In Gujurat State in India there is a small population of Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica), the only lion population outside of Africa!

When we hear about lions we immediately think of the great savannahs of Africa, but in contrast to what many people think lions are also found outside of the African continent. This subspecies of lion is called the Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), but are also called Indian or Persian lions depending on where you are located.

The Asiatic lions are a subspecies of the lion that once used to roam large areas of Asia. A few hundred years ago these lions could be found in the Middle-East in places like Turkey, Pakistan or Iran, and in most of South-West Asia. It is genetically and morphologically pretty much the same as the sub-Saharan subpopulation of lions, but has a few differences in its morphology such as a fold of skin along its belly. It is also a little bit smaller, but males can still have a weight of almost 200kg, so they’re far from small.

A male Asiatic lion. Image by Wikimedia user Rufus46, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The Asiatic lions today

If you read the title of the post, then you know that we no longer have them all over Asia and the Middle East, and instead the Asiatic lions are confined to an area in Gujurat State in India. The lions exist as a single population here, with roughly 175 grown individuals, and an additional 175 cubs. These low numbers are of course a great concern for conservationists, and the IUCN has already defined the subspecies as being “Endangered”.

The Gujurat State houses a national park called the Gir Forest protected area, which most of the lions live inside or close to. However, about 100 of the animals live outside the park, and these are facing the threat of poaching by illegal hunters. According to the IUCN there are some poacher gangs that are focusing on these lions, yet it does not prove a very big threat to the population at this point. The lions are of course legally protected in India, and you could potentially face lots of trouble if you get caught poaching them-

Like most of the other large predators the Asiatic lion steadily lost its habitat due to humans using it, as well as getting hunted. They have slowly been decreasing in numbers for the last 200 years, but they are luckily somewhat stable at the moment.

Let’s save the Asiatic lion!

Let’s turn to some of the good news. There are many conservation efforts in place to take care of this unique subspecies of lion, such as the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project. This project is lead by the Indian government, and aims to both protect the population in Gir Forest, but also create a new population in the state Madhya Predesh. Sadly there have been some internal conflict in the different parts of India regarding this project, but hopefully it will be able to continue once the conflict has settled down.

Some wildlife groups really want to reintroduce the Asian lion to Iran, where it once used to be widely distributed, as well as acting as a national symbol. Despite their wishes, a recent scientific study concluded that none of the protected areas in Iran are suited to accommodate the Asian lion at this point. This paper is a very nice read by the way. Anyway, Iran really seem to want to get this lion back into their country, and if this happens in the future, then it would be great news for the subspecies. Once they're in two different places, then it's easier for conservationists to plan and execute projects to get them to even more places later.

These large-scale reintroduction programs might not be happening for a while, but many groups are also working on conserving the lions in the Gir protected area, such as WWF India. They have been working alongside locals to barricade 180 wells that have previously lead to the drowning of the lions, which most likely saved lots of lions from a terrible fate.

Thanks for reading!

If you want to learn more about the Asiatic lion you can check out some websites such as the IUCN’s page about the lions. They have some great information regarding their conservation status, along with citation to reports about this information. If you want to learn more about the conflict of the reintroduction project in India, then the Wikipedia article is actually very good. Also check out the links I posted above, they all have more information for those of you that are interested!

About the author

Hi, I’m @valth! I live in Norway with my wife, our baby, and our two dogs; one of which is seen wearing a bow tie in the profile picture!

I am very passionate about nature and biology, and have been studying ecology for a few years now. My passions are mostly within conservation biology, mycology (the studies of mushrooms), botany, animal behavior and general microbiology. I really enjoy both the theoretical aspect, as well as the more practical aspect of biology, and I spend about as much time in front of biology textbooks as I do spend on finding and identifying plant, mushroom and animal species in the forests.