noticeably smaller though still large relative to living cats, with an estimated length and shoulder height of 2–2.1 metres (6.6–6.9 ft) and 1.1–1.2 metres (3.6–3.9 ft), respectively, The species showed a progressive size reduction over the course of the Last Glacial Period up until its extinction, with the last P. spelaea populations comparable in size to small-sized modern lions, with a body mass of only 70–90 kilograms (150–200 lb) and a body length and shoulder height of only 1.2–1.3 metres (3.9–4.3 ft) and 70–75 centimetres (2.30–2.46 ft) respectively.

Skull: Eurasian Cave Lions had a relatively longer and narrower muzzle compared to that of the extant lion. Despite this, the two species do not exhibit major differences in morphology.[4] Like modern lions, females were smaller than males.

Skin: In 2016, hair found near the Maly Anyuy River was identified as cave lion hair through DNA analysis. Comparison with hair of a modern lion revealed that cave lion hair was probably similar in colour as that of the modern lion, though slightly lighter. In addition, the cave lion is thought to have had a very thick and dense undercoat comprising closed and compressed yellowish-to-white wavy downy hair with a smaller mass of darker-colored guard hairs, possibly an adaptation to the Ice Age climate. While juveniles' fur coat color was yellowish, adult cave lions are suggested to have had grey fur.

Mummified Specimens: In 2008, a well-preserved mature cave lion specimen was unearthed near the Maly Anyuy River in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, which still retained some clumps of hair.

In 2015, two frozen cave lion cubs, estimated to be between 25,000 and 55,000 years old, were discovered close to the Uyandina River in Yakutia, Siberia in permafrost. Research results indicate that the cubs were likely barely a week old at the time of their deaths, as their milk teeth had not fully erupted. Further evidence suggests the cubs were hidden at a den site until they were strong enough to follow their mother back to the pride, as with modern lions. Researchers believe that the cubs were trapped and killed by a landslide and that the absence of oxygen underground hindered their decomposition and allowed the cubs to be preserved in such good condition. A second expedition to the site where the cubs were found was planned for 2016, in hopes of finding either the remains of a third cub or possibly the cubs' mother.

In 2017, another frozen specimen, thought to be a lion cub, was found in Yakutia on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River (Russian: Тирехтях), a tributary of the Indigirka River. This male cub was thought to be slightly older than the 2015 cubs at the time of its death; it is estimated to have been around one and a half to two months. In 2018, another preserved carcass of a cub was found in a location 15 m (50 ft) away. It was considered to be around a month old when it died approximately 50,000 years ago, and presumed to be a sibling of the male cub. However, carbon dating showed them to have lived about 15,000 years apart, with the female estimated to have lived 28,000 years ago, and the male 43,448 years ago. Both cubs were well preserved, albeit with a few damages, with the female possibly being the "best preserved" animal discovered from the Ice Age.

Distribution and Habitat: During the Last Glacial Period, Eurasian Cave Lions formed a contiguous population across the mammoth steppe, from Western Europe to northwest North America. It was widely distributed in the Iberian Peninsula, Italian Peninsula, Southeast Europe, Great Britain, Central Europe, the East European Plain, the Ural Mountains, most of Northern Asia (ranging as far south as Northeast China and possibly North Korea), and across the Bering land bridge into Alaska and Yukon. The cave lion had a wide elevation range, with finds extending up over 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) above sea level in the European Alps and Buryatia in Northern Asia, though they probably did not occupy mountainous habitats all year round. The cave lion probably inhabited predominantly open habitats such as steppe and grasslands although it would have also occurred in open woodlands as well. It may have sought out hibernating bears in montane caves as a food source during the winter. While during the Last Glacial Period, it was often associated with cold environments, the species also inhabited temperate environments, such as in Europe during the Last Interglacial/Eemian.

Paleobiology: Lions spend much of their time resting; they are inactive for about twenty hours per day. Although lions can be active at any time, their activity generally peaks after dusk with a period of socializing, grooming, and defecating. Intermittent bursts of activity continue until dawn when hunting most often takes place. They spend an average of two hours a day walking and fifty minutes eating.

Ecology: The Eurasian Cave Lion was one of the keystone species of the mammoth steppe, being one of the main apex predators alongside the gray wolf, cave hyena, and brown bear. Large amounts of bones belonging to Panthera spelaea were excavated in caves, where bones of cave hyenas, cave bears, and Paleolithic artifacts were also found. Some of these accumulations of cave lion bones have been attributed to the hoarding of meat from cave lion carcasses by cave hyenas in caves occupied by the latter.

Social Behavior: Whether or not cave lions existed in prides like modern lions is unclear. Isotopic analysis done by Hervé Bocherns in 2015, suggested cave lions in Europe may have been solitary, due to scattering of individual data which was more similar to individualistic behavior compared to modern day lion populations. Some other authors have also argued that the absence of manes in cave lions suggests that cave lions did not live in prides, given the importance of manes in the social hierarchy of modern lions. Boeskorov et al. 2021 suggested both European and Beringian cave lions may have hunted in larger prides than modern lions because sexual dimorphism in cave lions was more pronounced than in modern African lions and solitary big cats. However, they admitted the data is insufficient to come to a certain conclusion.

The lion is the most social of all wild felid species, living in groups of related individuals with their offspring. Such a group is called a "pride". Groups of male lions are called "coalitions". Females form a stable social unit in pride and do not tolerate outside females. The majority of females remain in their birth prides while all males and some females will disperse. The average pride consists of around 15 lions, including several adult females and up to four males and their cubs of both sexes. Prides act as fission–fusion societies, and members will split into subgroups that keep in contact with roars.

Diet: Isotopic analyses of bone collagen samples extracted from remains in Europe and East Beringia indicate that reindeer were particularly prominent in the diet of cave lions in these regions during the Last Glacial Period. Cave lions also seem to have opportunistically preyed on the cubs of cave bears. Other possible prey species were giant deer, red deer, wild horse, muskox, aurochs, wisent, steppe bison, young woolly rhino, and young woolly mammoth. It likely competed for prey with the European Ice Age leopard, cave hyenas, brown bears, and grey wolves in Eurasia, along with short-faced bears, Homotherium, and Beringian wolves in Beringia.

Htuning: Young lions first display stalking behaviour at around three months of age, although they do not participate in hunting until they are almost a year old and begin to hunt effectively when nearing the age of two.

In typical hunts, each lioness has a favoured position in the group, either stalking prey on the "wing", then attacking, or moving a smaller distance in the centre of the group and capturing prey fleeing from other lionesses. Males attached to prides do not usually participate in group hunting. Some evidence suggests, however, that males are just as successful as females; they are typically solo hunters who ambush prey in small bushland. They may join in the hunting of large, slower-moving prey like bison; and even hunt them on their own. Moderately-sized hunting groups generally have higher success rates than lone females and larger groups

Lions are not particularly known for their stamina. For instance, a lioness's heart comprises only 0.57% of its body weight and a male's is about 0.45% of its body weight, whereas a hyena's heart comprises almost 1% of its body weight. Thus, lions run quickly only in short bursts at about 48–59 km/h (30–37 mph) and need to be close to their prey before starting the attack. They take advantage of factors that reduce visibility; many kills take place near some form of cover or at night. The lion's attack is short and powerful; it attempts to catch prey with a fast rush and final leap, usually pulls it down by the rump, and kills with a clamping bite to the throat or muzzle. It can hold the prey's throat for up to 13 minutes until the prey stops moving. It has a bite force of 1314.7 Newton at the canine tip and 2023.7 Newton at the carnassial notch.

Lions typically consume prey at the location of the hunt but sometimes drag large prey into cover. They tend to squabble over kills, particularly the males. Cubs suffer most when food is scarce but otherwise, all pride members eat their fill, including old and crippled lions, which can live on leftovers. Large kills are shared more widely among pride members. An adult lioness requires an average of about 5 kg (11 lb) of meat per day while males require about 7 kg (15 lb). Lions gorge themselves and eat up to 30 kg (66 lb) in one session. If it is unable to consume all of the kill, it rests for a few hours before continuing to eat. On hot days, the pride retreats to shade with one or two males standing guard. Lions defend their kills from scavengers such as vultures and hyenas.

-Lions scavenge on carrion when the opportunity arises, scavenging animals dead from natural causes such as disease or those that were killed by other predators. Scavenging lions keep a constant lookout for circling vultures, which indicate the death or distress of an animal. Most carrion on which both hyenas and lions feed upon are killed by hyenas rather than lions. Carrion is thought to provide a large part of lion diet.

Sexual Dimorphism: Male Cave Lions are larger than the Lionesses and they have shorter manes. This feature likely evolved to signal the fitness of males to females. Males with darker manes appear to have greater reproductive success and are more likely to remain in a pride for longer. They have longer and thicker hair and higher testosterone levels, but they are also more vulnerable to heat stress. Unlike in other felid species, female lions consistently interact with multiple males at once. Another hypothesis suggests that the mane also serves to protect the neck in fights, but this is disputed. During fights, including those involving maneless females and adolescents, the neck is not targeted as much as the face, back, and hindquarters. Injured lions also begin to lose their manes.

Parenting: Cave lion cubs appear to have lived in dens during their earliest stages of life, like modern lion cubs and were likely solely raised by females, like living Panthera species. The average gestation period is around 110 days; the female gives birth to a litter of between one and four cubs in a secluded den, which may be a thicket, a reed bed, a cave, or some other sheltered area, usually away from the pride. She will often hunt alone while the cubs are still helpless, staying relatively close to the den. Lion cubs are born blind, their eyes opening around seven days after birth. They weigh 1.2–2.1 kg (2.6–4.6 lb) at birth and are almost helpless, beginning to crawl a day or two after birth and walking around three weeks of age. To avoid a buildup of scent attracting the attention of predators, the lioness moves her cubs to a new den site several times a month, carrying them one-by-one by the nape of the neck.

Usually, the mother does not integrate herself and her cubs back into the pride until the cubs are six to eight weeks old. Sometimes the introduction to pride life occurs earlier, particularly if other lionesses have given birth at about the same time. When first introduced to the rest of the pride, lion cubs lack confidence when confronted with adults other than their mother. They soon begin to immerse themselves in the pride life, however, playing among themselves or attempting to initiate play with the adults. Lionesses with cubs of their own are more likely to be tolerant of another lioness's cubs than lionesses without cubs. Male tolerance of the cubs varies—one male could patiently let the cubs play with his tail or his mane, while another may snarl and bat the cubs away.

Reproduction: Most lionesses reproduce by the time they are four years of age. Cave Lions do not mate at a specific time of year and the females are polyestrous. A lioness may mate with more than one male when she is in heat.

Pride lionesses often synchronize their reproductive cycles and communal rearing and suckling of the young, which suckle indiscriminately from any or all of the nursing females in the pride. The synchronization of births is advantageous because the cubs grow to be roughly the same size and have an equal chance of survival, and sucklings are not dominated by older cubs. Weaning occurs after six or seven months. Male lions reach maturity at about three years of age and at four to five years are capable of challenging and displacing adult males associated with another pride. They begin to age and weaken between 10 and 15 years of age at the latest.

When one or more new males oust the previous males associated with pride, the victors often kill any existing young cubs, perhaps because females do not become fertile and receptive until their cubs mature or die. Females often fiercely defend their cubs from a usurping male but are rarely successful unless a group of three or four mothers within a pride join forces against the male. Cubs also die from starvation abandonment, and predation by leopards, hyenas, bears, and wolves. Male cubs are excluded from their maternal pride when they reach maturity at around two or three years of age, while some females may leave when they reach the age of two. When a new male lion takes over a pride, adolescents both male and female may be evicted.

Communication: When resting, Cave lion socialization occurs through a number of behaviors; the animal's expressive movements are highly developed. The most common peaceful, tactile gestures are head rubbing and social licking, which have been compared with the role of allogrooming among primates. Head rubbing, nuzzling the forehead, face, and neck against another lion appears to be a form of greeting and is seen often after an animal has been apart from others or after a fight or confrontation. Males tend to rub other males, while cubs and females rub females. Social licking often occurs in tandem with head rubbing; it is generally mutual and the recipient appears to express pleasure. The head and neck are the most common parts of the body licked; this behavior may have arisen out of utility because lions cannot lick these areas themselves.

Lions have an array of facial expressions and body postures that serve as visual gestures. A common facial expression is the "grimace face" or flehmen response, which a lion makes when sniffing chemical signals and involves an open mouth with bared teeth, raised muzzle, wrinkled nose, closed eyes, and relaxed ears. Lions also use chemical and visual marking; males spray urine and scrape plots of ground and objects within the territory.

The lion's repertoire of vocalizations is large; variations in intensity and pitch appear to be central to communication. Most lion vocalizations are variations of growling, snarling, meowing, and roaring. Other sounds produced include purring, puffing, bleating, and humming. Roaring is used to advertise its presence. Lions most often roar at night, a sound that can be heard from a distance of 8 kilometers (5 mi). They tend to roar in a very characteristic manner starting with a few deep, long roars that subside into grunts.

Mortality: Cave Lions may live 12–17 years in the wild. Although adult lions have no natural predators, evidence suggests most die violently from attacks by humans or other lions. Lions often inflict serious injuries on members of other prides they encounter in territorial disputes or members of the home pride when fighting at a kill. Crippled lions and cubs may fall victim to bears, wolves, hyenas, and leopards or be trampled by bison or mammoths. Careless lions may be maimed when hunting prey.

Paleoecology:

Interactions with other species: Just like their African Relatives, Cave Lions, and Cave Hyenas occupy a similar ecological niche and compete for prey and carrion. Lions typically ignore hyenas unless they are on a kill or are being harassed, while the latter tend to visibly react to the presence of lions with or without the presence of food. They either steal each other's kills and when confronted on a kill, hyenas may either leave or wait patiently at a distance of 30–100 m (98–328 ft) until the lions have finished. Hyenas may feed alongside lions and force them off a kill. The two species attack one another even when there is no food involved for no apparent reason. They will even kill each other and their cubs.

Lions tend to dominate Cave leopards, steal their kills, and kill their cubs and even adults when given the chance. Cave Leopards do not appear to be motivated by an avoidance of lions, as they use heavy vegetation regardless of whether lions are present in an area and both cats are active around the same time of day. In addition, there is no evidence that lions affect leopard abundance. Leopards take refuge in trees, though lionesses occasionally attempt to climb up and retrieve their kills.

Lions similarly dominate Cave Wolves, taking their kills and dispatching pups or adult Wolves.

Cave Lions would hunt hibernating Bears, particularly Cave Bears, they normally go after the cubs, but they are often killed by the Mother Bears.

Cave Lions live around the Forest and Mammoth Steppesas one of its Apex Predators living alongside Wisent, Eurasian Elk or Moose, Megaloceros, Wild Boar, Woolly Rhinoceros, Saiga Antelopes, Woolly Mammoths, Aurochs, Elasmotherium, Tarpan, Steppe Bison, and European Wild Donkeys and Reindeer.

Cave Lions normally target Wild Boar, Saiga Antelopes, Tarpan, European Wild Donkeys, Reindeer. Large Prides hunt Steppe Bison, Wisent, Eurasian Elk or Moose, Aurochs, and Megaloceros. They also target young Woolly Rhinoceros, Woolly Mammoths, and Elasmotherium and even Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals.

Cave Lions are often chased away by Woolly Mammoths since they sometime hunt the calves especially a Bull Mammoth in Musth. But the Ape Men they directly compete and are hunted by them.

There is direct evidence of the hunting of cave lions and exploitation of their pelts in Europe by both Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic, as well as modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic (as evidenced by the Magdalenian aged La Garma site in Spain). Modern humans also drew cave paintings of cave lions, engraved their likeness on bones, and created sculptures of them, including the famous anthropomorphic lion-man figure from Germany dating to around 41-35,000 years ago with the body of a human and the head of a lion. Cave lion canines with perforated holes may have been worn as personal ornaments.

Extinction: Radiocarbon dating suggests that the species went extinct approximately simultaneously across its range during the last few thousand years of the Late Pleistocene, around 14-15,000 years ago, possibly surviving around 1000 years later in the far east North American portion of its range. This timing roughly corresponds to the onset of the Bølling–Allerød Interstadial warm period and the consequent collapse of the mammoth steppe ecosystem. The precise cause of its extinction is unclear, but possibly involved environmental change from open habitats to closed forests, changes in prey abundance, as well as human impact, though it is difficult to disentangle the precise causes of its extinction. Cave lions appear to have undergone a population bottleneck that considerably reduced their genetic diversity between 47,000 and 18,000 years ago, probably driven at least in part by climatic instability.

Reintroduction Project: Prehistoric Park would normally plan to one day reintroduce a Pleistocene Eurasian animal, Cave Lions are part of the Russian mammoth steppe ecosystem. This, therefore, has made releasable in Pleistocene Park. Once a Large Population of Prey Animals is establish, these Felines would be reintroduced.

Danger Tip: Just like Modern-day Lions, Cave Lions are more likely to attack when they feel threatened, harassed, or pursued.

Significant Events: During the Team's Second Rescue Mission, they encountered Prides of Cave Lions in two separate events, a pride feeding on a human hunter before being chased off by a Bull Mammoth and a pride of Cave Lions try to attack the Mammoth Sisters, Martha and Ellie in the Cave alongside Cave Wolves and Cave Hyenas. But two significant Events was when during a Snowstorm while taking Shelter in a Cave, the Team meets an injured Male Cave Lion in which he calmed down by Lincoln Loud and taken to the park for Medicial Treatment and another encounter was when a Lioness is stalking the Mammoth Herd the Team has been tracking going after the Mother and Calf before it pounced into the Time Portal and into the Park. They now both reside in the Ice Age Mount Predator Paddocks.

Ice Age Mount Cave Lion Paddock: The third section of Ice Age Mount, which was naturally at the very back of the overall zone and closest to the zone's exit, consisted of six appropriately sized paddocks themed after ice age valleys and steppes that came with large rocky caves that served as indoor dens. It is home to Cave Bears, Cave Leopards, Cave Hyenas, Cave Lions, Cave Wolves, and Steppe Brown Bears.

The Cave Lion Paddock is woodland forest and steppe with a large Cave where the Lions can sleep. Visitors can see them through the Glass Viewing Panels. Right now, there are only two Cave Lions which they share the paddock and rotate separately currently they are introduced for breeding.

Like most animals at Prehistoric Park, the Cave Lions eventually learn to recognize their keepers but still aren't friendly towards them. They are, however, more tolerant of their keepers than other humans and Neanderthals.

A Sketch of Lincoln Loud and Ronnie Anne resting alongside Simba and Nala the Cave Lions.

Notable Individuals:

Simba: Single male cave lion. Forms a bond with Lincoln Loud.

Nala: Single cave lioness. Eventually mates with Simba and Forms a bond with Ronnie Anne Santiago.

Conclusion: The Cave Lions are the Kings of the Ice Age Mammoth steppes and would surprise people to learn that lions used to live in Europe, Asia, and North America during the Ice Age, when they are associated with the African Lion of the Savannah. These Majestic Felines would be a Grand Feature of Royalty to Prehistoric Park.

The Field Guide might take a long time, like structuring and writing descriptions of the creatures, but also my time in college and spending time with my family. So you can suggest additional information quotes, descriptions, and natural or speculative behaviors for the prehistoric animals that I can edit and you send your suggestions either in reviews or Private Messages.

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