Barbary or Atlas lions

[Matias]

(01-23-2017, 07:55 PM)peter Wrote: a - INTRODUCTION

I'm sure many of you have seen this splendid photograph before:

*This image is copyright of its original author

It was discussed at many forums over the years. Most thought the photograph had been taken before the First World War. Not quite true. This lion was photographed in 1925.

It surely had to be one of the very last wild Barbary lions, many thought. Also not true. Although they had all but vanished between 1890-1910, Barbary or Atlas lions might have survived in isolated spots in Morocco and Algeria until the late fifties or even early sixties of the last century! It's very likely that the French-Algerian conflict was the nail in their coffin.   

There are many myths about these lions. For starters, I advice to read this article published a few years ago (Black et al, 2013). A very interesting read. Yamaguchi also contributed:  

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0060174

Although not aware that someone questioned the authenticity of this photograph, it always seemed to me something "mounted". Although there is a logic behind the capture of this image, they say: it was made by a photographer hired by the airline to document the landscape, promoting the inauguration of the Casablanca-Dakar flight. Let's look at some points: the lion's footprints in the sand, straight, perfectly perceptible, contrast with other marks in the sand that seem to me to be human work, a regular and uniform pattern of movement in the sand (vegetable branches!); The alignment of the footprints does not correspond to the positioning of the lion in front of the photograph, being positioned laterally; The lion's tail is completely retracted, at least for the sound of the engine, it would be alert and alert lion does not have that kind of posture (his static / motionless figure, looking forward in front of a low-flying air vehicle is well unusual); The shadow of the lion: underneath there seems to be a support or something concrete that does not belong to the animal; It is also noted that the muzzle is very prominent and straight; At this distance the image was very perfect from the angle of the photograph, it seems to me that it was taken from the right side of the plane, so the lion was facing the plane and therefore the lion would never be static! Ignoring the fact of the plane! All the lions that are sighted by airplanes perceive their presence and react to this aerial object. It looks like a cardboard lion or carved in wood.

 

 

It's just observations of a photograph that can turn out to be a scam, are questionings and who knows, other wildfact members also think this image is too good to be true. It is not because it has been almost 100 years that it can not be merely the object of a marketing campaign. "Imagine the slogam of the airline: travel with us and also see a lion".

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