ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - B - THE LION (Panthera leo)

[BorneanTiger]

Forward from (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-the-siz...ion?page=5), there is something interesting about the place to where Marcelin Flandrin flew from Dakar in 1925, while taking the last known photo of a wild Atlas lion (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl...ne.0060174), that is Casablanca: 

*This image is copyright of its original author

Casablanca has more than one zoo that was claimed to have Atlas lions: Parc Sindibad Zoo (https://www.journeybeyondtravel.com/blog...rocco.html, https://www.tripadvisor.fr/LocationPhoto...2-d8610479, https://www.tripadvisor.fr/LocationPhoto...egion.html), 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 at Dream Village (where animals at Aïn Sebaâ were transferred to: https://lematin.ma/journal/2014/casablan...06795.html).

Parc Sindibad Zoo: http://parcsindibad.ma/afrique-sauvage/

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Aïn Sebaâ Zoo: 

Dream Village Zoo: 

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:
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