Lion Habitat

The map above shows the places, where, and dates, when, the lion was extirpated (destroyed completely) from the southern Eurasian region. For example, in Greece the last lion roamed that ancient country until AD 100 and was made extinct there by sport hunting (probably). And in Turkey, Greece's neighbor, the lion had been extirpated by about the late 19th century (the late 1800s), and so on. It is interesting to note that the last lion was seen in Iran as recently as 1941. Iran still has a wild cheetah, surprisingly. But this very special cheetah is all but extinct (see Iranian Cheetah).


The Asiatic Lion

IUCN Red List® status for Asiatic lion; critically endangered

In India the Asiatic lion's existence in the wild hangs on by a thread. This wild cat is now protected and living in one particular area, the The Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in the state of Gujarat, India.

At one time they roamed freely over a wide area covering most of Southwest Asia and in particular including the Caucasus, Yemen and from Macedonia in Greece and to India and through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and thence to Bangladesh. The Asiatic lion has also been called the Persian lion and Indian lion. With a huge erosion of lion habitat comes the threat of extinction and this wild cat is now considered Critically Endangered (CR) by the IUCN Red List®. See IUCN Red List for Cats.


Here is a map showing where the Gir Forest National Park is. In terms of square miles Iit is a very small area relative the African lion's range and indeed the Asiatic lion's previous range as mentioned above.

As can be seen the area is large but it is shrinking due to human population growth and consequential activity. People, farmers, see the lion as a threat to their business and try and kill it. As there gradually are more farmers with more land there is a greater chance of an encounter between human and lion with the consequences that that brings. Lion populations have, unsurprisingly, fallen dramatically from over 100,000 to around 23,000 over the past century. However, in the protected areas the lion populations are not falling, as I understand it. The only way to protect the lion is for people to stop reproducing (!?) and to learn to co-exist with wild animals.

The chart below shows past and projected human population growth, the only threat to lion habitat.

So what is the lion habitat like on the ground? Here is a photographic montage:



African lion habitat - photos: background photo is by pegash. I chose this for the background as it shows the kind of landscape well. The lion cub on the rock is by Susan Renee. The lion cub is in a lion reserve in Zimbabwe, Africa. The lion on the left was taken by sausyn at Kirkman's Kamp, Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa. Apologies to the photographers for the image quality. It is all about file size as you will realize.