Desert Lions

[GuateGojira]

(05-22-2015, 10:45 AM)'Spalea' Wrote: Without the humans' intervention they would be stayed the most expanding feline on Earth with the leopard.
 

In fact, this is more complex that only "human absence".

The expansion of the lion was not thanks to its size or sociability, but caused by the dryer climate of the Pleistocene. In fact, in the dry years the expansion of the lion was incredible, but when the climate changed great extinctions of lion populations happened. This is clearly presented in the bottlenecks of the modern lion populations in Africa and Asia and even in the Steppe (cave) lion populations in Eurasia.

For example, humans and lions shared habitat in India for thousands of years and at 12,000 years ago, they simple were vanished from over 70% of the habitat. Someones blamed the tigers, but I think now that climate was the true "killer", as at that time Earth changed to a more "wet" climate over the entire world and the Savanna-like habitat disappeared from most parts of the previous habitats of lions. India changed from a very dry area with savannas (perfect for lions) to a wet forested area with plenty of water (perfect for tigers).

In few words, lions like most animals, suffered from expansions and contractions based in climatic situations, and as the entire Europe, North Asia and North America were Savanna-like habitat, the lion and they relatives succeeded in establishing populations that at the end, were extinct with the end of the last Ice Age and the rise of the forests. Human impact was harder only since the Holocene, when the Homo sapiens sapiens already established its dominion of the land with its Civilization and its weapons.

By the way, I think is important to mention that the cave "lions" from Peru that many old books mentioned, were in fact jaguars and this was proved by new studies and even Yamaguchi accepted this. So, IF we think that the cave lions were in fact "lions", the more distant expansion was up to the south of Mexico (Chiapas). There has been not found any fossils of any big cat in Central America.
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