這是《動物王國大探險展》草原生態區的獅子導覽。在此聆聽這位草原頂端掠食者，如何群居與狩獵。
上方可播放導覽語音。逐字稿與語音內容相同。
This is the lion stop in the grassland gallery of the Animal Kingdom Grand Adventure Exhibition. Listen here to how this top predator of the grass lives and hunts.
Play the narration above. The transcript matches the audio.
熱浪席捲著草原，在草叢與灌木的陰影間，一道銳利的目光鎖定在遠方的草食動物群，這片草原生態的頂端掠食者：獅子，悄然現身。
獅子是貓科中極罕見的群居物種，雌獅偏好在開闊草原合作捕食，雄獅則傾向夜間狩獵，利用草木的天然屏障對大型獵物發動近距離突襲。雄獅威風凜凜的鬃毛，其實完全沒有防熱功用，相反地，在烈日下還是沉重的熱負擔。為什麼鬃毛沒在演化中淘汰掉呢？因為濃密的鬃毛，能吸引異性並威嚇同性，讓對手不戰而退。
有趣的是，科學家在野外可以透過「鼻頭顏色」來估算獅子的年齡。牠們出生時鼻頭是乾淨的粉紅色，隨年齡增長會逐漸長出黑色素斑點，8歲以後，鼻頭通常已布滿密集的黑斑，肉眼看幾乎是全黑色。
身為食物鏈頂端，獅子調控著草食動物的數量，維持森林與草原邊界平衡。然而隨著時代與環境變遷，全球獅子的數量已大幅減少，守護牠們，就是留住草原的永續未來。
A heatwave rolls over the grassland. In the shade of grass and scrub, a sharp gaze locks on a herd of grazers in the distance. The top predator of this grassland ecology: the lion, appears without a sound.
The lion is an extremely rare social species among the cats. Lionesses prefer to hunt together on the open grass; the males tend to hunt at night, using the natural screen of grass and wood to strike large prey at close range. The male's imposing mane has, in fact, no use against heat; on the contrary, under a hard sun it is a heavy thermal burden. Why was the mane not dropped in evolution? Because a dense mane can draw the opposite sex and cow the same sex, so a rival backs down without a fight.
Interestingly, in the field scientists can estimate a lion's age by the color of the nose. At birth the nose is a clean pink; with age, spots of melanin grow. After the age of eight, the nose is usually packed with dense black spots, and to the naked eye it is almost wholly black.
At the top of the food chain, the lion regulates the numbers of grazers, and keeps the balance at the edge of forest and grass. Yet as times and environments change, the number of lions in the world has fallen sharply. To protect them is to keep the lasting future of the grassland.