Length, as it turned out, was not a deciding factor. Lions may have short manes due to age, illness, or a recent injury, but this doesn’t matter to females, the researchers found. Color, on the other hand, really catches a female’s eye. Manes range in color from blonde to black, with black being the most attractive of all. In her experiment, West observed that females were more likely to approach a dark-maned dummy, indicating his attractiveness. Males, in contrast, were more likely to approach light-maned males, presumably because they are less threatening.