I hope that’s the case. Northern Africa is a big place. Maybe there are still some lions living there.

Once I saw a picture of them, it really struck me that these are very much like the many 19th century (and earlier) depictions of lions. Hope they find homes.

I’ll be in Morocco in April, I’ll have to keep my eye out for any still hanging about. Perhaps they are like the jaguars in Arizona and still hanging around.

Lions, like wolves, can indeed live in a lot of places. The central Alaskan “refugium” (ice-free area) during the Pleistocene had lions closely corresponding to the existing species (although bigger).

I was at the National Zoo in Washington on Presidents Day. The lion (I actually think it might be an Atlas lion; at least I know the Zoo once had them) was outside, alternating bouts of roaring with lounging about in the sun. It was not a warm day.

The big cats in general don’t seem to have problems with cold. The Sumatran tiger was out that day, too. The cheetahs seem particularly active after it snows.

I use to live in Ypsi, & went to the Detroit Zoo a lot. Another zoo in Michigan that I liked very much is the John Ball Park Zoo in Grand Rapids. I went there many times when I was a child, living in western Michigan.

I have not been back to Detroit for several years. One time I drove all the way from Pike County, KY to Detroit, just to go to the zoo… stayed for feeding time in the lion house, then turned around and drove home . That was when they still had indoor viewing for the big cat facility, with big old-fashioned barred cages on either side of a main aisle. You could not hear yourself think in there during feeding time! I suppose it was rather unsafe & that’s why they have taken that area off-exhibit. But it was really something to be enclosed in that big room, with roars echoing off the walls and big cats leaping around their cages.

True Barbary lions should not have much problem adjusting to the climate of Detroit. I have a friend who is from Morocco who tells me that it can get very cold in the Atlas Mountains. Lions are very adaptable and cold-climate zoos don’t have much difficulty housing lions.

Interesting bit of news.

Barbary lions are almost certainly the primary subspecies of lion that was used in Roman arenas. Some spectacles “used” (read: killed) hundreds in a single event. No wonder they went extinct in the wild!

Maybe they were just unlucky?