Panthera leo ssp. melanochaitus (Cape Lion)

[sebbe67]

Panthera leo melanochaitus

Cape Lions ranged along the Cape of Africa on the southern tip of the continent. The Cape Lion was not the only subspecies living in South Africa, and its exact range is unclear. Its stronghold was Cape Province and around Capetown. The last Cape Lion seen in Cape Province was killed in 1858, but the last of the species was hunted down in Natal by one General Bisset in 1865.

Scientific Name: Panthera leo melanochaitus Cape Lion


Range: (formerly) Cape of Africa, Cape Province, South Africa
Average Weight:
Female: 65-80 kg (325-425 pounds)
Male: 90-100kg (425-500 pounds)
Length:
Female: 2.13m - 2.74m (7'-9')
Male: 2.74m - 3.35m (9'-11')
Diet: All lions are carnivorous. Lion prey consists mostly of pigs, deer, antelope, buffalo and other ungulates being large and small hooved mammals.
Gestation Period: 100-110 Days (Averaging 103 Days)
Cub Maturity: 18 months - 2 Years
Cubs Per Litter: (Usually 2-6 cubs) Cubs are born blind and weigh 2-3 pounds.
Lifespan: Lions live for approximately 15 Years
Predators: Unknown, Man
Social Structure: Solitary (except during Mating Season)
Territory Size: Southern Cape of Africa. Primarily Cape Province, South Africa. Lions occur naturally today in the wild only throughout the plains of sub-Saharan Africa.
Conservation Status: The Cape Lion has been extinct since the 1860's.

[Melanie]

From: National Geographic News (news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/07/0726_capelion.html):

Has Rare Lion of Africa's Cape Eluded Extinction?

Ron Irwin
for National Geographic News
July 26, 2001

For 30 years, South African John Spence searched for descendants of the Cape lion, which was thought to be extinct in the region since the 1850s. His search ended a year ago when he received pictures of a magnificent black-maned lion at the Novosibrisk Zoo in Central Siberia.

As a young man, Spence had read about such lions roaming the slopes of Table Mountain and Signal Hill in what is now the modern city of Cape Town. His imagination was fired by stories of massive lions attempting to scale the walls of the 17th-century Dutch castle that was built by Commander Jan van Riebeeck, the city's founder.

Spence, now the director and a trustee of Cape Town's Tygerberg Zoo, avidly read van Riebeeck's journals, which described the lions' night attacks on local people and their flocks.

By two centuries later, the ferocious Cape Lion had been wiped out—at least in part a matter of self-defense, Spence noted.

Spence came to believe that some Cape lions might have survived outside of South Africa.

"I [was] sure that some of the cubs of the Cape lion were taken to Europe, where they bred with European lions," he said. "Some of them [might have] carried the original genes, and many of these captive European lions also had the black mane."

Lifelong Search

For three decades, Spence searched the world for the "King of the Cape." He visited zoos and circuses in places as far away as the United States and Singapore to inspect animals that bore a resemblance to the Cape lion.

He met with frustration after frustration. He found many lions that were close matches to the Cape lion, but none that looked exactly like the sturdy, massive animals he had read much about.

But his determination never waned. He knew, he said, that "it had to happen sooner or later…there had to be a lion that had a mess of these genes in them from somewhere or other."

In January of 2000, friends in Europe sent Spence a picture of a unique lion they had seen in the world-renowned Novosibrisk Zoo in Siberia.

With its jet black mane, wide face, sturdy legs, and large size, the lion—called Simon—looked exactly like a living reproduction of the animals that Spence had seen only in paintings, and in his dreams.

Spence said that when he saw the photograph, "every hair on my body stood upright, including [on] my neck and my back and everywhere else!"

New and Warmer Home

After contacting the zoo in Siberia, Spence arranged to take Simon's cubs, Rustislav and Olga (named after the Novosibrisk Zoo curator and his wife) back with him to Africa. They are the first Cape lion look-alikes to inhabit the Cape shores in a century and a half.

The journey home was an adventure in itself. Spence and his wife flew back to Cape Town on Siberia Air, with the cubs in a small traveling crate on the seat beside them. Passengers soon surrounded the couple, curious about the animals, who responded with a few snarls.

The two lions now live in their own pen in the Tygerberg Zoo. They spend their days sleeping in the sun on their own specially made platform.

Spence thinks the warmth of Africa is probably a welcome change for the animals, which were accustomed to Siberian winter temperatures that drop to minus 40 degrees Celsius.

The cubs are already much larger than the full-grown lions in other parts of the zoo. They also bear the unmistakable markings of a juvenile Cape lion. "They've got a large number of spots on them, which will obviously fade as they get older, but they were really spotted when we brought them home…and black behind the ears," Spence explained

Spence hopes to eventually use Rustislav and Olga to replenish the Cape lion stock. He also may build them a larger lion reserve, closer to Table Mountain, where their ancestors once roamed.

With a glint in his eye, Spence said it has occurred to him to release the lions onto the mountain. But, he added, "I should think there'd be some complaints from the neighbors if I turned them loose."

The author is a partner in the South Africa-based media company Atomic Productions. National Geographic Today recently featured the company's documentary special on the Cape lion.

For more information about the Cape lions in this story, contact John Avery , the director and trustee of the Tygerberg Zoo, or write to John Spence, director of the Tygerberg Zoo, P.O. Box 524, Kraaifontein, Cape Town 7569, South Africa.

[Melanie]

Cape lion on an egg



stuffed specimen Wiesbaden



lion hunting



specimens Wiesbaden

[Melanie]

rock art Cape lion

[Melanie]

related thread

extinctanimals.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=articles&action=display&thread=1127842069

[another specialist]

source for sebbe67 first entry

www.tigerhomes.org/animal/cape-lion.cfm

[another specialist]

This Is A Special Lion



…or maybe not. At any rate he isn't dead, so why is he here?

Well…actually…he’s supposed to be dead, but lets go back to the beginning…say…the second century B.C…. Rome was building its first paved roads, the Great Wall of China still smelled new, and the Hellenistic-raiser Greeks wasted the last of the European Lions. I don't know much about them…(That was before I was born.)…I just know they lived in Greece and Macedonia and now they don't live at all.

It was a good time for lions in general, though. The Asian Lion still roamed through most of the Middle East and India killing people and stuff, and African Lions were most concerned with being irritated by hyenas.

North Africa was forested at the time and populated with lion food AND lions. The Subspecies that lived there was the type species for all lions, the Barbary Lion ( Panthera leo leo ). Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, on the southern tip of the continent, the Cape Lion ( Panthera leo melanochaitus), was also doing fine.

Due to the cooler winters at the ends of the continent, both subspecies had developed heavier bodies and thicker manes. Big males of either type could weigh 500lbs and reach ten feet in length. The mane would often extend to the middle of the back, and in the Cape subspecies it was black with a tawny fringe around the face. The tips of the ears were also black.

The passing of the European Lion left the later-to-come Roman Empire with a bit of a problem…they needed someone to feed the Christians to, and, since they were busy logging in North Africa anyway, the Barbary got the job. They took hundreds of the lions on a one way trip to Italy. (I might point out here, by the way, that we Christians are still around…and North Africa is a desert…)

To make a long story short, when the desert started to spread, the lion food couldn't find anything to eat and so the Barbarys' territory just kept shrinking…(I'm sure the Romans didn't help much either.)

In recent historic times Barbary Lions had a range that extended from Tripoli through Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. It was in 1700 that the last lion in the Pashalik of Tripoli was killed. The last Tunisian Lion and the last Algerian lion were both killed in 1891, at Babouch and Souk-Ahras, respectively. Some say they hung on for a decade or so longer in these countries. The last stronghold for the Barbary was the Atlas mountains in Morocco, where they lasted until the last one was killed in 1922 rendering the species extinct.

The Cape Lion didn't even make it that long. It wasn't the only subspecies living in South Africa, and its exact range is unclear. Its stronghold was Cape Province and around Capetown. The colonists had enough to worry about without having big, scary-looking lions eating their cows, so the outcome was predictable. The last Cape Lion seen in Cape Province was killed in 1858, but the last of the species was hunted down in Natal by one General Bisset in 1865.

The Asian Lion (Panthera leo persica) of the Bible was also almost lost during this time. They got to a low population of twenty animals, all in the Gir Forest of Northern India. Today there are between 300-350 left…an inbred shadow of a once-great cat.

…Did you get all of that? Good. Now…to our friend in the picture.

A couple of years ago, Dr. Hym Ebedes of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in South Africa was checking out a zoo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia when he stumbled across eleven lions that fit the description of either the Cape or the Barbary Lions. They had the huge manes and the heavy bodies of either species. It turns out that the cats are descendants of a group kept by Emperor Haile Selassie at the royal palace in Addis before his regime was toppled by a 1974 coup. Selassie called his dynasty the "Lions of Ethiopia" and kept them around as symbols of power. With his overthrow, the zoo got the lions.

In addition, some animals were rescued from a sleazy traveling circus in Maputo, Mozambique. One of them was Akef, the lion you see here. Then some guy in Morocco casually mentioned that he thinks there are about 40 or so Barbary lions in zoos in his country.

So, right now, Akef, the Ethiopian lions, and several other lions scattered here and yonder around the globe are having DNA samples taken from them to be compared to museum specimens of Barbary and/or Cape lions. The lions that turn out to be the long-lost Cape or Barbary subspecies will, hopefully, be put into breeding programs for possible re-introduction into their home territories…or what's left of them anyway.

As for me…I’m skeptical. Any lion born in captivity, and the descendants thereof, could develop thick manes. They don't have to go dragging them through the brush and if the zoo is in a more northern climate the cooler temperatures would also be conducive to a heavier mane.

But, then again, stranger things have happened. A lady in India recently took a picture of a Forest Spotted Owlet in India, and they have been "extinct" since 1914. Scientific expeditions have been sent out through the years for the sole purpose of finding them and never found so much as a trace…yet…there it was…sitting on a limb…existing.

users.aristotle.net/~swarmack/nslions.html

[another specialist]

It is now believed that most of the lions found in Southern Africa were a subspecies known as the Cape Lion (or black-maned lion of the Cape). The physical appearance of this lion differed from that of the lions which inhabit southern and east Africa today. Researchers have not been able to ascertain whether the extinct Cape Lion and Barbary Lion are indeed different subspecies. The original Cape Lion did not survive long into the second half of the 19th century and was the first of the African lion subspecies to become extinct.

www.hdw-inc.com/ttrocky.htm

[Bucardo]

A curious pic found by Google:



According to the web, this is a Kalahari lion, but it have a black Cape lion-like mane along the lateral sides. Compare with this other Kalahari lion:



Interesting, not?

[Melanie]

Not interesting. Don't believe what is written in the web!!! I would like to propose to delete the photos of the living lions. They are showing any other lion race but neither the Barbary lion nor the Cape lion. It's confusing for starters.

[Bucardo]

melanie said:

Not interesting. Don't believe what is written in the web!!! I would like to propose to delete the photos of the living lions. They are showing any other lion race but neither the Barbary lion nor the Cape lion. It's confusing for starters.

Well, delete it if the moderators think that is the best.
-------
Hmmm... I'm thinking something... the Kalahari lion (Panthera leo verneyi) is the more closely living relative of Cape lion. It may be possible to obtain a "restoration" of Cape lion through breeding-back, like the Quagga Project are working with other zebras to recreate the quagga, not?

[Melanie]

I am not sure if the Kalahari lion is really the closed living relative of the Cape lion. 200 years ago there were several subspecies of lion in South Africa. The Cape lion was the largest of all and had the darkest mane.

[another specialist]

I agree partly with melanie they do show another race/ another subspecies to be exact but it's not confusing in the slightiest as they are clearly named by Bucardo as Kalahari lion not Cape or even Barbary lions. All there being used is as a comparasion/ a querie a member has - Yes it has characteristics of a cape lion just like alot of other lions in the wild and especially in captivity.

There are many threads that have pics/images that show a class relative/ a surviving species or subspecies....

[Bucardo]

melanie said:

I am not sure if the Kalahari lion is really the closed living relative of the Cape lion. 200 years ago there were several subspecies of lion in South Africa. The Cape lion was the largest of all and had the darkest mane.

But I only know three subspecies of lion in South Africa:

-Cape lion (P. l. melanochaitus)
-Kalahari lion (P. l. verneyi)
-South African or Kruger lion (P. l. krugeri)

The Kruger lion were (and still is) isolated of other two due to mountain regions and the Orange river and its tributaries. Moreover, DNA confirms the more close relation betwen Cape and Kalahari lions than Kruger or other subespecies:

www.tigertouch.org/library/barbarycape.pdf

[Melanie]

Hi Bucardo,

thanks for the information. Very interesting, indeed. Here is a text from the page you have mentioned:

THE CAPE LION
The "black-maned" lion of the Cape was once distributed in the southwestern
part of South Africa (Mazák 1975). Unlike the Barbary lion
which would have been isolated from other African lions by the Sahara,
the Cape lion was in close geographical proximity to other lion
populations in southern Africa. Considering this, the Cape lion may
have maintained genetic exchanges with the widely distributed southern
African lions, P. l. krugeri. Lions in the Kruger- Mozambique region
came down to the southern most parts of South Africa through the narrow
corridor between the Great Escarpment and the Indian Ocean (Mazák
1975). Probably, many "Cape lions" recorded in the eastern side of the
Great Escarpment in the Cape Province (Skead1987) may have been the
current Kruger-Mozambique lion.
Interestingly, however, Mazák (1975) also suggested the Cape lion may
not have had a regular population mixture with the Kruger- Mozambique
lion because of a geological barrier, mountainous terrain of the
eastern side of South Africa (the Great Escarpment). Separated by the
Great Escarpment, the Cape lion distributed south-west and the Kruger-
Mozambique lion north-east. There may be another circumstantial
evidence to suggest that lion populations in southern Africa may not
have been mixed constantly in spite of their relative geographical
proximity to each other. More than 80% of lions in the Kruger National
Park are feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) positive, but, there is no
FIV positive lion in the Etosha National Park (Spencer etal. 1992,
Brown et al. 1994). Assuming the Kruger lion has been associated with
FIV for a considerable period (Brown et al. 1994) there may not have
been a large lion population mixture between the regions represented by
the two parks.
Although it is not known how hard the River Orange and its tributaries
were for lions to cross, the Cape lion may have closer genetic
association with lions in Kalahari region. If the ancient DNA technique
can extract Cape lion's DNA, comparing it to those of Kruger and
Kalahari lions, this question would be answered. Then, if some
populations of the existing southern African lion appears to be
acceptably close to the extinct Cape lion, the resurrection of the
black-maned lion lost in the Cape Province may become a feasible
conservation project.
Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit Oxford
University, Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS
UK, Tel: UK (0)1865-281520, Fax: UK (0)1865-271211
E-mail: [e-mail]
WildCRU Web Site: users.ox.ac.uk/~wcruinfo

www.tigertouch.org/library/barbarycape.pdf

[another specialist]

Thanks for the info Bucardo and Melanie

So what has everyone else got to say about photos then?

[Peter]

Well those are indeed Kalahari lions. If they were the same as Cape lions we don't know yet. We haven't compared the Cape DNA as far as I know. We don't know for sure if they were truly a different subspecies. And we don't know the complete working of genetics of their manes.

Well many lions in captivity are hybrids of several subspecies. South African, John Spence came to believe that some Cape lions might have survived outside of South Africa. "I [was] sure that some of the cubs of the Cape lion were taken to Europe, where they bred with European lions," he said. "Some of them [might have] carried the original genes, and many of these captive European lions also had the black mane." The lions painted by the famour Dutch painter Rembrandt are in fact Cape Lions. And the Cape region has been a Dutch colony in the past.

So the genetics of the Cape lion might still survive in captive lions today! Like is most likely the case with the Barbary lion.

[another specialist]

Thanks Peter for the info very interesting

[sebbe67]

The Cape Lion
The museum also has a mounted skin of a male Cape Lion, which was obtained from the Anatomical Cabinet of Leiden University in 1860. At one time the Cape Lion was considered a separate subspecies, Panthera leo melanochaitus. Cape Lions were the largest and darkest of Lions and the males stood out by their very long and heavy mane, which was nearly black, except for a more brownish fringe around the face. They also showed a well-developed, blackish mane in the abdominal area. This type of Lion occurred in the former Cape Province and the southern Orange Free State in South Africa. In the 18th century it was not uncommon in the vicinity of Cape Town. However, civilization swept away the once vast herds of game which formed the most important food source of the Lion. The year of extinction of the Cape Lion is unknown. It had probably vanished by 1860.

The museum collection
Eight mounted skins of Cape Lionshave been preserved in scientific collections, as well as a few skulls. The Cape Lion reached The Netherlands in the 17th century, when the Dutch established their Cape Colony. This type of Lionis recognizable in drawings by the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt.

[sebbe67]

leiden museum website