Young Writers Society

Essay for Lions

The sun is blinding as I step outside.

At least, that's how it feels. After I blink a few times, my eyes adjust to the bright summer light. It's almost summer break-only one more day! The air has been warm and the trees are green, a nice change from the barren branches. Birds sing in the leafy canopy and worms lay in the dark soil below. Everything is so perfect, except for one vary important thing: I have an essay due tomorrow that I haven't even started on.

"Vanessa!" My friend, Elena, calls from behind, "Wait up!" I stop slow down a little

but I don't stop walking. The only thing I can think about is getting home so that I can start on my essay. How could I have been so stupid to forget about it!

"Vanessa, what's wrong with you?" Elena asks breathlessly, tired after chasing me down. "Didn't you hear me calling?"

I glance at my friend, her wavy blond hair shimmering in the light of the sun. "Yeah, I herd you calling but I have to get home quickly because..." I blush, embarrassed, "because I forgot to do the essay for LA." Elena looks at me, shock clearly spread across her face. I know that she's already done her's. All she can talk about is the cool facts she learned about Orca Whales but I was so busy with other subjects and soccer and Youth Group for my family's church, that I forgot all about this stupid essay.

"Well, I guess you really do need to get home!" Elena exclaimed, "I guess I'll let you go. Bye!" She smiled and then walked away, heading over to her new friend. It annoys me at how quickly she left me to go with her other friend. But then again, I'm happy because now I can run home and get started on all of my homework.

Finally.

I sit at my desk in my room, thirty minutes after I walked home from school. The computer screen is loading and I pull out a few pieces of collage ruled note booking paper. Although I'm in middle school, I enjoy using collage ruled note booking paper.

The computer has loaded and I go to Google, typing in: endangered animals.

I have always loved animals and now I finally have a chance to tell other people about how much animals do for the world, and how much they mean to people in other countries. I click on the first link and find myself staring at a two-paged list of endangered animals from the WWF foundation. I scroll through them all, finding a few animals that I've never heard of before. After around ten minutes, I am completely lost and unsure which animal I should choose. I come up with a list of my favorites,

. Wolf

. Tiger

. African Wild Dog

. Lion

. Sea Turtle

Now I just have to pick between these five. The wolf is too common, I'm sure someone else will choose that one too. A tiger will also probably be chosen.

I cross those two off the list.

African Wild Dogs...I think they might scare the sensitive people in class with their huge ears and swirled coat. I cross them out also, even though I love them a lot.

Now it's between sea turtles and lions. I stare at the two names for a while, blanking out. Finally, I come to the realization that I'm just staring at letters so I circle lions. My theory: who doesn't want to know more about the kind of animals?

Now that I have a topic, I research lions and watch a few documentaries. I realize that lions are much more amazing than people think-and smarter. 

I click on the next document and read,

For all of their roaring, growling, and ferociousness, lions are family animals and truly social in their own communities. They usually live in groups of 15 or more animals called prides. Prides can be as small as 3 or as big as 40 animals. In a pride, lions hunt prey, raise cubs, and defend their territory together. In prides the females do most of the hunting and cub rearing. Usually all the lionesses in the pride are related—mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and sisters. Many of the females in the pride give birth at about the same time. A cub may nurse from other females as well as its mother. Each pride generally will have no more than two adult males.

While the females usually live with the pride for life, the males often stay for only two to four years. After that they go off on their own or are evicted by other males who take over the pride. When a new male becomes part of the pride it is not unusual for him to kill all the cubs, ensuring that all future cubs will have his genes. The main job of males in the pride is defending the pride's territory. A male's loud roar, usually heard after sunset, can carry for as far as five miles (eight kilometers). The roar warns off intruders and helps round up stray members of the pride.

Hunting generally is done in the dark by the lionesses. They often hunt in groups of two or three, using teamwork to stalk, surround, and kill their prey. Lionesses aren't the most successful of hunters, because they usually score only one kill out of several tries. After the kill the males usually eat first, lionesses next—and the cubs get what's left. Males and females fiercely defend against any outside lions that attempt to join their pride.

This fascinates me because all I knew about lions was that makes grew mains and females didn't. I laugh at myself and write this all down, forming my essay. It takes me a while to re-word everything and come up with an intro and an ending but finally, I get it all done. I look up at my clock to see that it's five o'clock. I've been working on this for two hours.

I look happily at my four-paged essay and put it in my LA binder, saving it for its big reveal tomorrow. However much time I put into this work, I think I enjoyed it. I learned a lot about lions and I hope that my class will too. I hope that they will see that endangered animals matter, no matter if they are tame or not. They all play a wonderful part in this world and each species deserves to thrive.

Author's Note:

I would like to say that this was quickly put together for my club, the EAC. I hope that this piece will help people understand more about lions--one of my favorite endangered animal spicies. I got the long paragraphs about lions off of National Geographic Kids Facts and there are plenty more websites with more facts about lions or any endangered animal you might be interested in learning more about. These animals need our help if they are to survive!

-Gymnast2801