Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos

[Rishi]

(10-14-2019, 11:41 PM)lionjaguar Wrote: I think there is more than overhunting of the species. It is true that lions were gone in India due to overhunting by British and Indian royals. My statement was lions lived in Middle East, Iran to Turkey or Sinai Peninsula.

It's both over-hunting & habitat loss. Unlike Bengal tigers who held on to their forested hills, lions & Caspian tigers lost almost all of their plain's grassland/woodland to agriculture. In India, in Egypt, in most of Mesopotamia. Lions held on in India, but in Middle East & North-Africa there's mostly deserts outside the occasional fertile valleys & river basins. Deserts of Sahara or Sinai or Syria wouldn't sustain a vibrant lion population & they went regionally extinct easily over the ages.
Source: The Impact of Land Cover and Land Use Change on the Indian Monsoon Region Hydroclimate

*This image is copyright of its original author

Then that whole area between India & Libya has historically been the largest stretch of land with most human interference. It has been world's largest cradle of civilisation & has seen most wars, empires, trade, invasions, genocides, migrations etc. Lion numbers fell gradually over last 2-4 centuries with rise in use of gunpowder weapons since 1500s.


Compared to that sub-Saharan Africa's lions had it way easier, in the remote habitat of their sparsely populated continent facing minimal threat from civilisation until mid-19th century. Reply