Panthera leo ssp. leo (Barbary Lion)

[another specialist]

Lion of Barbary
Felis leo barbaricus



Lioness of Barbary
Felis leona

www.finerareprints.com/vol_animals_brodtmann1.html

[kabilann]

babe I got News That Malaysia goverment at a barbary lion cub at zoo they breed wit asiatic lion wit barbary lion in turki they got result and romurs say that russia want that cub for several billons

[another specialist]

THE BARBARY LION
Probably due to its close geographical proximity to Europe, the lion
from the north Africa: Constantine, Algeria was used when Linnaeus
first gave the Latin name Panthera Leo to the species in 1758 (Harper
1945).
Since then, until it became extinct in 1920s the north African Barbary
lion had occupied the top place of public attention among lions in
Europe including Britain, because of the male's bigger and darker mane.
(Newbery 1753,Vogt & Specht 1889, Cornish 1899, Meyer-Abich 1953).
Historic records suggest that in the past one contiguous Eurasian-north
African lion population was distributed from north Africa through
Middle East to India (Blanford 1876, Vogt & Specht 1889, Flower &
Lydekker 1891).
It is not clear to what extent genetic mixture had been possible
between the north African population and the Eurasian counterparts
before the dawn of civilization along the Nile and Sinai Peninsula,
which without doubt served as a major obstacle to its movements.
Available literature suggest that the eastern part of north Africa (now
called Libya and Egypt) may not have supported a dense lion population
even well before the time of major human persecution (Harper 1945,
Nowell & Jackson 1996).
Then, probably at the latest by the early 18th century lion disappeared
from that part of the Mediterranean littoral in north Africa (Johnston
1899). This left an isolated lion population in the western part of
north Africa (now called Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia), which were
thought to be still quite large at that time (Pease 1899, Harper
1945).
However, by the middle of the 19th century the remaining population was
greatly diminished, mainly due to widely distributed firearms and the
lion eradication policy of the Turkish administration in the region,
except Morocco which was an independent sultanate (Pease 1915).
The last recorded lion was killed in Tunisia in 1981 and in Algeria in
1983 (Pease 1915,Nowell & Jackson 1996). In Morocco lions survived well
into the 20th century, and yet ceased to exist finally by 1930s (Harper
1945, Mazák 1970).
Meanwhile it was said that sultans and kings of Morocco had been
presented lions as the sign of obedience by indigenous Berber people
who had shared the Atlas Mountains with the last Barbary lions (Haddane
personal communication).
Therefore, when the last king Hassan II decided to move his lions from
the royal palace to Rabat Zoo, their morphological characteristics were
carefully examined (Leyhauzen 1975, Hemmer 1978, Nowell & Jackson
1996). In addition to the supposed origin of the collection, as the
king's lion s appeared to show similar morphological characteristics to
those of the Barbary lion, a Barbary lion reviving project including
the eventual re-introduction to the Atlas Mountains was planned
(Leyhauzen1975, Hemmer 1978, Nowell & Jackson 1996). However, there was
no clear evidence to prove the king's animals were the real Barbary
lion. Consequently Moroccan authorities, as well as the zoos that
provided captive breeding efforts, became increasingly reluctant about
the project as time passed by.
Those who participated in the project wanted to restore the lion that
had been lost in north Africa, and did not want to breed the lion that
merely resembled the Barbary lion.
Often, in wildlife conservation, crucial social and political decisions
rely on whether the population (or local subspecies) has clear
identities worth being preserved (Daniels 1997), and currently the most
widely accepted such identity may come from molecular work (Wentzel et
al.1999).
Comparing the DNA of king's animals to those extracted from Barbary
lion specimens kept in museums, it may be possible to examine if the
king's lions are real Barbary. This is an interesting project
connecting ancient DNA techniques to conservation biology.
We have collected skin and bone samples of museum lion specimens
originated from India, Iran, north Africa and various sub-Saharan
African locations including the Cape, for detailed comparison.
Dr Cooper's team has recently extracted DNA from fossils of
Homotherium, a saber-toothed cat extinct for nearly half a million
years, giving us a hope that DNA might also be extracted from the skins
and bones of Barbary lions preserved in museums.
The molecular work has just started with mtDNA analysis and later,
probably, moves to nuclear DNA targeting STR for the finer scale
analyses, if possible. If we can find genetic markers that identify the
Barbary lion, this would provide us a more thorough way of gauging the
purity of current breeding stock than outward appearance alone, which
surely push the project forward towards its main goal, namely
reintroduction.

www.tigertouch.org/library/barbarycape.pdf

[another specialist]

SUBSPECIES Panthera leo leo
Author: Linnaeus, 1758.
Citation: Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1: 41.
Type Locality: "Africa", restricted by J. A. Allen (1924:222) to "the Barbary coast region of Africa, or, more explicitly, Constantine, Algeria".

www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?s=y&id=14000229

[Bhagatí]

from my photobucket page:
s152.photobucket.com/albums/s191/baghira_album/Mammalia/Felidae/Panthera-leo/?action=view¤t=Pantheraleoleo.jpg

And this photo is from book:
Big Cats and Cheetahs - from Vratislav Mazak.

[another specialist]

Egyptian bas-relief of an Ethiopian Lion


Barbary lion, Temple of Amun, Karnak, Thebes, Luxor, Egypt.

flickr.com/photos/82822788@N00/2214205963

[another specialist]

Tower of London lion origins revealed

25 March 2008



One of the two lion skulls with lower jaw excavated from the Tower of London moat. Museum scientists used genetic analysis to prove they originated from north Africa.

Lion remains found in the Tower of London come from north Africa, researchers at the Natural History Museum and University of Oxford reveal today.

The Barbary lion bones, recently carbon-dated to between AD 1280-1385 and AD 1420-1480, belonged to lions that originated in northwest Africa, an area that has no natural lion population left today.
England's earliest lions

This makes them the earliest confirmed lion remains in the British Isles after the extinction of the Pleistocene cave lion at the end of the last Ice Age.
Royal Menagerie

The lions were members of the Royal Menagerie, or zoo, established at the Tower of London in the 12th and 13th centuries. It was a home of exotic animals.
Genetic tests reveal origins

Big cats had been imported into Europe for different purposes since early historic times. The exact geographical origin of the Tower of London animals was unclear, until now.

Research on the mitochondrial DNA of the two well-preserved skulls and analysis of their jawbones revealed the lions shared unique genes with the north African Barbary lion. Comparison of the skulls with Asiatic and north African Barbary lion skulls kept in natural history collections in the UK and Europe allowed the team to further demonstrate the link.

'Our results are the first genetic evidence to clearly confirm that lions found during excavations at the Tower of London originated in north Africa,' says Richard Sabin, mammal expert at the Natural History Museum.

'Although we have one of the best mammal collections in the world here at the Museum, few physical remains survive of the Royal Menagerie. Direct animal trade between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa was not developed until the 18th Century, so our results provide new insights into the patterns of historic animal trafficking.'

Physical examination of the skulls also suggested both the lions were males, as they have longer skulls and larger canine teeth. The skulls are now part of the Natural History Museum's vast zoological collections.
Ancient lion distribution

Lions, Panthera leo , are members of the Felidae family and include the three other big cats in the genus Panthera , the tiger, jaguar and leopard. Lions are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.

'According to historic records, lions could be found from north Africa and through the Middle East to India, until the growth of civilisations along the Egyptian Nile and Sinai Peninsula almost 4,000 years ago stopped gene flow, isolating the lion populations,' says Oxford University researcher Nobuyuki Yamaguchi.

'Western north Africa was the nearest region to Europe to sustain lion populations until the early 20th Century, making it an obvious and practical source for mediaeval merchants. Apart from a tiny population in northwest India, lions had been practically exterminated outside sub-Saharan Africa by the turn of the 20th Century.'

www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2008/march/news_13655.html

[another specialist]

Barbary lions were part of medieval Tower of London zoo

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 25/03/2008



Two medieval skulls found in the Tower of London belonged to a kind of lion that boasted a giant dark mane, according to a genetic study that sheds new light on one of the world's oldest zoos.

Infamous as a place of torture and executions, and home to the Crown Jewels, the Tower was also home to lions, which were charismatic symbols of monarchy.

Now researchers have used DNA evidence to analyse two members of the royal menagerie, the oldest being late 13th to late 14th century (1280-1385) and 'youngest' 15th century (1420-1480), the only medieval big cat remains found in England.

They conclude that they were male Barbary lions, a species that hails from north Africa, where no natural lion population remains today.

Lion manes can vary from light blond to black and can be up to a foot long. But the Barbary, a subspecies extinct in the wild, had a magnificently regal mane, their equivalent of the Peacock's tail that they used to turn on lionesses.

They were members of the royal "zoo", which survived for more than 600 years after being founded by King John (1199 to 1216) and the lions are a sign that the UK enjoyed good relations with foreign monarchs, who presented exotic animals as gifts.

The new study in the journal Contributions in Zoology provides important information on some of the earliest lions seen in northern Europe since European lions became extinct at the end of the last Ice Age, some 14,000 to 11,000 years ago.

Remains from the moat, excavated in the 1930s, were analysed by the Natural History Museum and the University of Oxford, focusing on a type of genetic material that is passed from lioness to cub, called
mitochondrial DNA.

The DNA in the skulls revealed the lions shared unique genes with the north African Barbary lion. Richard Sabin, Curator of Mammals at the museum says, "Our results are the first genetic evidence to clearly confirm that lions found during excavations at the Tower of London originated in north Africa.

"Although we have one of the best mammal collections in the world here at the Natural History Museum, few physical remains survive of the Royal Menagerie.

"Direct animal trade between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa was not developed until the eighteenth century, so our results provide new insights into the patterns of historic animal trafficking.'

Oxford researcher Nobuyuki Yamaguchi adds, 'Western north Africa was the nearest region to Europe to sustain lion populations until the early twentieth century, making it an obvious and practical source for mediaeval merchants. Apart from a tiny population in northwest India, lions had been practically exterminated outside sub-Saharan Africa by the turn of the twentieth century.'

Both the lions were males, as they have longer skulls and larger canine teeth than females, and three to four years old. The skulls are now part of the Natural History Museum's vast collections.

The Royal Menagerie was established in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by King John, in Woodstock near Oxford and later relocated to the Tower of London.

Among the first residents were three leopards sent to Henry III by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1235. The earliest written record of an English lion occurs in 1240. It refers to the upkeep of "the King's lion." Radiocarbon dating of the skulls of the two lions and a leopard in earlier work supported historic documents.

Though few physical traces of the menagerie remain, experts have previously pointed to written records of a semi-circular structure built by King Edward I in 1277 in an area that later became known as the Lion Tower. Excavations in 1999 revealed that one lion cage measured just 6.5 feet by 10 feet.

"The last known Barbary Lion in the wild was shot in 1942 on the northern side of the Tizi-n-Tichka pass in the Atlas Mountains, near the road between Marrakech and Ouarzazat, two of major tourists destinations in Morocco today," says Dr Yamaguchi.

"The Barbary lion was believed to be extinct in captivity as well. However, possible Barbary lion descendants that can be traced back to the Royal Lion Collection of the King of Morocco, have been located in zoos and circus populations within the last three decades. "

Although a recent study carried out at Oxford suggests that those "Moroccan King's lions" are unlikely to be pure Barbary lions on the maternal side, a firm conclusion needs to wait for further advances in DNA techniques for revealing their paternal lines.

"Someday, once again, we may see a big dark maned lion in the snow-capped Atlas backdrop, and listen to their roars filling the valleys with echoes, as was once described by 19th Century travellers," adds Dr Yamaguchi.

www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/25/scilion125.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

[Peter]

Never knew that lions, and especially Barbary lions, were kept in captivity this far north in Europe this early in history. Very interesting to read. So Barbary lions have a long history as captive/zoo animal. This makes it possible pure ones or hybrids still survive as recent genetic studies seem to confirm.

[another specialist]

Yes, I was quite surprised myself Peter. Something new for the thread.

[v3g4n]

Hi, I am doing my diploma paper for my university and I need help, if possible. It is been written that the barbary lion did appear in the north Greece and it extincted at about 280 a.c. Does anybody has ever read anything about lion hunting back to those days? Is there any possibilities that hunting helped the lion's extinction at that area? Please tell me if you have any literature about it. Thank you!

[Melanie]

The lions which appear in north greece where either the European lion or the Persian lion.

[another specialist]

Encyclopedia of Deserts
By Michael A. Mares, Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (Norman, Okla.)

[another specialist]

Gir Forest and the Saga of the Asiatic Lion
By Sudipta Mitra

[Peter]

Wonderfully, I recieved an e-mail from Pete Thompson and Lisa Lauren of Wildlink International. It seems it has not disappeared or is back now. They gave me a lot of new info (much of the papers I have to download later). I hope to hear more about Wildlink International later.

For example they send me this photo:

One of the last Atlas lionesses at the end of the 19th century; taken at the top of the pass on the Bône-Duvivier Road in Algeria (photo from Hemmer, 1978).

Peter

[Peter]

World Zoos Battle to Save Barbary Lion
June 2009

International zoos are part of a vital international effort to conserve African lions. North African lions are extinct in the wild but less than 100 remain in captivity. Scientific experts are analysing DNA samples to know if they hold a key to survival for the lion species in peril.

Dave Morgan, Executive Director of the African Zoo Association said, “African lions were considered common in the early 20th century. During the last 25 years populations have plummeted with estimates as low as 16,500 left in the wild today. Tragically the entire population in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa had been wiped out by the 1940’s by trophy hunters. Captive descendents of Atlas lions could help this priority species on the brink of collapse because of their genetic differences to wild lions today. Zoo conservation is essential for endangered African species. We have to cooperate to increase the numbers for release and reintroduction, even if it is a long time in the future.”

Atlas lions were once valued as royal gifts from North African Kings and used for entertainment in the Roman Coliseum and circus acts. An urgent scientific population assessment of panthera leo leo is being conducted by Pete Thompson of Wildlink International in association with Professor Helmut Hemmer and Dr Joachim Burger of the University of Mainz, co-authors of long-awaited scientific research needed for this task.

These measures keep international hopes alive for reintroducing Atlas lions into a protected area in Morocco, North Africa. The remainder of the African continent has strategic plans for their native wild lion populations.

Pete Thompson said, “If there are lions in zoos to help Morocco with their breeding programme, there is a huge responsibility to preserve their uniqueness. Extinction is forever. Captivity for conservation with the highest welfare standards shows people the difficult choices wildlife supporters face to keep the door open for future reintroduction.”

Andrew Hind, Founder of the Wildlife Café Group and the wildlife trust associated with Jambohut said, “This critical task requires positive action among zoos to use expertise from conservation biology experts. Morocco’s conservation of their native lions is important to anyone inspired by these magnificent animals. Other African countries need this same help from international zoos to save their endangered species. If it wasn’t for captive conservation in zoos like Rabat, Atlas lions would have become extinct with the last wild lion.”
i
Dave Morgan has enlisted support for Atlas lion conservation from 400 international zoo and private collections to participate in the population assessment. “An officially recognised breeding programme based upon the outcome would make a significant contribution to maintaining the genetic diversity of the lion species and genetic variability of the subspecies. Flagship species conservation has benefits for all wildlife conservation on the African continent and in countless other developing countries.”

ENDS

[Peter]

To update you all (to clarify the names mentioned: Lisa Lauren is from Wildlink International, Kay Hill is the founder of Wildlink International, and Professor Hemmer is from the University of Mainz, Germany):

Dear Peter

I’m so glad for your positive reply! Hopefully you’ll have sight of the research papers soon. Ideally they could be publicly accessible via your website and Wikipedia in the spirit of aiding non-commercial conservation efforts.

The priority is to complete the Urgent Population Assessment without further delay. We are thrilled to have Prof Hemmer as advisor to action the long-awaited DNA research necessary to proceed in support of Rabat Zoo. So updating public information on the internet will be a great help to encourage the final few collections to provide samples and taxon reports to the University of Mainz. There is reason to be optimistic at this point given the Category 1 phenotype classifications Prof Hemmer has determined thus far, pending lab results.

The current incarnation of this not for profit group has continuity that pre-dates and builds directly on Kay Hills’ outstanding work. Really, nothing could be done before the two papers became available in 2006 when direct communications and practical participation requests restarted in earnest.

If you would like additional photos, we have copyright permission for several. Please advise.

Very best wishes

Lisa

I've decided to give this restarted project more attention/publicity on my website. To make people and institutions more aware of this by freely available information on the web.....now first the updating work will begin. Will be continued.

Peter

[Melanie]

What would you think about to move this thread to the Extinct in the Wild category?

[another specialist]

Well have we got conclusive evidence that we have 100% purebreed barbary lion in captivity?

Have any DNA results been published showing Yes?

Peter may have further info provided which would give us a straight Yes or No to this.

[Bhagatí]

This is same problem like as saudi gazelle.
The real barbary lion is extinct.
But in the captivity is mixed haplotype and hybridizing
with all lions subspecies!
In captivity is not barbary lion, but mistake "hybrids"!

And barbary lions in captivity, just like possible - not real!