Lions and tigers coexistence in Persia (Iran)

[Wolverine]

We know that tigers and lions have been a neighbours and coexisted for thousands of years in India. But there is one other vast country in Asia where these two mega-predators also coexisted - Iran, called historically "Persia". Maps of distribution of Persian lions are quite general and a bit fogy, but here is a map of the distribution of Caspian tiger:

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.catsg.org/fileadmin/fileshari...n_Iran.pdf

As we can see the range of Caspian tiger included primary the northern part of Iran, more specially wet woody slopes of Alborz mountain elevated to more than 5000 m and covered by lush oak forests. Other parts of the Iran are much drier and covered by steppes, semi-deserts and should had been a primary habitat of the Persian lion. Somewhere in the north, probably on the general latitude of Teheran these two mega-cats should have met each other. Below is a rock barelef from 19th century Qajar dynasty near Teheran depicting the king hunting lion:

*This image is copyright of its original author

So, Persian lion and Caspian tiger were neighbours in Iran, and probably in the areas with mixed vegetation they somehow coexisted.

@BorneanTiger , @Sanju do you have a precise detailed map of the former range of Asiatic lion in Iran in order to compare it with the map of the Caspian tiger? The maps I saw in internet are quite general and probably not very correct. By the way in this scientific article you can find a wonderful photos of skins of Caspian tigers in Teheran Natural museum and a info about a Caspian in the Moscow zoo you asked me last year:

http://www.catsg.org/fileadmin/fileshari...n_Iran.pdf Reply