Barbary Lions Once Inhabited Northern Africa’s Mountains And Deserts, But The Spread Of Firearms And Bounties For Shooting Lions Led To The Extinction Of This Species
In 1922, the very last wild Barbary lion was killed by a French hunter in Morocco. Barbary lions were a population of the lion subspecies Panthera leo leo.
They once inhabited the mountains and deserts of northern Africa, from Morocco to Egypt. They became extinct after the spread of firearms and bounties for shooting lions.
Barbary lions were widely revered for their impressive size and dark-haired manes. They were kept by royal families in northern Africa, but the Romans also loved them just as much.
They had the lions fight in the Coliseum with gladiators, displayed them in zoos and parks, and even housed them at the Tower of London for a brief period.
However, that all led to the complete eradication of the species. The Romans slaughtered thousands of lions during their gladiator battles.
After the Romans, the Arab empire forced the animals into a smaller habitat range. In the 19th century, the arrival of European hunters finally killed off the remaining lions.
Between 1901 and 1910, not a single Barbary lion was spotted. By the 1920s, scientists believed they were extinct.
But, according to a new study published in PLOS One, Barbary lions may have stayed alive and hidden from humans in the wilderness of Algeria and Morocco for several decades, possibly even as late as 1965.
Researchers from the Durrell Institute for Conservation and Ecology in England and the National Agency for Nature Conservation in Algiers examined accounts of lion sightings in the years after they were said to be extinct.
Erni – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual lion
They found reports dated after 1922 from dozens of people who claimed to have seen the lions. The researchers interviewed older people from remote Algerian communities. Some recalled childhood sightings, while others recounted stories they heard from their parents or family members.
With this information in mind, they reviewed statistical models and calculated when the Barbary lion most likely went extinct after its final observation. They concluded that the Barbary lion died out in Morocco in 1948 and went extinct in Algeria 10 years later.
The last sighting could be traced back to 1956 in a forested region in Algeria. Several people on a bus saw a lion north of the town of Sétif. The forest was destroyed during the French-Algerian War in 1958, so the lions might’ve disappeared around then.
Barbary lions are gone from the wild, but several zoos claim to have some in their collections. It is unlikely that any real Barbary lions are left in the world.
These so-called Barbary lions living in captivity are mostly just hybrids with lions from sub-Saharan Africa. A few big cats may be of Barbary descent, but more tests are needed to prove their genetic purity.
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