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Ethiopian Mountain Lion
Ethiopian Mountain Lion
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Ethiopian Mountain Lion
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Some beautiful images of lions in much denser and tropical climates than their counterparts only within a radius of a few miles. As you can see their fur is darker and thicker than savannah lions, due to the colder, damper mountain forests where they reside.
Ethiopian mountain lioness in the mountain forests of Kaffa  *This image is copyright of its original author A well fed young male Ethiopian lion in a relatively low altitude part of Harenna forest in the Bale national park  *This image is copyright of its original author Male Ethiopian lion in the lowland parts of Harenna forest in Bale national park  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author My favourite series of photos by far here. A rare solitary Ethiopian rainforest lion in the lowlands of the Bale national park. It is built more like, and even seems to move more like, a tiger than your average lion. Head down, slinky movement, very unlike lions in the plains.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
 *This image is copyright of its original author Lions in Harenna Forest. Photo by: John Mason  *This image is copyright of its original author
I thought we already had a thread for the Ethiopians. If so, I propose to merge them. I wouldn't mind moving the Ethiopians to the lion-extinction thread, as that thread is intended for species-related information.
The Ethiopians compare to a degree to the Bhutan tigers making their home in the Himalayas. Both seem to be different from their relatives down under. A bit more muscular and stocky, so it seems. Fascinating stuff. 
Very amazing thread ! But as soon as I discover a fascinating news, the discover of some big stocky forest lions, I wonder what are their preys. To my knowledge there are no big antelopes, no big apes in the ethiopian mountain forests... Perhaps buffalos ? Forest buffalos ? I believe there is an oryx specy in Ethiopie, but certainly not in a forest biotop.
Fascinating too to state that, compared to their savannah counterparts, they seem more stocky. Because they would be used to hunt by ambush over short distances ? Like the bengal tigers ? The habitat creates the function(here the kind of hunting) which creates/influences the morphology...
In such a dense climate I wouldn't be surprised if they were jaguar-esque in their approach to hunting, short ambush with little running involved. I'm not too sure about prey options either, but forest buffalo and even young elephants could be prey. It would explain their huge stocky muscular build.
@peter I personally think these lions are unique enough to have their own thread but it's up to you.
Beautiful Ethiopian lion (most likely of mountain origin) in an Ethiopian zoo in Addis Ababa.
 *This image is copyright of its original author
@"SVTIGRIS" :
About #5 and #6: Yes, we could notice too that the lions in Ethopia (would) inhabit both mountains and the forests that is to say 2 unusual biotops...
Ethiopian lion in the lowland rainforest sector of the bale mountains national park
 *This image is copyright of its original author Bale national park forest lioness, Ethiopia  *This image is copyright of its original author
Ethiopian lions appear to belong to no single subspecies. According to the 2017 report of the Cat Specialist Group (Pages 71–73: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y), there are 2 subspecies of lions: Panthera leo leo (for lions in Asia and the northern half of Africa) and Panthera leo melanochaita (for lions in the southern half of Africa), however, Ethiopia appears to be where these 2 subspecies overlap, which would mean that Ethiopian lions (formerly Panthera leo roosevelti or Felis leo roosevelti, in honor of US President Theodore Roosevelt: https://archive.org/stream/smithsonianmi...3/mode/2up) are neither purely Panthera leo leo nor Panthera leo melanochaita, but a mixture (Panthera leo leo × Panthera leo melanochaita), and the Cat Specialist Group put a question mark over this part of Africa in the diagram on Page 72:
This is not the first time that the genetic condition of Ethiopian lions has come to attention. In 2013, Bruche et al. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...012-0668-5) had done a genetic test on lions at Addis Abeba Zoo, and found them to be different to other lions. (08-03-2018, 11:11 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: Ethiopian lions appear to belong to no single subspecies. According to the 2017 report of the Cat Specialist Group (Pages 71–73: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y), there are 2 subspecies of lions: Panthera leo leo (for lions in Asia and the northern half of Africa) and Panthera leo melanochaita (for lions in the southern half of Africa), however, Ethiopia appears to be where these 2 subspecies overlap, which would mean that Ethiopian lions (formerly Panthera leo roosevelti or Felis leo roosevelti, in honor of US President Theodore Roosevelt: https://archive.org/stream/smithsonianmi...3/mode/2up) are neither purely Panthera leo leo nor Panthera leo melanochaita, but a mixture (Panthera leo leo × Panthera leo melanochaita), and the Cat Specialist Group put a question mark over this part of Africa in the diagram on Page 72: So are the lions being protected there now? how are their overall numbers? outlook? thanks (08-04-2018, 01:23 AM)jordi6927 Wrote:(08-03-2018, 11:11 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: Ethiopian lions appear to belong to no single subspecies. According to the 2017 report of the Cat Specialist Group (Pages 71–73: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y), there are 2 subspecies of lions: Panthera leo leo (for lions in Asia and the northern half of Africa) and Panthera leo melanochaita (for lions in the southern half of Africa), however, Ethiopia appears to be where these 2 subspecies overlap, which would mean that Ethiopian lions (formerly Panthera leo roosevelti or Felis leo roosevelti, in honor of US President Theodore Roosevelt: https://archive.org/stream/smithsonianmi...3/mode/2up) are neither purely Panthera leo leo nor Panthera leo melanochaita, but a mixture (Panthera leo leo × Panthera leo melanochaita), and the Cat Specialist Group put a question mark over this part of Africa in the diagram on Page 72: Yes, lions are somewhat protected, though not unusually there are issues like encroachment of territory by humans. There are at least hundreds of lions there, partly taking into consideration the recent discovery of several lions in the adjacent parks of Alatash and Dinder, the latter being in Sudan: http://lionalert.org/alert/lions_in/Ethiopia
@Sully :
About #13: very interesting video ! "Cloud forest cats", what a poetic name ! I hope really the studies about these lions can be made... Fascinating to see that nowadays there are still so many things to discover about a so iconic animal specy !  *This image is copyright of its original author
Some lions in awash national park
Credits: https://www.instagram.com/ethiopian.wildlife/  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
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