History of lions in Europe
| European Lion | |
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| Subspecies: | P. l. europaea
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| Trinomial name | |
| Panthera leo europaea | |
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P. leo tartarica (Serbia) | |
European lion (Panthera leo europaea or Panthera leo tartarica) could be an extinct subspecies of lion that inhabited southern Europe until historic times. This population is generally considered part of the Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), but others consider it a separate subspecies, the European lion (Panthera leo europaea). They also could possibly have been the last remnants of the cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea).
Two prehistoric lions lived in Europe, namely the Early Middle Pleistocene European cave lion, Panthera leo fossilis, and the Upper Pleistocene European cave lion, Panthera leo spelaea.[1]
Distribution
The European lion in historic times inhabited the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, Italy and Balkans south to northern Greece.[2] This was the northernmost of the subspecies of lion until its extinction. Its habitat was the Mediterranean and temperate forests of the area, with prey that included the wisent, elk, aurochs, deer and other European ungulates.
Extinction
Due to their remote extinction, little is known about these subspecies of lion. Lions feature heavily in Ancient Greek mythology and writings including myth of the Nemean Lion which was believed to be a supernatural lion which occupied the sacred town of Nemea in the Peloponese Aristotle and Herodotus wrote that lions were found in the Balkans in the middle of the first millennium BC. When Xerxes advanced through Macedon in 480 BC he encountered several lions.[3][4] Before 20 BC they became extinct from Italy and around the year 1 AD from Western Europe also.[5] Around the year 70 they were restricted to northern Greece, in the area between the rivers Aliakmon and Nestus. Finally, in the year 100 they became extinct in Eastern Europe too.[5] After that lions in the European continent became restricted to the Caucasus, where a population of the Asiatic lion survived until the 10th century.
The European Lion became extinct due to excessive hunting (lion hunting was popular among the Greeks and Romans), over-exploitation, and competition with feral dogs. Along with the Barbary lion and the Asiatic lion the European lion was used in the Roman arenas, where they fought against bestiarii, and animals like the Caspian tiger, the aurochs and bears. Due to geographical distribution they were more accessible to Romans than North African and Middle Eastern lions. As the European lion became increasingly rare, Romans began to import lions from North Africa and the Middle East to fight in the arenas. Further details about their extinction are unknown.
See also
References
- ^ J., Burger (2004). "Molecular phylogeny of the extinct cave lion Panthera leo spelaea". Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. (30): pp. 841–849.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help). Online pdf - ^ Template:Ru icon http://www.ecoinform.ru/public/release/?id=14682
- ^ Asiatic Lion Information Centre. 2001 Past and present distribution of the lion in North Africa and Southwest Asia. Downloaded 1 June 2006 from http://www.asiatic-lion.org/distrib.html
- ^ Guggisberg, C.A.W. (1961). Simba: the life of the lion. Cape Town: Howard Timmins..
- ^ a b Lion Coins