|
|
Post by sebbe67 on Nov 4, 2005 12:21:06 GMT
Panthera leo leo
The Barbary Lion was the largest lion of the subspecies. They possessed a large black mane that extended to the underbelly and groin. Their mane also extended longer along its back and over its shoulders. The Barbary lions lived in the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa, from Morocco to Egypt. They were more heavily built than today's lions weighing over 500 lbs and reaching 9-11 feet in length.
Scientific Name: Panthera leo leo
Range: (formerly) Northern Africa's Atlas Mountains, Morocco, Tunisia & Algeria
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: Northern Africa. Lions occur naturally today in the wild only throughout the plains of sub-Saharan Africa.
Conservation Status: The Barbary Lion has been extinct since the early 1920's.
|
|
|
|
Post by Melanie on Nov 4, 2005 18:44:19 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Melanie on Nov 4, 2005 18:48:33 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Melanie on Nov 4, 2005 18:49:11 GMT
Barbary lions: roaming back from the brink of extinction
A pair of cubs from the Rabat zoo in Morocco. DNA tests will show if they are of Barbary descent.
By Cynthia Reynolds, October 27, 1999
Once upon a time, prides of Barbary lions ruled the Atlas mountain ranges from Morocco to Egypt. These regal-looking, dark-maned predators stalked throughout their territory with impunity. But their might and beauty caught the eye of ancient Roman emperors, and they were taken from their land to Europe, to fight the equally unlucky gladiators and Christians. The Barbary lion's relationship with humans has endured ever since.
They evoked the spirit of the medieval knight, who viewed the animal as a symbol of courage and nobility. Later, they were sought after by zookeepers eager to count such a prize among their collection. Later still, they became the ultimate trophy for hunters, who by the 1920s would shoot the last-known wild Barbary, pushing the species toward extinction.
Despite the small number of animals - also called Atlas lions - left in captivity, they are still capturing the interest of humans. This time, though, people are working on the lion's behalf, searching for the last remaining ones that are scattered throughout the world's zoos. Spearheaded by field conservationist Kay Hill of Wildlink International, the aim is to breed them, and eventually re-introduce them to their ancient home in the North African mountains.
"If you look into one of these animal's eyes it's just the most stunning feeling. It's like looking back in time. It's amazing," says Hill, who has already found what may be Barbary lions in zoos in Washington, the Czech Republic and Germany. The captive animals are thought to descend from the private collection of Moroccan kings.
After identifying possible candidates, Wildlink will take hair and tissue samples to see if they match a Barbary-distinct DNA fingerprint. Aiming to be ready by springtime, the fingerprint is being developed by scientists at Oxford University, who are using ancient DNA extracted from Barbary lion bones to create a distinct genetic profile of the animal. They are collecting the bones from universities and museums across Europe. They've even been given the green light to do an archeological dig around the Roman Coliseum, the place the lions were supposed to have fought.
Since some scientists disbelieve that there was, in fact, this distinct sub-species of lion, the scientists will have to prove that the genetic profile is particular to the Barbary.
If the DNA shows a lion to be of Barbary lineage, it will be bred with the others Hill is finding. Because many of these lions that are in captivity are old, she has already started to cross-breed what she and others feel are indeed Barbery lions. The results so far are a cub named Saffi, born in a wildlife park in England, and two cubs in the Rabat zoo in Morocco. If the upcoming DNA test proves them to be Barbary, they will be the progenitors of a new wild population.
The task of deciding which lions are Barbary and which are not will be made easier when the DNA fingerprint becomes available. But even then, Hill will have to narrow down perspective candidates using morphology – its distinct physical characteristics. The most obvious Barbary marker is the presence of a dark mane that extends down covering the belly. While it’s a good place to start, many other sub-species of lions, given the right conditions, can also display such a mane. So from there, Hill can further narrow the candidates down by looking at other morphological features common to the Barbary, such as distinct facial features resulting from the unique shape of the Barbary's skull.
Saffi: One of three bred lion cubs that could help revive the Barbary lion.
"I've spent years with these lions so the difference is quite obvious to me - it's subtle but distinct," says Hill.
Of course, if Wildlink does breed a healthy population, they'll then have the task of re-introducing them back to the Atlas mountain range. While Moroccan officials are eager to see the lion back in its habitat, and is indeed setting aside thousands of hectares of protected land, the area is now quite different from when the lions once roamed it.
"The problem is the wild Barbary has been extinct since the 1920s, but the land is as well. The decimation of the actual environment is unbelievable. We'll have to recreate it from the very beginning and that includes planting the plants and taking it through every step of the way. It's a bit of a Jurassic Park concept," says Hill.
|
|
|
|
Post by Melanie on Nov 4, 2005 18:57:12 GMT
Wildlife Watch, Barbary Lions: Lost and Found (African Wildlife News - Winter 2000) 01 January 2000 The discovery that a presumably ordinary lion rescued from a bankrupt traveling circus is in fact a rare, blackmaned Barbary lion has caught scientists at South Africa's Hoedspruit Research and Breeding Center for Endangered Species by surprise, according to a report in the newspaper East African. The Barbary lion (Panthera leo leo) was once common across the whole of North Africa. The male differs from its cousin, the African lion, by the unusually long, full black mane that runs the length of the body. The ancient Romans put the first dent in the Barbary lions' numbers by capturing the animals to slaughter Christians in the Colosseum. Arabs north of the Sahara killed them for their skins and to protect their livestock. Gradually they disappeared from Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria. The last Barbary seen in the wild was killed in Morocco in 1920. The lion rescued from the circus is not the only Barbary to turn up lately. Veterinarians have confirmed that 11 lions in an Ethiopian Zoo are Barbaries. The conservation organization Animal Defenders reports that more than 40 Barbary lions have been found in captivity in Morocco, in zoos around the world--and in the possession of a couple in Missouri. Why Barbaries are now "reappearing" remains a mystery. In the meantime, scientists at the Hoedspruit Center hope to breed the Barbary lion they rescued.  |
|
|
|
Post by Melanie on Nov 4, 2005 18:59:57 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Bucardo on Nov 4, 2005 20:45:43 GMT
Many Zoos claimed that they have authentic Barbary lions. Some of they are Rabat, Madrid, Addis Ababa and Tampa. The lions in Ethiopian capital are considered as the more Barbary of all. Is Barbary lion still exists?  |
|
|
|
Post by Melanie on Nov 4, 2005 21:01:14 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Melanie on Nov 4, 2005 21:03:13 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Bucardo on Nov 4, 2005 21:59:05 GMT
Oh, thanks for the link.  |
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 7:12:42 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 7:14:58 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 7:24:29 GMT
 In 650 BC a captive lion is released into a closed arena in Nineveh where the King of Assyria will prove his courage before the crowd. His people expected this as a sign of his right to rule.  The king with several bodyguards rides into the arena. From horseback the lions are weakened with spears before the king dismounts for the kill.  Death comes to a Barbary Lion. These images we find unspeakably cruel were once admired as symbols of nobility and manly courage. The first humans in the Kingdom of the Barbaries clung to the River Nile for protection against the harshness of the desert. These Egyptians were the first to challenge the Barbary Kings with spears and arrows. But the sanctuary of the Atlas Mountains was still the sovereign land of the lions for several centuries. 3000 years ago the Berbers came out of Europe to found small villages across the mountains and eke out a living from small farms. Though they defended their homes against the lions, but they were nothing like the threats to come. While the Berbers lived on in small villages, other men had grand visions of imperial might. The Assyrians and Persians built huge palaces and colossal statues of kings they called "Living Gods." The Egyptians turned their river valley into a field of monuments, the greatest of which were mountains of stone that excite wonder and awe to this day. These cultures were built on the iron will of absolute monarchs and controlled by the iron men of mighty armies. They valued courage above compassion and they hunted lions to flaunt their courage to the world. Thousands of Barbary lions died under the spears of monarchs and their courts. Still the depredations of these cultures was nothing compared to the darkness to come. Across the Mediterranean a small tribe of Italic warriors were building their tiny enclave into an empire that would eventually hold one fourth of the world's human population. Rome had conquered many kingdoms, and now they turned their eyes to the Kingdom of the Barbaries. Their story follows. www.tigertouch.org/barbary/history2.html |
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 7:29:04 GMT
 One lioness lays dying while another rushes into a raised spear. Note the dead cub pierced with an arrow being held aloft by the central figure.  Is this the kind of Barbary Lion we want to leave our children?....  ....or this kind? You decide. The Roman carnage ended after six centuries, but the Barbary’s troubles were not over. The Vandals ]and Byzantine Empire briefly held sway over the land until the Arabs came in the 600s. As the Arab presence grew, the lions retreated. They were branded a nuisance and a reward was offered for every lion destroyed. Farmers killed lions to get paid. This sad practice continued for many years until the great Barbary Lion was rare across in its wide range. By 1850 there were few lions left, because firearms gave man a terrible advantage. Anyone who could pull a trigger could kill a lion. European hunters eyed these few remaining Barbaries for trophies. Like the Egyptians and Assyrians before them, they sought to prove their manhood by shedding the blood of lions. Only the hard part was no longer the kill but finding the victim. The mighty lords of North Africa had met an enemy they could not outfight or outwit and the end of their reign was growing near. The Kingdom of the Barbaries went unchallenged for millennia. It shrank through centuries of Roman persecution. It withered from Arab decimation. It retreated from European "sportsmen." Under relentless persecution it had gone from a mighty empire to isolated pockets, then in 1922 to a single territory in the mountains of Morocco. A sport hunter’s shot reduced the Kingdom of the Barbaries to a single blood-spattered patch of ground. As the last lion’s lifeblood ebbed even that small patch was retreating. The last lion took in a deep breath, held it a moment, then let it out with a shudder. It was over. AND YET.... Hidden away from the eyes of most people was the potential for its miraculous recovery. A new attitude would turn man from an enemy into a friend and breathe life back into the land of timeworn Berber campfire tales. We told you this story ended on a note of hope. You can be a part of that hope. Read on.... www.tigertouch.org/barbary/history4.html |
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 7:32:07 GMT
 Against all odds, the Barbary lineage lived on in a few special lions in captivity. The important questions are "How much?" and "Which ones?"  The answers lie in DNA residing in known Barbary Lion remains. throughout the 1800s the Berbers had trapped Barbary lions alive and offered them in lieu of taxes to the Sultan of Morocco. Housed at the royal palaces in Marrakech and Fez, the ‘Royal Lions’ lived on long after their wild brothers had disappeared. In the 1980s a hidden treasure was discovered in Ethiopia. Eleven lions that had once belonged to the deposed Emperor Haile Selassie were languishing in a half-forgotten zoo. The males had the dark full-length manes of Barbary Kings, and the lionesses had the squared faces of Barbary Queens. Could these lions be holding genes that would allow reconstruction of the race? More possible Barbary Lions surfaced in the King's Collection at the Rabat Zoo of Morocco. There was a chance that some of them--perhaps all of them--might be pure Barbary! Only genetic tests from several animals would be enough to bring the Barbary officially back to life. Samples of fur and teeth have been taken from Barbary remains from around the world. What is being determined is the genetic markers that make Barbaries different from all other lions. Kay Hill, founder of Wildlink International, has a grand vision of rebirth for the Kingdom of the Barbaries. Through The International Barbary Lion Project, managed by WildLink, Kay is preparing to breed a new generation of Barbary Lions to return to the wild. The Moroccan government has set aside 150 square miles safely away from the dangers of civilized "development" where the ancient kings can once again issue their timeless challenge. "Whose land is this? It is mine, mine, mine!" Trees must be planted and the Barbary red deer re-established, a modern cure for the damage done by the Romans. "It will cost millions to make the site suitable," Kay says, "but that's our long term aim." Man has at last made peace with the Barbary, invading the old kingdom not to destroy but to restore. Rocky and Nala have been conditionally approved as Barbary Lions. Samples of their hair are soon to be tested. It is the fond hope of everyone associated with Tiger Touch that their descendents will return to their ancestral land. Do you want to see this happen? The key is in your hands. www.tigertouch.org/barbary/history5.html |
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 7:34:37 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 7:36:04 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 7:43:08 GMT
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 |
|
|
|
Post by Bucardo on Nov 8, 2005 23:48:44 GMT
www.naturalis.nl/300pearls/Atlas Lions North Africa is of all continental regions the one that has suffered the greatest loss in large mammals within historical times. This sad record is explained by the combination of adverse environmental factors with ruthless exploitation. The expansion of the Sahara has increasingly reduced the surfaces available to forest and steppe species, while isolating them more and more completely from possible sources of recolonisation in sub-Saharan Africa, essentially conferring to the region the biogeographical characteristics and vulnerability of a large, but shrinking, island. Simultaneously, large-scale exploitation of the fauna started with Roman needs for circus game animals, continued with foreign and local hunters, with large takes for zoos, with recreational shooting by bored expatriates attached to oil or other industries. Among animals lost were a small race of the African Elephant, the Hippopotamus, the Aurochs, four large antelopes and one major predator, the Barbary or Atlas Lion, Panthera leo leo, the nominate subspecies of the lion, the one that appeared in Roman circuses.  This was a spectacular animal, with a large, often black mane spreading behind the shoulders and covering the belly right to the groin, a high occiput, short legs and a deep chest. Probably because of convergence in adaptation to temperate and mediterranean habitats, it resembled the also extinct Cape Lion, but was evolutionarily related to the lions that occupied in Antiquity south-eastern Europe, the Middle East and western Asia, now restricted to a relict population in the Gir Forest of India. Barbary Lions survived in the wild until 1920, when the last was shot in Morocco. In the late 19th century they were still abundant and provided most of the zoo animals that came to Europe. This explains that the animals that lived in the Brussels Zoo, then located in Leopold Park, right under the walls of the present-day Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, that died there and, fortunately, found their way into the collections and the public display of the museum belong to that remarkable form. The former popularity of the Barbary Lion as a zoo animal also provides the only hope to ever see it again roaming the forests of North Africa. Indeed, lions in Temara Zoo in Rabat, and a few in other zoos around the world, have been shown to have the physical characteristics of the Barbary Lion and an ambitious project has been initiated by WildLink, in collaboration with Oxford University, to genetically identify the best available stock, conduct a breeding programme and consider reintroduction. Museum specimens, like the ones in Brussels, constitute an invaluable reference material in support of such efforts. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre Devillers
|
|
|
|
Post by another specialist on Nov 9, 2005 5:24:11 GMT
ORIGINS Is the Barbary more closely related to the African or Asian lion in its evolutionary origins? While the answer to that question is not known for sure, the results of a study done in 1968 (one of the only studies done to this day involving Barbarys!) did provide us with a theory. The study showed that when studying skulls of the Barbary, Cape, Asian, and African lions, the same skull characteristics - the very narrow postorbital bar - existed in only the Barbary and the Asian, showing that there may have been a closer relation between the lion populations of Northernmost Africa and those of Asia. It is also believed that the South European lion that became extinct at the beginning of the Christian era, could have represented the connecting link between the North African and Asiatic lions. It is believed that Barbary lions possess the same belly fold (hidden under all that mane) that appears in the Asian lions today. www.barbarylion.com/Barbary_Lions.htm |
|
