Cape lion
Template:Short description Template:Population taxobox
The Cape lion was a lion Panthera leo melanochaita population in South Africa's Natal and Cape Provinces that has been locally extinct since the mid-19th century.<ref name=Mazak1975>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=iucn>Template:Cite iucn</ref> The type specimen originated at the Cape of Good Hope and was described in 1842.<ref name=Jardine1842>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Cape lion was once considered a distinct lion subspecies.<ref name=MSW3>Template:MSW3 Carnivora</ref><ref name=CAP>Template:Cite book</ref> However, phylogeographic analysis has shown that lion populations in Southern and East Africa are closely related.<ref name=Yamaguchi2000>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Barnett2006>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2017, the subspecies Panthera leo melanochaita was recircumscribed to include all lion populations in Southern and East Africa.<ref name=catsg>Template:Cite journal</ref> Genetic analysis published in 2023 suggests that Cape lions were not particularly distinctive from other Southern African lion populations.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref>
TaxonomyEdit
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Felis (Leo) melanochaita was a black-maned lion specimen from the Cape of Good Hope that was described by Ch. H. Smith in 1842.<ref name=Jardine1842/><ref name=MSW3/> In the 19th century, naturalists and hunters recognised it as a distinct subspecies because of this dark mane colour.<ref name=Mazak1975/> In the 20th century, some authors supported this view of the Cape lion being a distinct subspecies.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Vratislav Mazák hypothesized that it evolved geographically isolated from other populations by the Great Escarpment.<ref name=Mazak1975/>
This theory was questioned in the early 21st century. Genetic exchanges between lion populations in the Cape, Kalahari and Transvaal regions, and farther east are considered having been possible through a corridor between the escarpment and the Indian Ocean.<ref name=Yamaguchi2000/> Results of phylogeographic studies support this notion of lions in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa being genetically close.<ref name=Antunes2008>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Bertola2011>Template:Cite journal</ref> Based on the analysis of 357 lion samples from 10 countries, it is thought that lions migrated from Southern to East Africa during the Pleistocene and Holocene.<ref name=Antunes2008/> Analysis of 194 lion samples from 22 countries suggest that populations in Southern and East Africa are distinct from populations in West and North Africa and Asia.<ref name=Bertola2011/> In 2017, lion populations in Southern and East Africa were subsumed under P. l. melanochaita.<ref name=catsg/>
Zoological specimensEdit
A few natural history museums keep Cape lion specimens in their collections:
- the Transvaal Museum has a female Cape lion skull;<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- the Naturalis Biodiversity Center has a mounted specimen and two Cape lion skulls;<ref name=Mazak1960>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- the Natural History Museum, London and the Paris Museum of Natural History each have a mounted Cape lion;<ref name=Mazak1960/>
- the Swedish Museum of Natural History has a Cape lion skull, and the Zoological Museum Amsterdam a mounted specimen.<ref name=Mazak1975/>
- Clifton Park Museum in Rotherham has a stuffed Cape lion.Template:Citation needed
- the African Museum of Dr. Emil Holub in Holice, Czech Republic has a two-year-old stuffed specimen, bought as a small cub in 1876. It was identified as a Cape lion in 2009.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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CharacteristicsEdit
The type specimen of the Cape lion was described as very large with black-edged ears and a black mane extending beyond the shoulders and under the belly.<ref name=Jardine1842/> Skulls of two lion specimen in the British Natural History Museum from the Orange River basin were described as a little shorter in the occipital regions than other lions in South Africa and with a tendency to develop the second lower premolar.<ref name=Mazak1975/>
American zoologist Edmund Heller described the Cape lion's skull as longer than those of equatorial lions, by at least Template:Convert on average, despite being comparatively narrow. He considered the Cape lion to have been 'distinctly' bigger than other lions in Africa.<ref name=Heller>Heller, E. (1913). New races of carnivores and baboons from equatorial Africa and Abyssinia Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 61(19): 1–12.</ref> Lions approaching Template:Convert were shot south of the Vaal River.<ref name=Pease1913>Pease, A. E. (1913). The Book of the Lion John Murray, London.</ref> 19th century authors claimed that the Cape lion was bigger than the Asiatic lion.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Results of a long-term study indicate that the colour of lion manes is influenced by climatic variables and varies between individuals. Manes are darker and longer in cool seasons,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> with a 2023 study finding that the colour of Cape lion manes exhibited the same dark-light colour variation found in other lions and that mane colour was not a distinctive characteristic of this population.<ref name=":0" />
Distribution and habitatEdit
In the early 19th century, lions still occurred in the Karoo plains and in the Northern Cape. In 1844, lions were sighted south of the Riet River. The last lions south of the Orange River were sighted between 1850 and 1858. In the northern Orange Free State, lions may have survived into the 1860s.<ref name=Mazak1975/>
In 2003, six lions from Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park were relocated to Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape Province.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In captivityEdit
In 2000, specimens asserted to be descendants of the Cape lion were found in captivity in Russia, and two of them were brought to South Africa. South African zoo director John Spence reportedly was long fascinated by stories of these grand lions scaling the walls of Jan van Riebeeck's Fort de Goede Hoop in the 17th century. He studied van Riebeeck's journals to discern the Cape lion's features, which included a long black mane, black in their ears, and reportedly a larger size. He believed that some Cape lions might have been taken to Europe and interbred with other lions. His 30-year search led to his discovery of black-maned lions with features of the Cape lion at the Novosibirsk Zoo in Siberia, in 2000.<ref name=BBC>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="sibzoo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Besides having a black mane, the specimen that attracted Spence had a "wide face and sturdy legs". Novosibirsk Zoo's population, which had 40 cubs over a 30-year period, continues, and Spence, aided by the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, was allowed to bring two cubs back to Tygerberg Zoo. Back in South Africa, Spence explained that he hoped to breed lions that at least looked like Cape lions, and to have DNA testing done to establish whether or not the cubs were descendants of the original Cape lion.<ref name="aparchive">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} (with 2-minute video of cubs at zoo with John Spence, 3 sound-bites, and 15 photos)</ref> However, Spence died in 2010 and the zoo closed in 2012, with the lions expected to go to Drakenstein Lion Park.<ref name="lostzoo">Template:Cite news</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Asiatic lion
- Barbary lion
- Wild cats in Africa: African leopard Template:· African golden cat Template:· Caracal Template:· Serval Template:· African wildcat Template:· Sand cat Template:· Cheetah Template:· Black-footed cat
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Cat Specialist Group: African lion
- The Cape Lions of the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany
- The Cape lions from the Kalahari in Museum Wiesbaden
- South Africa: Lion cubs thought to be Cape lions
- Ansichtskarte / Postkarte Antwerpen Anvers Flandern, Jardin Zoologique, Lion du Cap in Antwerp (Antwerpen)
- Cape lion at Hagenbeck Zoo