Zombie Lion

The Zombie Lion is the third new zombie encountered in the Roman Empire. The zombie will 'stalk' a plant once if gets close enough and then pounce shortly afterwards. The pounce causes enough damage to kill any plant with normal toughness. It is likely for a Zombie Lion to spawn from an elevator, similar to the Gladiator Zombie.

Suburban Almanac Entry
In the documentary, Pride of the Roman Empire (215CE), Zombie Cat Whisperer can be quoted saying, "One would think Zombie Lion’s natural carnivory would deter him from eating any sort of plant matter, but if plants get in way of him and a juicy dish of GREY matter, he’ll happily go vegetarian for a bit to get through. Well, ‘happily’ might not be the best word. It’s more like begrudgingly." It’s hard to believe when Zombie Lion is clearly female.

Implementation
The lion will walk normally when it enters the lawn. Once it gets within one tile of a plant, it will quickly step back and lay low, very slowly creeping forwards for a short period before it pounces. After pouncing, if the plant is not destroyed, it will continue by gripping and biting the plant like a lion does once it catches prey, dealing 2 NDB as it does. After the plant is destroyed, it will walk forward normally and claw at plants thereafter, dealing the regular 1 NDB.

Strategies
The lion is not a huge threat if a decent defence has already been set up. The lion is most dangerous if she spawns from an elevator. The back-stepping of the lion should, however, give the player enough time to kill the lion before it can destroy your plants. The Elderberry, Grape Launcher and/or Wall-nut should provide a good enough defence to prepare against this. Other elevator zombie spawns could prove more difficult to defend against than the lion anyway.

Trivia

 * The reason the lion is "clearly female" is because she doesn't have a mane.