Lions and Tigers in India

[Rishi]

(11-15-2018, 05:48 PM)Spalea Wrote: Partially agree... Yes the lions are more noisy than tigers, but in Africa,  in such areas where they were severely hunted, they were able to modify their behaviour in order not to be totally eradicated, by adopting a much more discreet lifestyle. By this way, we saw they subsisted in Gabon (forests), Ethopia (at altitude), Congo (partially forested areas), in Namibie (desert)... Why wouldn't it be the same thing in Asian ? Lions are perhaps not quite stupid animals. Of course the African countries I named aren't India. The lions were perhaps able to invest new areas that were not inhabited by a super predator like the tiger.

Anyway, as you say, I believe that their social way of living in open landscapes make them much more vulnerable than tigers. And this in a exploded-population country during the XXth century, they get absolutely no chance to survive without an human intervention.

The "leftover lions" are probably still around only because of remoteness of where they lived. Tigers from less remote forests had been slaughtered just as easily, and they don't even do mating calls unless living in veryv safe & inviolate habitats.

This is how the vicinity of Gir sounds like every evening. I doubt any lions population living in moderately safe area could supress this urge. 

However today, with legal protection, the lions have a much better chance for survival IMO. 
Primarily because lions are capable of surviving in grassland, scrubland & desert habitats where tigers cannot... also having a temperament that makes them much more compatible to living in closer proximity to humans without much conflict (if their pathological cattle-lifting habits can be well managed).
@BorneanTiger's map shows the potential tiger habitat but not the lion's.

Look at this is Bhuvan map (cool, eh?) showing the land-use pattern of India's erstwhile "lion country", comprising of the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh. 

*This image is copyright of its original author

While their prime historical habitat in the vast grasslands of Northern plains have been completely cultivated, still a huge amount of viable territory is left for them that dwarfs the Greater Gir landscape. Unlike tiger's fragmented forest cover that remains in the hilly uplands, whereas dense human population have taken over the river valleys between, the lion's potential range is much less populated & threatened. 
Actually global warming is threatening almost all of northwest India with drought & desertification. The region might lose as much as half of its present agricultural lands in the next few decades.

But at the same time whatever few good grasslands remains in the cultivable areas are under immense threat & that's where our lions belong! With cheetahs gone, those areas need an apex predator more ever... for India to start taking her arid ecosystems seriously. Reply