African Lion photos taken at the Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum. This male African lion photograph was taken at the Tulsa Zoo in Tulsa Oklahoma. African lions are social big cats that live in family groups called Prides.  The males job is to protect the pride. The females do most of the hunting. Lions relax and rest most of the day.  Something that few people think about is the horrors caused by the exotic pet trade.  People buy lions as cute cuddly cubs thinking they can raise them to be good pets. That simply is not the case. They are wild animals with wild animal instants and reactions no matter how you raise them. Soon they are not a cute cuddly cub but instead are a full grown meat eating carnivore.  People are then stuck between a rock and a hard spot. No one wants to buy a full grown lion for a pet and most zoos won't take them and sanctuaries are over full and turn away thousands of animals every year. What then. These animals are abandoned in the woods, killed or sold to canned hunts.   Please learn more about the horrors these animals face in the hands of unscrupulous breeders.  These animals belong in the wild. If they must live in captivity at least it should be in qualified accredited zoos tat have large exhibits and healthy diets not in tiny cages in roadside exhibits or on chains or in cages in backyards suffering.