Barbary Lion

A lone Barbary lion roamed the vast savannah, his paws sinking into the warm earth with each heavy step. He had never seen another like himself—no other like him—while he wandered his wild lands, so he could get hungry.

Around the beginning of the 18th century, the Barbary lion became almost extinct in North Africa, remaining only in a small habitat in the northwest. The main reasons for the population decline were:

1. hunting, including a targeted policy of extermination

2. the proliferation of firearms

3. destruction of natural habitat.

Prey primarily consisted of deer, wild boar, and a local subspecies of hartebeest. In the absence of large herbivores, lions might hunt smaller prey such as birds, jerboas, fish, and rodents.

In historical times, the Barbary lion was found throughout Africa north of the Sahara. It inhabited not only semi-deserts and steppes, but also forests and the Atlas Mountains.