Panthera leo ssp. leo (Barbary Lion)

[another specialist]

Art by Rembrandt

www.barbarylion.com/Barbary_Lions.htm

[Magoo]

So if they are the same subspecies and the European lion is a link between the two would not some possible interbreeding be possible throwing a bit more genetics be into the mix taking away from some of the inbreeding?

[another specialist]

it doesn't say there the same subspecies but they are closely related to each other (barbary and the asian)

[Magoo]

Ok right, my mistake. Still if a population of Barbary's are re-introduced (Here's hoping they find enough animals with a large percentage of DNA) could they not be mixed and introduced to southern Europe?

[another specialist]

anything is possible but i would say that a lion population wouldn't be re-introduced into Europe due to lack of suitable habitat and the close proximity with mankind

[Magoo]

Ya which is too bad since I'm sure it'd draw in tourists.

[another specialist]

yes it sure would m8

[sebbe67]

The Barbary Lion
The Barbary Lion Panthera leo leo, is said to be characterized by its large, dark greyish-brown mane, more yellowish around the face and extending over the abdomen. It was confined to North Africa. It ranged from Tripoli through Tunisia and Algeria to Morocco. The Romans used this lion in their arenas. Hunting no doubt contributed to the extinction of the Barbary Lion, but the ecological changes brought about by cultivation seem to have been the major cause. Forests were degraded as a result of cattle-grazing and the herds were well guarded. At the same time other food sources, such as deer and gazelle, became depleted. The last Barbary Lion in Tunisia was killed in 1891, the last one in Algeria in 1893. Here the Turks had encouraged the killing of Lions by paying well for the skins. After the French occupation the price went down: the French paid only 50 francs for a skin. On the other hand, many Frenchmen in North Africa became relentless Lion hunters. In Algeria over 200 Lions were killed between 1873 and 1883. The last Barbary Lions survived in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The exact time of extinction is not known, but probably this was between 1920 and 1930. Only nine skins, one skeleton and several skulls of Barbary Lions are preserved in museums.

The museum collection
The National Museum of Natural History possesses two mounted skins of males. One is only labelled "Barbarie". The other was killed by a herdsman on 13 February 1823 near Beja, Tunisia. The Lion had just brought down a cowand was killed while carrying off its prey. In the zoological garden of Rabat, Morocco, there is an old breeding group of Lions who are thought to resemble the Barbary Lion. Unfortunately, however, they are not pure-bred, as they were mixed with Lions of other origin. Animals from this stock have now been distributed over several other zoos. By careful selection, it may be possible to preserve Lions which at least look similar to the original North African population.

[another specialist]

source for above sebbe67?

[sebbe67]

leiden museum website

[another specialist]

thanks for source

[Carlos]

An image of a Barbary Lion from Roman times in a mosaic at Bardo Museum (Tunis City, Tunisia).

[another specialist]

Carlos is this your image? or from some source on web?

[Carlos]

A fragment of an image found in the net. See my reply to you on Reply # 13 of Bubal Hartebeest thread.

[another specialist]

carlos said:

A fragment of an image found in the net. See my reply to you on Reply # 13 of Bubal Hartebeest thread.

Thanks Carlos just read that reply - remember keep us informed mate

[Carlos]

Text in Valverde (1957: 381)

He gives information of the presence of the Barbary Lion in the Western Sahara (in a geographic meaning) in the first quarter of the XXth century.

Translated by me.

Leo leo (L.) Lion

“In the mountains of Ait Ussa (el Bani, as stated in page 35) there are lions”, wrote the Garners in 1931 (p. 127). It seems unlikely that they still existed by that time, but they probably lived there shortly before. According to reports of a native hunter, some forty years ago a lion got to Tamriket (french Zemmur), and the nomads fled from the region with their tents and herds. It is well known the imprecision of moors about dates, so that the date can not be taken literally, but by then the lion did still exist in some regions of Morocco (Cabrera, 1932: 184 and 188).

It is still present among the natives the traditional memory of the existence of lions in an imprecise region of the Western Sahara, including the Spanish Sahara. They told us that here the lion used to prey on Mohor Gazelle (G. dama), and even they refer us the case of a hunter that while stalking a mohor gazelle and just on the brink of shooting at it, he was surprised by a lion that from the opposite direction was making a similar approach to the animal. There are also imprecise talks about famous lion hunters in the region.

If the lion did ever exist here, as it seems likely if the stories that describe a fertile and populated Western Sahara are to be believed, then it must have been many years ago, as they refer as a very notable case the killing of a lion fifty years ago in the Iguidi.

Reference:

Valverde, J. A. (1957): Aves del Sahara Español (Estudio ecológico del desierto). C.S.I.C. – Instituto nacional de Estudios Africanos. Madrid. 487 p.

[Peter]

Very interesting to read!

[another specialist]

I agree with Peter very interesting Carlos a great source of images and info

[Carlos]

In Cabrera (1932), first part on Barbary Lion in Morocco (see reply 15 on Bubal Hartebeest thread):

pp: 181-190

Leo leo leo (Linné).

^{Felis leo Linné, Syst. Nat., 1758, pg. 41.
Felis leo barbaricus Meyer, Dissert. Anatom. Genere Felinum, 1826, pg. 6.
Felis leo barbarus Fisher, Synops. Mammal., 1829, pg. 197.
Leo africanus Jardine, Natur. Libr., II, 1834, pg. 118.
Leo antiquorum Swainson, Classif. Quadr., 1835.
Leo barbarus Gray, List Mamm. Brit. Mus., 1843, pg.39.
Felis leo nigra Loche, Exped. Scient. Algérie, 1857, pg. 263.
Tigris leo Severtzov, Rev. Et. Mag. De Zool., 2nd ser., X, 1858, pg. 388.
Leo nobilis Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867, pg. 263.
Felis leo barbara Lydekker, Game Anim. Africa, 1908, pg. 416.
Leo leo leo J. A. Allen, bull. AMER. Mus. Nat. Hist., XLVII, 1924, pg. 222.}

Native names: sbaa and asad in Arabic; izem in berber.

Description: big size, probably bigger than any other race of lion; mane of the male thick, covering the shoulders and down between the arms and belly, where it forms a thick long hair fringe. General colour dark tawny; lips and the anterior angle of the eyelids, whitish; the mane in the hindneck and above the shoulders, very dark brown, as well as the ventral hair fringe. Females are paler and always somewhat smaller than males.

Not having seen any Moroccan lion myself (I doubt if any have been preserved in any museum), and admitting that the same subspecies ranged from the Atlantic up to Gulf of Gabes, I have based this brief description on the figures of a couple of Algerian lion and a lioness, published by F. Cuvier (1819) and the data about a Tunisian lion in the Leyden Museum, kindly supplied by its director Dr. Van Oort. Cuvier specimens were captured when they were one year old, in a forest between Constantine and Bona; at the age of six years, the colour of the male was described by Cuvier as «fauve brun [tawny brown]» and in the figure, it is very close to Ridgeway’s “buckthorn brown”; body hair tawny with blackish tips, some entirely black; this later colour dominated in the mane, that was very thick and long, a character maybe due to its life in captivity.

According to the famous lion hunter Jules Gerard (La Chasse au lion, 1855), in Algeria the natives used to distinguish three individual varieties, depending on the dominant shade of the coat and (above all) of the mane: black, yellow and grey. The male lion described by F. Cuvier seems to have belonged to the first type. We don’t know if such a distinction did ever exist in Morocco; but the truth is that in all countries where this species exist, there are slight colour variations, with some individuals paler than others.

It is well known indeed, that wild lions rarely show manes as developed as in lions grown in captivity; the ventral fringe, also shown by captive lions, is nevertheless characteristic of the barbary lion in the wild, as proven by the Tunisian specimen at Leyden Museum. This specimen, a magnificent adult male hunted at Beja in February 1823 was already mentioned by Temminck (1827) who refers that it «fut tué par un arabe don’t il avait terrassé une vache qu’il emportait sur son dos [it was killed by an arab while it was carrying a cow previously brought down by the lion]». Dr. Van Oort, told me that its mane was thick but not very long, of the colour of the body in head and neck and dark brown in the shoulders; it has also a dark brown ventral fringe. Another subadult lion in the same collection was also killed in North Africa about the same time, and its features agree with the Beja specimen. Quite likely, these two are the only wild barbary lions preserved in museums available for scientific study.¹

The measurements of the adult male from Beja are the following; head and body, 2050 mm; tail 1120; hind foot approximately 390.


¹: [Carlos: see one of these specimens in the page called "Lion - slowly ticking away" in the extinct mammals section of the 300 pearls page in the Naturalis Museum website: www.naturalis.nl/300pearls/]

[another specialist]

Carlos you found a great find with this book - very informative