The size of the Barbary lion

[BorneanTiger]

(05-13-2019, 11:09 PM)GuateGojira Wrote: No, it doesn't say, there is the image:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Here is the document from Dr Ross Barnett and his team: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6448349/

It seems that his results challenge the ideat of only 2 "pure" African lion subspecies, at least in the central region of the continent.

So it seems that Rabat zoo lions, the steam origin from all lions from Morocco, are not 100% Barbary origin, but those from India are the closest to the old Barbary lion. That is why some captive Indian lions, specially in cold climate, look like this:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

I came across an interesting document about the history of the Royal Moroccan lions and Casablanca (pages 469–470: https://www.researchgate.net/publication...on_Project). It says that Moroccan Monarchs are believed to have kept lions that were descended from lions caught from the Atlas Mountains, and that when Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Youssef (also known as King Mohammed V) abdicated and went into exile in 1953, 3 of his 21 lions in Rabat were transferred to a zoo in Casablanca, with the others being transferred to a zoo at Meknès, and then upon the return of the Sultan to Rabat in 1955, the lions at Meknès were returned to Rabat, but not those at Casablanca.
   

However, Parc Sindibad doesn't have the only zoo in Casablanca. There's also Aïn Sebaâ Zoo, which had been poorly maintained (https://www.leconomiste.com/article/9174...ent-t-vacu, http://forceanimalintervention.over-blog...41855.html, https://observers.france24.com/en/201403...ap-animals), but is now being renovated (https://www.casa-amenagement.ma/en/nos-p...-ain-sebaa), and there is another zoo at Dream Village, where animals at Aïn Sebaâ were transferred to (https://lematin.ma/journal/2014/casablan...06795.html).

Aïn Sebaâ Zoo: 

Dream Village Zoo: 

Reply