Distribution and habitat
Current geographical distribution of the lion in Africa
Formerly, the lion must have had geographical distribution over the spread of all land mammals. The American lion (Panthera leo atrox) was present from Peru to Alaska throughout the late Pleistocene, while cousins occupied Siberia and Central Europe, and others were divided between India and South Africa. The extent of the distribution, however, loses its importance at the end of the ice age.
The distribution of the lion in historical times, more limited, however, was important. It covered large parts of Africa, but also Southern Europe and the Middle East and India. To antiquity, lions were still living in the Balkans, Southern Europe (Panthera leo europaea) and in Anatolia and the Middle East, and many authors who were contemporaries make their report (Herodotus Aristotle or Bible, among others). It is assumed that in Europe, the lion has disappeared because of the man in the first century AD. JC.
Today, its circulation is largely confined to sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, the extreme southern Africa has more lions since the 1860s, when the extinction of the Cape lion (Panthera leo melanochaita). In North Africa, the Atlas lion (Panthera leo leo) died in the 1920s. And in the same way, the populations of Asian lions (Panthera leo persica) have almost fully disappeared in the twentieth century. A last group of survivors, however, has taken refuge in the National Park Gir Forest in Gujarat, India where there remain some 300 specimens. Significant populations of African lions are located in national parks of Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa are rare outside protected areas. Classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the lion is at risk of extinction.
The lions have a great capacity to adapt and many different habitats. The preferred habitat of the lion is the savanna, but it is also found in dry forests and semi-deserts. We do, however, never found in the dense rainforests and arid deserts. Therefore, the species naturally lacking in the Central African rainforest and driest deserts of North Africa and the Middle East.
|
Post a Comment