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We know that tigers and lions have been a neighbours and coexisted for thousands of years in India. But there is one other vast country in Asia where these two mega-predators also coexisted - Iran, called historically "Persia". Maps of distribution of Persian lions are quite general and a bit fogy, but here is a map of the distribution of Caspian tiger:
As we can see the range of Caspian tiger included primary the northern part of Iran, more specially wet woody slopes of Alborz mountain elevated to more than 5000 m and covered by lush oak forests. Other parts of the Iran are much drier and covered by steppes, semi-deserts and should had been a primary habitat of the Persian lion. Somewhere in the north, probably on the general latitude of Teheran these two mega-cats should have met each other. Below is a rock barelef from 19th century Qajar dynasty near Teheran depicting the king hunting lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
So, Persian lion and Caspian tiger were neighbours in Iran, and probably in the areas with mixed vegetation they somehow coexisted.
@BorneanTiger , @Sanju do you have a precisedetailed map of the former range of Asiatic lion in Iran in order to compare it with the map of the Caspian tiger? The maps I saw in internet are quite general and probably not very correct. By the way in this scientific article you can find a wonderful photos of skins of Caspian tigers in Teheran Natural museum and a info about a Caspian in the Moscow zoo you asked me last year:
05-23-2019, 07:31 PM( This post was last modified: 05-23-2019, 07:38 PM by BorneanTiger )
(05-18-2019, 02:09 AM)Wolverine Wrote: We know that tigers and lions have been a neighbours and coexisted for thousands of years in India. But there is one other vast country in Asia where these two mega-predators also coexisted - Iran, called historically "Persia". Maps of distribution of Persian lions are quite general and a bit fogy, but here is a map of the distribution of Caspian tiger:
As we can see the range of Caspian tiger included primary the northern part of Iran, more specially wet woody slopes of Alborz mountain elevated to more than 5000 m and covered by lush oak forests. Other parts of the Iran are much drier and covered by steppes, semi-deserts and should had been a primary habitat of the Persian lion. Somewhere in the north, probably on the general latitude of Teheran these two mega-cats should have met each other. Below is a rock barelef from 19th century Qajar dynasty near Teheran depicting the king hunting lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
So, Persian lion and Caspian tiger were neighbours in Iran, and probably in the areas with mixed vegetation they somehow coexisted.
@BorneanTiger , @Sanju do you have a precisedetailed map of the former range of Asiatic lion in Iran in order to compare it with the map of the Caspian tiger? The maps I saw in internet are quite general and probably not very correct. By the way in this scientific article you can find a wonderful photos of skins of Caspian tigers in Teheran Natural museum and a info about a Caspian in the Moscow zoo you asked me last year:
Bearing in mind what I posted here (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-tiger-l...oexistence), as mentioned by Heptner and Sludskiy (https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2...0/mode/2up), the Asiatic lion had apparently been in northern Iran like the Caspian tiger in ancient times, otherwise, why would the lion, like the tiger, also be in the Caucasus (including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), which borders northern Iran?
05-24-2019, 02:14 AM( This post was last modified: 05-24-2019, 02:56 AM by Wolverine )
(05-23-2019, 07:31 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:
(05-18-2019, 02:09 AM)Wolverine Wrote: We know that tigers and lions have been a neighbours and coexisted for thousands of years in India. But there is one other vast country in Asia where these two mega-predators also coexisted - Iran, called historically "Persia". Maps of distribution of Persian lions are quite general and a bit fogy, but here is a map of the distribution of Caspian tiger:
As we can see the range of Caspian tiger included primary the northern part of Iran, more specially wet woody slopes of Alborz mountain elevated to more than 5000 m and covered by lush oak forests. Other parts of the Iran are much drier and covered by steppes, semi-deserts and should had been a primary habitat of the Persian lion. Somewhere in the north, probably on the general latitude of Teheran these two mega-cats should have met each other. Below is a rock barelef from 19th century Qajar dynasty near Teheran depicting the king hunting lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
So, Persian lion and Caspian tiger were neighbours in Iran, and probably in the areas with mixed vegetation they somehow coexisted.
@BorneanTiger , @Sanju do you have a precisedetailed map of the former range of Asiatic lion in Iran in order to compare it with the map of the Caspian tiger? The maps I saw in internet are quite general and probably not very correct. By the way in this scientific article you can find a wonderful photos of skins of Caspian tigers in Teheran Natural museum and a info about a Caspian in the Moscow zoo you asked me last year:
Bearing in mind what I posted here (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-tiger-l...oexistence), as mentioned by Heptner and Sludskiy (https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2...0/mode/2up), the Asiatic lion had apparently been in northern Iran like the Caspian tiger in ancient times, otherwise, why would the lion, like the tiger, also be in the Caucasus (including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), which borders northern Iran?
Thanks Bornean tiger. This is really a precise map for the lion distribution in Persia. The map shows that the main strongholds of the Persian lions were on the south and south-east of the country, while the main stronghold of the tiger was on the north. Obviously the areal of the Asiatic lion in Persia was definetily larger than the areal of the tiger due the fact that Iran as general has dry climate and vegetation. Comparing the 2 maps doesn't create an impression that 2 species interacted each other with exception of extreme north-east.
Tiger:
*This image is copyright of its original author
Lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
But I think they could have been interacting each other in the area of Alborz mountain. The only area with high humidity and rainfall are the northern slopes of Alborz mountain range facing Caspian sea. In same time the southern slopes facing Teheran are much drier so its possible that 2 cats could had some interractions in that region.
The wonderful project to return Asiatic lions in Iran (@Sanju) unfourtunately dates from early 1970's during the government of the Shah but after Islamic revolution in 1979 I afraid that current Iranian state doesn't really care about the wild nature.
Before the Revolution the lion was on the national flag of Persia:
*This image is copyright of its original author
but now its removed and this shows the change of the state priorities:
(05-18-2019, 02:09 AM)Wolverine Wrote: We know that tigers and lions have been a neighbours and coexisted for thousands of years in India. But there is one other vast country in Asia where these two mega-predators also coexisted - Iran, called historically "Persia". Maps of distribution of Persian lions are quite general and a bit fogy, but here is a map of the distribution of Caspian tiger:
As we can see the range of Caspian tiger included primary the northern part of Iran, more specially wet woody slopes of Alborz mountain elevated to more than 5000 m and covered by lush oak forests. Other parts of the Iran are much drier and covered by steppes, semi-deserts and should had been a primary habitat of the Persian lion. Somewhere in the north, probably on the general latitude of Teheran these two mega-cats should have met each other. Below is a rock barelef from 19th century Qajar dynasty near Teheran depicting the king hunting lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
So, Persian lion and Caspian tiger were neighbours in Iran, and probably in the areas with mixed vegetation they somehow coexisted.
@BorneanTiger , @Sanju do you have a precisedetailed map of the former range of Asiatic lion in Iran in order to compare it with the map of the Caspian tiger? The maps I saw in internet are quite general and probably not very correct. By the way in this scientific article you can find a wonderful photos of skins of Caspian tigers in Teheran Natural museum and a info about a Caspian in the Moscow zoo you asked me last year:
Bearing in mind what I posted here (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-tiger-l...oexistence), as mentioned by Heptner and Sludskiy (https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2...0/mode/2up), the Asiatic lion had apparently been in northern Iran like the Caspian tiger in ancient times, otherwise, why would the lion, like the tiger, also be in the Caucasus (including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), which borders northern Iran?
Thanks Bornean tiger. This is really a precise map for the lion distribution in Persia. The map shows that the main strongholds of the Persian lions were on the south and south-east of the country, while the main stronghold of the tiger was on the north. Obviously the areal of the Asiatic lion in Persia was definetily larger than the areal of the tiger due the fact that Iran as general has dry climate and vegetation. Comparing the 2 maps doesn't create an impression that 2 species interacted each other with exception of extreme north-east.
Tiger:
*This image is copyright of its original author
Lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
But I think they could have been interacting each other in the area of Alborz mountain. The only area with high humidity and rainfall are the northern slopes of Alborz mountain range facing Caspian sea. In same time the southern slopes facing Teheran are much drier so its possible that 2 cats could had some interractions in that region.
The wonderful project to return Asiatic lions in Iran (@Sanju) unfourtunately dates from early 1970's during the government of the Shah but after Islamic revolution in 1979 I afraid that current Iranian state doesn't really care about the wild nature.
Before the Revolution the lion was on the national flag of Persia:
*This image is copyright of its original author
but now its removed and this shows the change of the state priorities:
*This image is copyright of its original author
They managed to get an Asiatic lion from Europe to Eram Zoo in Tehran, but considering the serious state of the Asiatic cheetah in Iran, I wonder how they'll manage to have wild lions: http://www.payvand.com/news/19/may/1005.html
(05-18-2019, 02:09 AM)Wolverine Wrote: We know that tigers and lions have been a neighbours and coexisted for thousands of years in India. But there is one other vast country in Asia where these two mega-predators also coexisted - Iran, called historically "Persia". Maps of distribution of Persian lions are quite general and a bit fogy, but here is a map of the distribution of Caspian tiger:
As we can see the range of Caspian tiger included primary the northern part of Iran, more specially wet woody slopes of Alborz mountain elevated to more than 5000 m and covered by lush oak forests. Other parts of the Iran are much drier and covered by steppes, semi-deserts and should had been a primary habitat of the Persian lion. Somewhere in the north, probably on the general latitude of Teheran these two mega-cats should have met each other. Below is a rock barelef from 19th century Qajar dynasty near Teheran depicting the king hunting lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
So, Persian lion and Caspian tiger were neighbours in Iran, and probably in the areas with mixed vegetation they somehow coexisted.
@BorneanTiger , @Sanju do you have a precisedetailed map of the former range of Asiatic lion in Iran in order to compare it with the map of the Caspian tiger? The maps I saw in internet are quite general and probably not very correct. By the way in this scientific article you can find a wonderful photos of skins of Caspian tigers in Teheran Natural museum and a info about a Caspian in the Moscow zoo you asked me last year:
Bearing in mind what I posted here (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-tiger-l...oexistence), as mentioned by Heptner and Sludskiy (https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2...0/mode/2up), the Asiatic lion had apparently been in northern Iran like the Caspian tiger in ancient times, otherwise, why would the lion, like the tiger, also be in the Caucasus (including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), which borders northern Iran?
Thanks Bornean tiger. This is really a precise map for the lion distribution in Persia. The map shows that the main strongholds of the Persian lions were on the south and south-east of the country, while the main stronghold of the tiger was on the north. Obviously the areal of the Asiatic lion in Persia was definetily larger than the areal of the tiger due the fact that Iran as general has dry climate and vegetation. Comparing the 2 maps doesn't create an impression that 2 species interacted each other with exception of extreme north-east.
Tiger:
*This image is copyright of its original author
Lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
But I think they could have been interacting each other in the area of Alborz mountain. The only area with high humidity and rainfall are the northern slopes of Alborz mountain range facing Caspian sea. In same time the southern slopes facing Teheran are much drier so its possible that 2 cats could had some interractions in that region.
The wonderful project to return Asiatic lions in Iran (@Sanju) unfourtunately dates from early 1970's during the government of the Shah but after Islamic revolution in 1979 I afraid that current Iranian state doesn't really care about the wild nature.
Before the Revolution the lion was on the national flag of Persia:
*This image is copyright of its original author
but now its removed and this shows the change of the state priorities:
06-03-2019, 09:59 AM( This post was last modified: 06-03-2019, 10:01 AM by Wolverine )
(06-02-2019, 11:06 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:
(05-24-2019, 02:14 AM)Wolverine Wrote:
(05-23-2019, 07:31 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:
(05-18-2019, 02:09 AM)Wolverine Wrote: We know that tigers and lions have been a neighbours and coexisted for thousands of years in India. But there is one other vast country in Asia where these two mega-predators also coexisted - Iran, called historically "Persia". Maps of distribution of Persian lions are quite general and a bit fogy, but here is a map of the distribution of Caspian tiger:
As we can see the range of Caspian tiger included primary the northern part of Iran, more specially wet woody slopes of Alborz mountain elevated to more than 5000 m and covered by lush oak forests. Other parts of the Iran are much drier and covered by steppes, semi-deserts and should had been a primary habitat of the Persian lion. Somewhere in the north, probably on the general latitude of Teheran these two mega-cats should have met each other. Below is a rock barelef from 19th century Qajar dynasty near Teheran depicting the king hunting lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
So, Persian lion and Caspian tiger were neighbours in Iran, and probably in the areas with mixed vegetation they somehow coexisted.
@BorneanTiger , @Sanju do you have a precisedetailed map of the former range of Asiatic lion in Iran in order to compare it with the map of the Caspian tiger? The maps I saw in internet are quite general and probably not very correct. By the way in this scientific article you can find a wonderful photos of skins of Caspian tigers in Teheran Natural museum and a info about a Caspian in the Moscow zoo you asked me last year:
Bearing in mind what I posted here (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-tiger-l...oexistence), as mentioned by Heptner and Sludskiy (https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2...0/mode/2up), the Asiatic lion had apparently been in northern Iran like the Caspian tiger in ancient times, otherwise, why would the lion, like the tiger, also be in the Caucasus (including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), which borders northern Iran?
Thanks Bornean tiger. This is really a precise map for the lion distribution in Persia. The map shows that the main strongholds of the Persian lions were on the south and south-east of the country, while the main stronghold of the tiger was on the north. Obviously the areal of the Asiatic lion in Persia was definetily larger than the areal of the tiger due the fact that Iran as general has dry climate and vegetation. Comparing the 2 maps doesn't create an impression that 2 species interacted each other with exception of extreme north-east.
Tiger:
*This image is copyright of its original author
Lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
But I think they could have been interacting each other in the area of Alborz mountain. The only area with high humidity and rainfall are the northern slopes of Alborz mountain range facing Caspian sea. In same time the southern slopes facing Teheran are much drier so its possible that 2 cats could had some interractions in that region.
The wonderful project to return Asiatic lions in Iran (@Sanju) unfourtunately dates from early 1970's during the government of the Shah but after Islamic revolution in 1979 I afraid that current Iranian state doesn't really care about the wild nature.
Before the Revolution the lion was on the national flag of Persia:
*This image is copyright of its original author
but now its removed and this shows the change of the state priorities:
It confirms the lion range from the previous map. What surprise me is that neighbouring Afganistan is whole shown as potentially inhabited by lions in the past, even the high mountains of Afganistan, historically known as Bactria...is this possible? Didn't know that lions could inhabit 3-4-5 thousand meters high mountains, even these mountains have relatively open type of vegetation.
06-03-2019, 11:01 AM( This post was last modified: 06-03-2019, 11:44 AM by BorneanTiger )
(06-03-2019, 09:59 AM)Wolverine Wrote:
(06-02-2019, 11:06 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:
(05-24-2019, 02:14 AM)Wolverine Wrote:
(05-23-2019, 07:31 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:
(05-18-2019, 02:09 AM)Wolverine Wrote: We know that tigers and lions have been a neighbours and coexisted for thousands of years in India. But there is one other vast country in Asia where these two mega-predators also coexisted - Iran, called historically "Persia". Maps of distribution of Persian lions are quite general and a bit fogy, but here is a map of the distribution of Caspian tiger:
As we can see the range of Caspian tiger included primary the northern part of Iran, more specially wet woody slopes of Alborz mountain elevated to more than 5000 m and covered by lush oak forests. Other parts of the Iran are much drier and covered by steppes, semi-deserts and should had been a primary habitat of the Persian lion. Somewhere in the north, probably on the general latitude of Teheran these two mega-cats should have met each other. Below is a rock barelef from 19th century Qajar dynasty near Teheran depicting the king hunting lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
So, Persian lion and Caspian tiger were neighbours in Iran, and probably in the areas with mixed vegetation they somehow coexisted.
@BorneanTiger , @Sanju do you have a precisedetailed map of the former range of Asiatic lion in Iran in order to compare it with the map of the Caspian tiger? The maps I saw in internet are quite general and probably not very correct. By the way in this scientific article you can find a wonderful photos of skins of Caspian tigers in Teheran Natural museum and a info about a Caspian in the Moscow zoo you asked me last year:
Bearing in mind what I posted here (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-tiger-l...oexistence), as mentioned by Heptner and Sludskiy (https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2...0/mode/2up), the Asiatic lion had apparently been in northern Iran like the Caspian tiger in ancient times, otherwise, why would the lion, like the tiger, also be in the Caucasus (including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), which borders northern Iran?
Thanks Bornean tiger. This is really a precise map for the lion distribution in Persia. The map shows that the main strongholds of the Persian lions were on the south and south-east of the country, while the main stronghold of the tiger was on the north. Obviously the areal of the Asiatic lion in Persia was definetily larger than the areal of the tiger due the fact that Iran as general has dry climate and vegetation. Comparing the 2 maps doesn't create an impression that 2 species interacted each other with exception of extreme north-east.
Tiger:
*This image is copyright of its original author
Lion:
*This image is copyright of its original author
But I think they could have been interacting each other in the area of Alborz mountain. The only area with high humidity and rainfall are the northern slopes of Alborz mountain range facing Caspian sea. In same time the southern slopes facing Teheran are much drier so its possible that 2 cats could had some interractions in that region.
The wonderful project to return Asiatic lions in Iran (@Sanju) unfourtunately dates from early 1970's during the government of the Shah but after Islamic revolution in 1979 I afraid that current Iranian state doesn't really care about the wild nature.
Before the Revolution the lion was on the national flag of Persia:
*This image is copyright of its original author
but now its removed and this shows the change of the state priorities:
It confirms the lion range from the previous map. What surprise me is that neighbouring Afganistan is whole shown as potentially inhabited by lions in the past, even the high mountains of Afganistan, historically known as Bactria...is this possible? Didn't know that lions could inhabit 3-4-5 thousand meters high mountains, even these mountains have relatively open type of vegetation.
Some Northeast African lions do inhabit mountainous areas of Ethiopia, in the same way that northern Bengal tigers live in the region of the Himalayas in North India, Nepal and Bhutan (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-ethiopi...ntain-lion), in the same way that the Barbary lion would have inhabited the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb (Northwest Africa), ans it's worth mentioning that the last photo of a wild Atlas lion, and the last confirmed shooting of this type of lion took place in mountainous areas:
Lions and tigers coexistence in Persia (Iran)
schnitzler2019.pdf (Size: 1.16 MB / Downloads: 1)
