Contrary to what many people believe, most lions do not live in the jungle. The critically endangered Asiatic lions in India are the only forest dwellers. All other lions live on grassy plains, in thick brush, and on semi-arid plains, where they can garner enough water from plants and prey animals to allow them to live in these often extremely dry environments.

Lions have complex social lives played out in groups of up to 20 that are comprised mostly of related females and younger males. Female lions do 90% of the hunting for the pride; nonetheless, the males eat first, and eat a disproportionate amount of the prey the females kill. Male lions are primarily occupied with protecting the pride and maintaining the territorial boundaries. Their loud roar is a territorial claim that can be heard over 3 miles away. Male lions have the ability to count how many are in their roaring group. Among other things, this allows the dominant male to decide whether there are enough individuals in his group to challenge an invading pride.

On rare occasions, female lions develop manes, including some female lions in Botswana who grew manes and took on male-like behaviors. The cause was thought to have been a genetic predisposition in some of the females which produced more testosterone. This was enabled by limited gene flow, since all the maned females came from an isolated area of the Okavango Delta.