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The Congo Lion
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Great news.
The "wanderer" lion is still alive and passing through the forested area of the Bateke plateau. He must be feeding on small antelopes, and possibly some chimpanzee unaware of his presence. This national park is very poor of wild species. It is a great opportunity for Gabon to restore this species. Until the appearance of this specimen the Republic of Congo would no longer have lions. 
This animal was shot somewhere in Northeastern Congo (then Zaire)..
 *This image is copyright of its original author
Link: https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/...017-1039-2
There was a probability of being a captive lion! 20 years separate the last sightings of lions, and due to the distance between Bateke and Odzala / Kokoua it is possible that it is a lion from the area of Léfini Faunal Reserve. If this lion is still alive the reintroduction of lions of the Complex Benoué, Pendjari or Zakouma would retain its differentiated genetics, strengthening this new population. We must also recognize that any new population of lions relocated to live on the Bateke Plateau will constitute a single population (insular) and there is no practical means of genetically contaminating any populations of nearby lions. "A survivor who has found in the densely forested area a refuge, an adaptive behavior that has never before been witnessed. With a delay of three years, now definitely this specimen has an enormous conservation value" Although extremely unlikely, like him, there may be some ghosts in: Yankari, Digya, Comoé, Mole, Kankan .... 
Credits to Life Through A Lens Photography.
T R E E • B O U N D ____________________ There are several places in Africa where you might be lucky enough to see tree-climbing lions, most of them in East Africa: Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda has some of the best parks for this, primarily Ishasha (part of Queen Elizabeth NP, where they often climb fig trees) and Kidepo Valley, on the border to South Sudan. That’s where I found these two, chilling in a sausage trees. It’s not entirely understood why some lions climb trees and others don’t. It’s clearly a learned behaviour, which might actually suggest that there’s less of an underlying reason that we might be tempted to read into it. In other words, it could simply be that its comfortable and relaxing, and once a population of lions has discovered that it isn’t that difficult to make your way up an old fig tree... well, why not? But insofar as there IS a more direct reason, it’s been speculated that it’s either a way to get away from the heat, annoying insects, or both. Either way - it looks pretty comfortable to me.  *This image is copyright of its original author
Forward from (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-north-e...ican-lions), as per Bertola et al. (https://www.nature.com/articles/srep3080..._evolution), Congolese and Central African lions are divided into 2 genetic groups or subspecies, one of which includes the Asiatic and Barbary lions:
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author The "North group" or "Northern subspecies" is what the Cat Specialist Group refers to as "Panthera leo leo", whereas the "South Group" or "Southern subspecies" is what the CSG refers to as "Panthera leo melanochaita", Pages 71–73: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y *This image is copyright of its original author The Northern lion subspecies is the one that includes Barbary and Asiatic lions, whereas the Southern lion subspecies includes Cape and Kruger lions from South Africa. You may notice from the 1st and 4th maps that the northern and southern subspecies overlap in Ethiopia or Northeast Africa.  (01-26-2019, 01:53 PM)Charan Singh Wrote: Impressive young Lion specimen looks around 3-4 year old and size is massive. Not necessarily... This one could've been an prime adult. That kind of mane in normal for these lions. (01-04-2019, 11:03 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: As per Bertola et al. (https://www.nature.com/articles/srep3080..._evolution), Congolese and Central African lions are divided into 2 genetic groups or subspecies, one of which includes the Asiatic and Barbary lions: So "Congo lions" are the "Central African lions"is same thing right?... The lions recently seen in Gabon's jungle too? @Lycaon  *This image is copyright of its original author
(01-26-2019, 02:06 PM)Rishi Wrote:(01-26-2019, 01:53 PM)Charan Singh Wrote: Impressive young Lion specimen looks around 3-4 year old and size is massive. D. R. Congo is the largest country in Central Africa, and Africa itself since 2011, when South Sudan broke off from Sudan, which used to be the biggest African country by area, so all Congolese lions are Central African lions, but not vice-versa, in the same way that all Indian lions are Asiatic lions, but that not all Asiatic lions that ever existed (such as in Arabia and Iran) are Indian lions. Map of Central Africa, excluding South Sudan: https://lizardpoint.com/geography/africa...l-quiz.php  *This image is copyright of its original author
(01-26-2019, 05:23 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: D. R. Congo is the largest country in Central Africa, and Africa itself since 2011, when South Sudan broke off from Sudan, which used to be the biggest African country by area, so all Congolese lions are Central African lions, but not vice-versa, in the same way that all Indian lions are Asiatic lions, but that not all Asiatic lions that ever existed (such as in Arabia and Iran) are Indian lions. Thanks, but thats not what i'm asking. Not going into Northern & Southern Clades, Congo lion or Northeast Congo lion (Panthera leo azandica), also known as Uganda lion, is which one from the following map. The "North East" Population? *This image is copyright of its original author So, would that mean: 1. Ethiopian lions are mixture of Uganda/Congo lions & Central African ones? 2. The lion at Gabon was most definitely Central African & not Ugandan? 
I would assume the north east population would go from northern congo up to sudan
(01-26-2019, 06:03 PM)Rishi Wrote:(01-26-2019, 05:23 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: D. R. Congo is the largest country in Central Africa, and Africa itself since 2011, when South Sudan broke off from Sudan, which used to be the biggest African country by area, so all Congolese lions are Central African lions, but not vice-versa, in the same way that all Indian lions are Asiatic lions, but that not all Asiatic lions that ever existed (such as in Arabia and Iran) are Indian lions. For that, see the other diagrams by Bertola et al. (https://www.nature.com/articles/srep3080..._evolution), and even the map on Page 72 by the Cat Specialist Group (https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y) could help, as it is derived from the work of Bertola et al.: *This image is copyright of its original author *This image is copyright of its original author *This image is copyright of its original author Basically, the 'Northeast' clade depicted in the map by Bertola et al. is a clade of Southern lions (Panthera leo melanochaita) present in Kenya and Northeast Africa, where it overlaps with the 'Central' clade, which is a clade of Northern lions (Panthera leo leo) present in South Sudan, Cameroon, Chad and East Nigeria. So when I say that Ethiopian lions are mixed between these 2 clades, try to imagine them as being half-Kenyan (P. l. melanochaita) half-CAR (P. l. leo), as in Panthera leo leo × Panthera leo melanochaita, in the same way that ligers are Panthera leo × Panthera tigris. From top to bottom, Addis Abeba Zoo (https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2012...-is-found/), Bale Mountans' National Park (https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/an...video.aspx), and Nechisar National Park (https://travel.jumia.com/blog/greener-la...-park-4121):  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author Note that both the Addis Abeba (https://link.springer.com/article/10.100...012-0668-5) and Bale lions were found to be genetically similar to Northern lions in the Central African countries of Chad and Cameroon, whereas lions in Nechisar National Park grouped with Southern lions, and because of where Bale and Nechisar are found in Ethiopia, amongst other national parks, Bertola et al. came to the conclusion that the ranges of the Northern and Southern subspecies overlap here to form a zone of admixture: https://media.nature.com/original/nature...807-s1.pdf Nechisar National Park, which was determined to have Southern lions, is indicated with the red tag, whereas Bale Mountains' National Park, which was determined to have Northern lions, is named, and located to the east: https://www.google.com/maps/place/6°02'0...3333?hl=en As for the Gabonese lions in Batéké Plateau National Park (https://psmag.com/environment/the-forest-lion-of-gabon) and Franceville, and the closely-related lions from Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo (a.k.a. Congo-Brazzaville), as per Barnett et al. (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-north-e...5#pid66275), they are not members of what Bertola et al. would call the 'Central' clade of Northern lions, but they appear to be originally from Botswana or Namibia in Southern Africa, meaning that they are apparently descended from Southern African lions (Panthera leo melanochaita) that migrated to the Central African countries of Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville.  *This image is copyright of its original author Southern African lion in the Kalahari region, which is shared by Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, photo by Allison Buttigieg: http://www.alisonbuttigieg.com/border_galleries/lions/  *This image is copyright of its original author
Two males in Central africa republic.
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
https://www.inaturalist.org/people/mathiasdhaen
Really impressive Garamba lions  *This image is copyright of its original author
(11-01-2017, 09:20 PM)Rishi Wrote: This animal was shot somewhere in Northeastern Congo (then Zaire).. Actually it was the Belgian Congo when that photo was taken in 1912. After independence from Belgium, the dictator Mobutu renamed it Zaire in the 1970s and then when he was overthrown in the late 90s the name was changed to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mobutu (a brutal ruler) was brought into power by the Belgians with the help of the Americans - they conspired against Patrice Lumumba who was on his way to becoming the first leader of this newly independent country and probably would've gone on to be a good leader. But the Americans and their allies would rather have puppet rulers in these countries so they can basically just pay them off and take whatever resources they want. As a result the DR Congo has pretty much been a mess since, both for its people and its wildlife. This was probably one of the most spectacular game rich areas of Africa, right in the heart of the continent, but now its mostly poached out. Anyway, that photo shows an adult male lion killed in a place called Vankerekhovenville in north eastern DRC (near Garamba NP). This lion measured 286cm in total length and 183cm in head and body length. Its skull measured 375mm in greatest length and 245mm in zygomatic breadth. So a big, good sized lion. Information as well as that photo are from the paper, "Carnivora collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition" 1924 by JA Allen. (08-31-2019, 11:27 PM)chui_ Wrote:(11-01-2017, 09:20 PM)Rishi Wrote: This animal was shot somewhere in Northeastern Congo (then Zaire).. The political history of Congo-Kinshasa is more complicated than that. Lumumba as Congolese PM faced a revolt from secessionists from Katanga Province (from where Einar Lönnberg described the Katanga lion or Southwest African lion (Panthera leo bleyenberghi ) in 1914), so he appealed to the UN & USA for help, but they refused, and since he was a Communist, he then turned to the USA's arch-rival, the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or simply "Soviet Union", a now-defunct federation that included Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine, and was founded on the Communist ideology), and this was opposed not just by the Americans and Belgians, but also then-chief-of-staff Mobutu and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu, and so Mobutu apparently conspired with the Katangans and Belgians to eliminate him, and even then, it's not as simple as that. Lumumba as the Communist PM did have his own failings, and after imposing a state of emergency, a journalist who criticised the government got arrested, and there was a rebellion in South Kasai that he ordered troops under Mobutu to put down, but that led to a massacre of civilians in Luba, from what I see. |
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