Asiatic Lion
Panthera leo persica
🦁
Chordata
Mammalia
Carnivora
Feloidea
Felidae
Panthera
Panthera leo persica
The Lion of the Sands — Panthera leo persica, the Asiatic lion, once reigned from the Mediterranean to the Ganges. A shadow of its former empire survives today in a single Indian refuge — the Gir Forest — where the last echoes of an ancient roar still roll through the acacia.
Description
The Asiatic lion once roamed a vast range — from Greece and the Middle East to India. It is a distinct subspecies of the lion, characterized by a shorter, darker mane, a longitudinal abdominal fold of skin, and a slightly narrower skull than its African relatives. These adaptations suit a warmer, drier climate where shade and endurance matter more than sheer bulk.
Modern P. l. persica inhabit the Gir Forest of Gujarat, India — the only wild population left, descended from fewer than 20 individuals in the early 1900s. They live in semi-deciduous dry forest and thorn scrub, preying on deer, nilgai, and wild boar.
Historically, they shared their world with tigers, cheetahs, and humans, dominating the arid plains and hunting grounds of ancient empires. Fossil evidence places them in the Near East as far back as the Late Pleistocene.
Quick Facts
Max Mass
Shoulder Height
Standing Height
Length
Diet
Trophic Level
200
1.2
1.8
2.5
kg
m
m
m
Hypercarnivore
Obligate Proteivore
Hunt History
From antiquity to modernity, the Asiatic lion was both royal quarry and royal emblem. Mesopotamian and Persian kings hunted them in ceremonial chases, their conquests immortalized on reliefs at Nineveh and Persepolis. By the 19th century, trophy hunting by British officers and Indian nobility nearly eradicated the species.
Archaeological and historical contexts:
Nineveh, Mesopotamia (Iraq) — Lion hunt reliefs of King Ashurbanipal (~650 BCE) depicting P. l. persica in royal hunts.
Persepolis, Iran — Stone carvings showing lions attacking bulls, symbolic of the balance between power and nature (~500 BCE).
Saurashtra, India — Historical accounts of Mughal and colonial hunting expeditions (~1600–1900 CE).
Time & Range
Extinction Status
Regionally Extinct
Extinction Date
Temporal Range
Region
10000
BP
Late Pleistocene
Asia
Wiki Link
Fat Analysis
Fatness Profile:
Low
Fat %
3
Est. Renderable Fat
6
kg
Targeted Organs
Marrow, brain (low overall fat)
Adipose Depots
Minimal subcutaneous; marrow/brain
Preferred Cuts
Marrow
Hunt Difficulty (x/5)
4