The spots begin to fade around three months of age, although some keep them longer even into adulthood. These spots act as camouflage, helping the cubs to blend into their surroundings to make them almost invisible in bushes or long grass.
Lion cubs are born with a greyish woolly coat, with dark spots covering most of the back, legs and face. These spines make the tongue so rough that if a lion licked the back of your hand only a few times, you would be left without any skin! Fur
It is covered in tiny spines, called papillae, which face backwards and are used to scrape meat from bones and dirt from fur. A lion’s tongue is as rough as sandpaper.