The size of the Barbary lion

[GuateGojira]

(05-25-2022, 11:28 AM)LonePredator Wrote: Were the other populations of Lions which lived in India (except Gir) the same subspecies as West and North African Lions or were they a different subspecies than Gir Lions??

Since the Mughals imported Lions from North Africa, they were obviously P. Leo Leo (North and West African and Gir subspecies) and those are the Lions still living in Gir.

But were the other Lions from the rest of India also the same subspecies as the Gir Lions or did they belong to the East and South African Lion subspecies? Or was it a completely different subspecies altogether? 

And I agree about the Gir Lions, those Lions have recovered from a very small population, I remember reading somewhere that at one point, their population was as low as 20-30 specimens and at that point, inbreeding was pretty much inevitable. They’re definitely heavily inbred.

And most likely because of this reason, the Indian Lions seem to have somewhat deformed faces. For example, the Lion below seems to have a weird and deformed face, I don’t think Asiatic Lions are supposed to look like this and it’s probably the result of inbreeding. What do you think??

In theory, all the lions from west and north Africa, middle east and up to India, are the same subspecies Panthera leo leo. I say " in theory" because I don't remember if genetic studies included specimens from middle east. However, the animals from west/north Africa and India are virtually the same, based in DNA.

All the lions from India are of the same population, and although there are reports of lions imported from Mozambique to India, they did not leave decendance as there is no trace of Souther Africa DNA in the Indian lions at this day.

Please check that the image of the lion that you share is from captivity, and captive lions have irregular skulls that do not match with those from the wild. So that is the most simple explanation to its form. Reply