Asiatic lions outside India

[Ingonyama6]

Here are some accounts of Asian lions interacting and preying on pachyderms.

The Asian lion population in Iraq attacked and fed on domestic Indian elephants (Link  https://issuu.com/dr-normanalibassamkhalaf/docs/the_asiatic_or_persian_lion_in_pale) Page 7

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Dr Nouman Khalaf was quoting Al-Jahiz, a legendary muslim zoologist and pioneer. When Jahiz wrote that Asian lions hunt domestic elephants was between the 7th and 8th century, when the two co-existed. 

First of all lets see the ranges and maps.

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Range of the Asian Elephant. Credits to Wiki

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As we can clearly see, the two species definately co-existed at one time. Only their mass extermination stopped them from crossing paths anymore. I would also like to point out that wherever lions and pachyderms co-existed at any point, the lion has killed them on occasions. Lets take the cave lions of Europe for example. They hunted mammoths.
http://dl.booktolearn.com/ebooks2/science/biology/9780226780269_the_wild_cat_book_7731.pdf


What Al-Jahiz wrote is understandable. There are footages of lions hunting young elephants and expert accounts of them killing adults. 



Lions have been known to charge and pull down elephants, riders and all during lion hunts.

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https://archive.org/stream/lionstigerscc00jardrich#page/110/mode/2up/ Reply