Lions once roamed from Arabia to central India; now wild ones survive only in Gujarat
Until the 19th century, lions prowled from Saudi Arabia and eastern Turkey across Iran and Mesopotamia to central India. Today every wild Asiatic lion lives in and around Gujarat's Gir forest. From a low of 411 animals in 2010, the population climbed to an estimated 891 by 2025.
The first scientific description, published by Johann Meyer in 1826, was based on a lion skin from Persia, and a flurry of names followed, including one for a so-called Bengal lion kept in the Tower of London menagerie. In 2017 taxonomists folded the Asiatic lion into Panthera leo leo, alongside North African lions, because of close physical and genetic similarities, though some scientists still use the older name persica. Asiatic lions are genetically nearer to North and West African lions than to East and Southern African ones, the two groups probably separating around 186,000 to 128,000 years ago.
Adult males reach about 120 cm at the shoulder and average 160 kg, similar to Central African lions and slightly smaller than the biggest African ones. Their manes are short and sparse, so the ears always show. The most striking feature is a fold of skin running lengthwise along the belly, and about half the skulls from Gir have a split opening below the eye socket, which African lions lack. Low genetic diversity probably reflects a founder effect in the small surviving population.
Males tend to live alone or in coalitions of up to three, meeting females mainly to mate, while females raise cubs in larger prides. In Gir the lions are mostly nocturnal and hunt big prey such as chital, sambar and nilgai, along with livestock, sometimes taking wild boar or mugger crocodiles near water.
Conservation began in earnest in 1965, when 1,412.1 km2 of Gir was declared a sanctuary; a smaller national park inside it bars human activity, and only the herding Maldhari people may graze livestock in the wider sanctuary. As numbers rose, young lions dispersed to satellite areas, and by 2010 about a quarter lived outside the Gir forest, bringing more contact with local residents. The animal remains classed as endangered.
Source: Asiatic lion
