Lions, much like your smaller house cats, are very concerned about their hygiene – they have to be otherwise hunting would be almost impossible as their smell would be much stronger and so, if the wind were to change direction slightly, they might well alert prey to their presence. As a result these animals are fastidious about cleaning themselves and occasionally clean each other because they can’t reach everywhere on their own bodies. This is also done to strengthen the social bonds between them. After a kill is when they all clean themselves – if the blood were to dry it would be a lot more difficult to clean. Once they have had their chance to eat the cleaning starts!
