North-East / Central / Equatorial African lions

[Shadow]

(05-09-2019, 10:20 AM)BorneanTiger Wrote: Forward from (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-gorilla...8#pid81578), I wonder which part of Central Africa this brutal draw between a lion and gorilla took place in the 19th century: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspa...00226.2.13

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Even though this same incident was shortly discussed in another thread, I would say that it is good to read that description and think if anyone has ever seen or heard or read these animals behaving like in this story.

I myself can´t take that story seriously at all. Whole article is like from some comic book and looks like, that someone has made easy money by writing fairy tales to newspapers in times, when people were easy to fool. There are so many myths and "urban legends" concerning animals based on that kind of old stories. Gorilla jumping several times 6 feet to the air to provoke a lion to attack :) That was the first time, when I laughed loud when reading this article first time in last autumn :)

I just say, read this article and descriptions about behavior of animals and try to fit then to real life situations. It is quite challenging. Anyway I personally think, that this guy who wrote that article made it all up for some reason, which I don´t know. But usually reporters get payed if something is published. Reply

[Lycaon]

@BorneanTiger 

It is in zakouma. Reply

[Lycaon]

Alexandra Go

Wounds . Zakouma national park.

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[Lycaon]

A video of two dinder lions

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[Styx38]

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Quote:Lion in Zakouma National Park in the Central African nation of Chad turns over a young elephant he killed. During a period of elephant poaching in the region there were many orphaned young elephants, and some lions became adept at hunting them.

Nathalie Vanherle

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/192535/leos-star-sets-in-the-west Reply

[BorneanTiger]

Lion attacks on livestock, like this cow, in southern Cameroon is causing villagers to flee: https://www.voanews.com/a/cameroon-villa...45325.html

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[Lycaon]

“Mud and guts” in Zakouma National Park, Chad © Michael Lorentz

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“Headless and grinning, this was the somewhat gruesome sight of the remains of an olive baboon, hanging from the mouth of a male lion. This encounter had a primeval feeling about it, a natural sense of vulnerability going back to days when man was not the top predator on the plains of Africa but rather part of nature’s food chain.” – Zakouma National Park, Chad © Matt Todd

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[BorneanTiger]

Back in May, 4 lions had escaped from a park in central Cameroon, killing 30 cattle: https://www.dailysabah.com/africa/2019/0...-30-cattle

"Four hungry lions have escaped a wildlife park in central Cameroon, terrorizing locals and attacking herds of cattle.

The lions escaped from the park in the Mbam-et-Kim department and attacked livestock, killing about 30 cattle, local media reports said.

Regional authorities tasked the locally-based German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) with finding the lions.

Park authorities initially thought only two lions had escaped, but after examining the felines' tracks and listening to their roars, they determined four had escaped.
Authorities told locals not to be afraid and to remain inside their homes after dark.

The Central African country of Cameroon, located on the Gulf of Guinea, is home to numerous wildlife parks. The lion is Cameroon's national animal, and many tourists to the country come to see the powerful felines. From time to time, these predators escape from parks and attack and kill locals and livestock." Reply

[Lycaon]

Essential Africa

After an incredibly hot day, this large male lion made his way to the waters edge to refill before the nights patrolling. He had recently finished a kill which further increased his need to drink. The birds that surrounded him kept a respectable distance at all times. 

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[Lycaon]

Muscular kidepo lion

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[Lycaon]

Impressive zakouma lion

Unkown photographer

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[Lycaon]

Matt Todd

Mud, Blood and Snarls. Mealtime in Zakouma National Park in Chad. It is one of many memories from the trip which has stayed strong, watching these lions using the heavy, muddy ground in the Rigueik pan to chase down this unfortunate Lelwel Hartebeest. The snarls and growls added to the wild feel.

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[BorneanTiger]

(01-24-2019, 06:38 PM)Sanju Wrote:

(01-24-2019, 06:35 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:

(01-24-2019, 06:13 PM)Sanju Wrote: Panthera leo leo Population is known or referred as "Northern Lion". My suggestion is to alter this thread name to that. IMO @BorneanTiger  

Actually, a problem that I've highlighted earlier is that Southern lions (Panthera leo melanochaita) are also present in North-East or Central Africa, and that's why we have this thread, to make it clear that there are issues with the Cat Specialist Group's classification of lions in Central Africa as Panthera leo leo and those in East Africa (which includes Ethiopia) as Panthera leo melanochaita, and that's why there's a question mark on the map of lion subspecies in Page 72: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y

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Yes, there is a considerable hybridization b/w melonochaita and leo in that zone.

It's not necessarily the case that they found mixed up lions (Panthera leo leo × Panthera leo melanochaita), it's to do with where geneticists found Northern (P. l. leo) and Southern lions (P. l. melanochaita) in Ethiopia or Northeast Africa. Firstly, let's start with the genetic study that made the captive Ethiopian lions at Addis Abeba Zoo famous, that of Bruche et al. Ethiopia is in East Africa, so it was expected that these lions would be closely related to wild East African lions in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti ecosystem. However, the Addis Abeba lions (Haplotype 6) were found to be genetically distinct from other East African lions (including those at Ngorongoro and Serengeti, and Haplotypes 8 and 10, which included lions in Uganda, Somalia and Tsave East National Park in Kenya) besides the Asiatic (Haplotypes 1 and 2) and Southern African lions (Haplotypes 10–15, including those at Kruger National Park in South Africa, and Etosha National Park in Namibia), and captive Yemeni lions at Sana'a Zoo (which were thought to be of Ethiopian origin, Haplotype 9), and genetically close to wild Central African lions (Haplotypes 4 and 5) in Chad (particularly in Zakouma National Park) and Cameroon (particularly Bénoué and Waza National Parks), among others (including apparently those impure Barbary lions at Rabat Zoo which have Central, Western or Northeast African descent), despite being termed "genetically unique". The Addis Ababa lions also showed little signs of inbreeding compared to wild populations: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10344-012-0668-5
   
   
   
   
   
 
This image of an Addis Ababa lion is in the article by Bruche et al.: https://grist.org/article/a-new-species-of-lion-has-been-discovered-in-an-ethiopian-zoo/

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Now take the case of wild lions in the national parks of Nechisar and Bale Mountains in southern Ethiopia. Nechisar is closer to the Central African country of South Sudan, where the Northern subspecies (P. l. leo) is supposed to be present, and Bale is closer to the East African country of Kenya, where the Southern subspecies (P. l. melanochaita) is supposed to be present: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nechisar+National+Park+HQ/@6.4277328,38.0536487,6z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x17babc96ec793a1b:0x35422b2c5ef1ddab!8m2!3d6.0259866!4d37.5679153
   
   

However, scat samples of lions in Nechisar (Numbers 52 and 53) were found to cluster with East African samples from Kenya and Somali in a single Haplotype (13), part of what Bertola et al. referred to as the "North-east clade" of the Southern lion group, whereas a scat sample from a lion in Bale (Number 54) was found to cluster with Central African samples from Chad, D. R. Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic in another Haplotype (9), in what Bertola et al. referred to as the "Central clade" of the Northern lion group: https://media.nature.com/original/nature-assets/srep/2016/160804/srep30807/extref/srep30807-s1.pdf

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*This image is copyright of its original author

To put it simply, even though Nechisar is geographically closer to the Northern subspecies' territory in Central Africa, lions in Nechisar are apparently Southern lions, and even though Bale is closer to the Southern subspecies' territory in East Africa, Bale lions are apparently Northern lions, which is why the maps provided be Bertola et al. and the Cat Specialist Group depict Ethiopia as where the ranges of the Northern and Southern subspecies overlap: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4973251/, https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/32616/A_revised_Felidae_Taxonomy_CatNews.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y#page=71

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That famous lion in Bale Mountains National Park, apparently of the Northern subspecies (P. l. leo): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/02/black-mane-ethiopian-lions-video-endangered-species/

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Lion in Nechisar National Park, apparently of the Southern subspecies (P. l. melanochaita): 

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[Lycaon]

Michael Lorentz 

Lions in the mud... in one week in Zakouma we saw 55 different West African lions - and most on numerous occasions!

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[BorneanTiger]

(08-06-2019, 11:22 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:

(01-24-2019, 06:38 PM)Sanju Wrote:

(01-24-2019, 06:35 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:

(01-24-2019, 06:13 PM)Sanju Wrote: Panthera leo leo Population is known or referred as "Northern Lion". My suggestion is to alter this thread name to that. IMO @BorneanTiger  

Actually, a problem that I've highlighted earlier is that Southern lions (Panthera leo melanochaita) are also present in North-East or Central Africa, and that's why we have this thread, to make it clear that there are issues with the Cat Specialist Group's classification of lions in Central Africa as Panthera leo leo and those in East Africa (which includes Ethiopia) as Panthera leo melanochaita, and that's why there's a question mark on the map of lion subspecies in Page 72: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y

*This image is copyright of its original author

Yes, there is a considerable hybridization b/w melonochaita and leo in that zone.

It's not necessarily the case that they found mixed up lions, it's to do with where geneticists found Northern (P. l. leo) and Southern lions (P. l. melanochaita) in Ethiopia or Northeast Africa. Firstly, let's start with the genetic study that made the captive Ethiopian lions at Addis Abeba Zoo famous, that of Bruche et al. Ethiopia is in East Africa, so it was expected that these lions would be closely related to wild East African lions in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti ecosystem. However, the Addis Abeba lions (Haplotype 6) were found to be genetically distinct from other East African lions (including those at Ngorongoro and Serengeti, and Haplotypes 8 and 10, which included lions in Uganda, Somalia and Tsave East National Park in Kenya) besides the Asiatic (Haplotypes 1 and 2) and Southern African lions (Haplotypes 10–15, including those at Kruger National Park in South Africa, and Etosha National Park in Namibia), and captive Yemeni lions at Sana'a Zoo (which were thought to be of Ethiopian origin, Haplotype 9), and genetically close to wild Central African lions (Haplotypes 4 and 5) in Chad (particularly in Zakouma National Park) and Cameroon (particularly Bénoué and Waza National Parks), among others (including apparently those impure Barbary lions at Rabat Zoo which have Central, Western or Northeast African descent), despite being termed "genetically unique". The Addis Ababa lions also showed little signs of inbreeding compared to wild populations: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10344-012-0668-5





 
This image of an Addis Ababa lion is in the article by Bruche et al.: https://grist.org/article/a-new-species-of-lion-has-been-discovered-in-an-ethiopian-zoo/

*This image is copyright of its original author

Now take the case of wild lions in the national parks of Nechisar and Bale Mountains in southern Ethiopia. Nechisar is closer to the Central African country of South Sudan, where the Northern subspecies (P. l. leo) is supposed to be present, and Bale is closer to the East African country of Kenya, where the Southern subspecies (P. l. melanochaita) is supposed to be present: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nechisar+National+Park+HQ/@6.4277328,38.0536487,6z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x17babc96ec793a1b:0x35422b2c5ef1ddab!8m2!3d6.0259866!4d37.5679153



However, scat samples of lions in Nechisar (Numbers 52 and 53) were found to cluster with East African samples from Kenya and Somali in a single Haplotype (13), part of what Bertola et al. referred to as the "North-east clade" of the Southern lion group, whereas a scat sample from a lion in Bale (Number 54) was found to cluster with Central African samples from Chad, D. R. Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic in another Haplotype (9), in what Bertola et al. referred to as the "Central clade" of the Northern lion group: https://media.nature.com/original/nature-assets/srep/2016/160804/srep30807/extref/srep30807-s1.pdf

*This image is copyright of its original author

 
To put it simply, even though Nechisar is geographically closer to the Northern subspecies' territory in Central Africa, lions in Nechisar are apparently Southern lions, and even though Bale is closer to the Southern subspecies' territory in East Africa, Bale lions are apparently Northern lions, which is why the maps provided be Bertola et al. and the Cat Specialist Group depict Ethiopia as where the ranges of the Northern and Southern subspecies overlap: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4973251/, https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/32616/A_revised_Felidae_Taxonomy_CatNews.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y#page=71

*This image is copyright of its original author

That famous lion in Bale Mountains National Park, apparently of the Northern subspecies (P. l. leo): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/02/black-mane-ethiopian-lions-video-endangered-species/

*This image is copyright of its original author

 
Lion in Nechisar National Park, apparently of the Southern subspecies (P. l. melanochaita): 

Abyssinian lion (formerly Panthera leo abyssinica synonym Panthera leo roosevelti) at New York Zoological Gardens, 1914: https://archive.org/stream/annualreportn...6/mode/1up, http://www.zoologicodevallarta.com/Ficha...ma=Espanol, http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ethiop...h_999.html, https://books.google.com/books?id=nfitAw...ca&f=false, https://archive.org/stream/smithsonianmi...3/mode/2up, http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/biol...d=14000235, https://web.archive.org/web/201707281311...ra_leo.pdf 

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