Showing posts with label SOUTHERN LION (MALE) (Panthera leo ssp. melanochaita). Show all posts
Showing posts with label SOUTHERN LION (MALE) (Panthera leo ssp. melanochaita). Show all posts
Sunday, 9 January 2022
Saturday, 27 November 2021
Saturday, 6 November 2021
Tuesday, 5 October 2021
Tuesday, 18 May 2021
Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Saturday, 6 July 2019
Thursday, 7 June 2018
16-4-2018 CHOBE NATIONAL PARK, BOTSWANA - SOUTHERN LION (MALE) (Panthera leo ssp. melanochaita)) COURTESY OF MRS VALERIE FISHER
Panthera leo melanochaita is a lion subspecies in Southern and East Africa. In this part of Africa, lion populations are regionally extinct in Lesotho, Djibouti and Eritrea, and are threatened by loss of habitat and prey base, killing by local people in retaliation for loss of livestock, and in several countries also by trophy hunting. Since the turn of the 21st century, lion populations in intensively managed protected areas in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe have increased, but declined in East African range countries. In 2005, a Lion Conservation Strategy was developed for East and Southern Africa.
Results of a phylogeographic study indicate that lion populations in southern and eastern Africa form a major clade distinct from lion populations in West Africa, Central Africa and Asia. In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group subsumed lion populations according to the major clades into two subspecies, namely P. l. leo and P. l. melanochaita. Within P. l. melanochaita three subclades are clearly distinguishable. One from northeastern Africa, another one from southwestern Africa and a third one from southeastern Africa.
Lions usually hunt in groups and prey foremost on ungulates such as gemsbok (Oryx gazella), Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer), blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), common eland (Tragelaphus oryx), greater kudu (T. strepsiceros), nyala (T. angasii), roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus), sable antelope (H. niger), plains zebra (Equus quagga), bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus), common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), hartebeest (Alcephalus buselaphus), common tsessebe (Damaliscus lunatus), waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus), kob (K. kob) and Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii). Their prey is usually in the range of 190–550 kg (420–1,210 pounds).[89] In the Serengeti National Park, lions were observed to also scavenge on carrion of animals that were killed by other predators, or died from natural causes. They kept a constant lookout for circling vultures, apparently being aware that vultures indicate a dead animal. Faeces of lions collected near waterholes in Hwange National Park also contained remains of climbing mice (Dendromus) and common mice (Mus).
In Botswana's Chobe National Park, lions also prey on young and subadult African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana). They successfully attacked 74 elephants between 1993 and 1996, of which 26 were older than nine years, and one bull over 15 years old.[91] In October 2005, a pride of up to 30 lions killed eight African bush elephants that were between four and eleven years old.
Several cases of lion attacking people have been documented:
In the 1890s, two Tsavo Man-Eaters attacked workers during the building of the Uganda Railway. Their skulls and skins are part of the zoological collection of the Field Museum of Natural History. The total number of people killed is unclear, but allegedly 135 people fell victim to these lions in less than a year before Colonel Patterson killed them.
The Njombe lions were a lion pride in Njombe in former Tanganyika, which are thought to have preyed on 1,500 to 2,000 people. They were killed by George Gilman Rushby.
Between 1990 and 2004, lions killed more than 560 people in Tanzania, mostly during harvest season in crop fields and in areas where natural prey is scarce.
In February 2018, lions killed a suspected poacher near Kruger National Park.
In February 2018, Kevin Richardson took three lions for a walk at Dinokeng Game Reserve in South Africa. A lioness pursued an impala for at least 2 km (1.2 mi), and killed a young woman near her car.
In July 2018, human remains were found in the lion enclosure of a privately owned reserve in South Africa. They were suspected to have been rhino poachers, as they had a high-powered rifle with a silencer, an axe and wire cutters.
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