Direct observations on the foraging activities of lions, based on 920 attempts to capture prey and 156 kills, on the plains of Etosha National Park, Namibia, revealed a regular nocturnal pattern of mostly coordinated group hunting. Lions scavenged rarely and killed mainly prey animals weighing less than 50+-kg, which contributed to 73% of the observed kills and 50% of the estimated biomass consumed. Capture success increased with lion group size and was also greater during coordinated group hunts. Lions hunted most of the prey that they encountered, showing a preference for large prey species. Average food acquisition ranged from 8.7+-kg/day per lioness in the dry season to 14+-kg/day per lioness in the wet season. During the dry season, coordinated cooperative hunting was essential and lionesses most often formed groups of 2, thereby acquiring higher daily food intake than groups of other sizes. In the wet season, lioness groups of all sizes obtained more than the estimated daily requirements, and lionesses did not uniformly forage in the smaller groups capable of greater food acquisition.