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| Sunday, 6 November 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Different Outlook
The Barbary Lion by Arefa Tehsin "Is there a Lion in you?" Lion, the biggest of cats, has always inspired awe and admiration in humans from childhood storybooks to adulthood beer brands. However, the ecstasy and the thrill of overcoming this magnanimous and powerful beast is unsurpassed.
This magnificent looking beast was singular in its build and was quite distinctive from other lions. Its body was half covered by its mane, which varied from shades of blonde, tawny grey, bright brown to blackish brown. The mane extended to the middle of the back. An average male weighed around 227 kg and measured around 10-11 ft from nose to tail. Its legs were short and it weighed around 50 percent more than the African Lion, which gave it a very burly appearance. The Barbary Lion did not fall into the two classifications of lions - Asian and African. Though it dwelled in Africa, it resembled the Asian lion more than the African lion. It is quite probable that this was the third sub-specie of lions and would have provided a link between Asian and African lions. Another distinctive feature was that it preferred to dwell in rugged mountainous woodlands, its last stronghold being the Middle and Great Atlas Mountains. Another interesting fact is that it was more or less a solitary dweller or was found living in pairs because of the mountainous terrain. This actual Lion King's extinction took place in phases. The first place to have this beast extinct was Tripoli in as early as 1700. Then it was Tunisia. The French settlements or should we say encroachments played a major role in the destruction of their habitat, also giving rise to scarcity of food. The Arab and French sportsmen had their parts to play as well. 1891 was the year that saw the last of this animal in Tunisia. In Algeria, before the French came, Thoks freed two lion hunting tribes - Ouled Meloul and Ouled Cessi - from taxes and paid generously to them for lion skins, resulting in the total annihilation of these lions by the year 1899. It was due to the delayed falling of the guillotine of human development on the Atlas Mountains of North Africa that they managed to survive till the early years of the twentieth century. In 1922, owing to the supply of firearms in the civil war and widely spreading forest brigands the Barbary Lion was erased forever from 'our' planet. Today some descendants in captivity, believed to be mixed breeds of Barbary and other lions, are being studied. Researches are being undertaken now to recreate the 'true' Barbary Lion by studying these few zoo animals. Man today has the power to destroy and recreate. Lets hope Mother Nature does not feel offended with us for doing her work. The movie Gladiator refreshed our memory of the Roman stadiums and Gladiatorial combats. These lions brought from Africa to Rome in hundreds and hundreds were none other than the imposing and grand Barbary Lions. David Day wrote, "In popular portrayals of the decadence of the Roman Empire, the most vivid scenario to come down to our time is the feeding of Christian martyrs to man-eating lions...In very real terms those lions of the arena were greater victims than the men they ate. Since that time, Christians have flourished; whereas the Barbary Lion is now extinct. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
This is the tale of the Barbary Lion (Panthera leo leo), the largest lion
sub-species ever to walk the earth, which has today become a folklore. This
awesome royal bloodline inhabited all of the jungles of North Africa from
Morocco to Egypt. 
