As lions appeared in this past weeks parsha and haftara (in Israel) there
was an article on lions in one of the shabbat newsletters
As noted lions appear frequently in Tanach as symbols of power. Aryeh and
other names for lions appear 11 times beginning with the blessing of Jacob
and the bracha of Moshe in addition to Bilaam. Shimshom fights lions as
does David while in Melachim a man of G-d is eaten by a lion.
The geamara iin chagiga states that the lion is king of the animals, the ox
is king of the domesticated beasts and the nesher (eagle?) is king of the
birds.
However real life is very different. The lion eats mainly carcasses that
dies naturally or was killed by another animal for more than 50% of their
food. They follow vultures to find the carcasses. The rest of the food is
captured by the lioness. In each territory there is a pack a pack of
lionesses accompanied by 1-2 males. The males stay with the pack until they
are chased away by the next generation. Young male cubs are also chased
away or killed,
OTOH the lion is the biggest of the cat family except for the Siberian
tiger which is not found in ancient Israel.
RET notes that the lioness does most of the hunting for the lion family.
I understand that while this is true, the male lion has a very
important role in the family or group (pride). The male lions in the
group protect its territory from hostile elements (often other
lions). The lion 'couple' divides up responsibilites such that the
female is the (main) hunter, and the male is the fighter. Indeed there
may be much more hunting than fighing that goes on, but this seems to
the lions to be an equitable arrangement. So it is the lion the
fighter, not the lion the hunter, which is the symbol of courage, and
this aspect makes the lion the 'king of the beasts'.
Rav Dr Natan Slifkin has pointed out that this depends on the lions'
habitat. In the savannah, female lions do most of the hunting. (If I recall
correctly, because the open area is more conducive to hunting as a group.)
In more forested areas (like ancient Eretz Yisrael), male lions do more of
the hunting, using an ambush technique that works better with the thick
cover of a forest than in relatively open savannah. Thus various references
in Tanach to hunting by male lions.
This is in his Encyclopedia and somewhere on his blog, but I don't have
time to look for it.