Maned African Lion Melo

First Release
Made their debut on November 10, 2009, and to celebrate, a news post contest was held, where users submitted fun facts about big cats to the news comment box (one fact per user).

The following 12 winners were chosen, and rewarded with one of these pets.

Tennis (#53) - A lion cannot roar until it is 2 years old. So Simba was a LIE, because he roared when he wasn't 2 years old.

Kristina (#295) - Cheetahs makes facial expressions by using the bold black lines around its muzzle to signal its mood.

AirDragon (#109) - In some lions, the tuft of their tail conceals a hard "spine" or "spur", approximately 5 mm long, formed of the final sections of tail bone fused together.

Rein (#284) - Cats can make over 100 vocal sounds, while dogs can only make 10.

Grayfire (#621) - Males with darker manes attract more females, but they have a lower sperm count than males with lighter manes because the males with lighter manes attract less heat. So the females go for the darker males but their breeding rate will suffer. (I know a few people posted this, but this is the full fact.)

Alexina (#352) - "Cats can either roar or purr but they can't do both. The four main big cats � the lion, tiger, leopard and jaguar � have specially adapted larynxes which enable them to roar (but they cannot purr); the lion has the longest larynx, which means it can produce the loudest roar. Cats that can't roar are always able to purr. (Again, a few people posted, but this is a full fact.)

UmiMizuAi (#514) - All tigers have a similar marking on their forehead ,which resembles the Chinese symbol Wang, meaning King. They are royal alright.

Ehen (#1007) - A lion's muzzle is like a fingerprint - no two lions share the same pattern of whiskers. c:

Nikki (#1066) - The tendons in a tiger's leg are very strong. So strong in fact that a tiger was shot and killed, but it remained standing; that's proof of the strength of those tendons!

Airr + Nini (#404) - Pregnant lions still go on the hunt. In order to protect the babies, each developing lion cub in the womb is surrounded by a hammock-like "cushion", which absorbs impact from the mama's leaping around and wrestling with giant prey, like wildebeest. :3

Sai (#133) - There are over 40 different names for a cougar, including things like Catamount, Mountain Lion and Mountain Screamer; the cougar holds a Guinness World Record for this.

Hannah Kerela (#761) - Wanna know why Simba had a harem? In a pride, most male cubs are driven out as they mature to prevent inbreeding, and form prides of their own with other males. However, most prides do have more than one male - generally up to four.