Азия және Африкалық арыстандарының түрлері

Lion subspecies
Subspeciesbox
| name = Panthera leo leo
| image = Lionss of king. jpg
| image caption = Asiatic lions in Gir Forest National Park
| genus = Panthera
| species = leo
| species link = Lion
| subspecies = leo
| authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)
| synonyms = * P. l. gambianus
P. l. persica
P. l. senegalensis
P. l. nubicus
P. l. kamptzi
P. l. azandica
| synonyms ref = In West and Central Africa it is restricted to fragmented and isolated populations with a declining trajectory. It has been referred to as the northern lion. Results of a phylogeographic study indicate that lion populations in West and Central African range countries are genetically close to populations in India, forming a major clade distinct from lion populations in Southern and East Africa. 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. The West African lion population is geographically isolated and numbers fewer than 250 mature individuals. It is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.

The lion's fur varies in colour from light buff to dark brown. It has rounded ears and a black tail tuft. Average head to body length of male lions is with a weight of Females are smaller and less heavy. Zoological lion specimens range in colour from light to dark tawny. Male skins have short manes, light manes, dark manes or long manes. Taxonomists recognised that neither skin nor mane colour and length of lions can be adduced as distinct subspecific characteristics. Then they turned to measuring and comparing lion skulls and found that skull length of Barbary and Indian lion samples does not differ significantly, ranging from in females and in males.

Today, P. l. leo occurs in West and Central Africa and India. Contemporary lion distribution and habitat quality in savannahs of West and Central Africa was assessed in 2005, and Lion Conservation Units (LCU) mapped.

Male Asiatic lions are solitary or associate with up to three males forming a loose pride. Pairs of males rest, hunt and feed together, and display marking behaviour at the same sites. Females associate with up to 12 females forming a stronger pride together with their cubs. They share large carcasses among each other, but seldom with males. Female and male lions usually associate only for a few days when mating, but rarely travel and feed together. In Pendjari National Park, groups of lions range from 1–8 individuals. Outside the National Park, groups are smaller and with a single male. In Waza National Park, three female and two male lions were radio collared in 1999 and tracked until 2001. The females moved in home ranges of between and stayed inside the park during most of the survey period. The males used home ranges of between , both inside and outside the park, where they repeatedly killed livestock. One was killed and the other shot at by local people. After the pellets were removed, he recovered and shifted his home range to inside the park, and was not observed killing livestock any more.

In general, lions prefer large prey species within a weight range of They hunt large ungulates in the range of including 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), zebra (Equus quagga), bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus), common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), hartebeest (Alcephalus buselaphus), common tsessebe (Damaliscus lunatus), Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii), waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) and kob (K. kob). Analysis of 119 faecal samples of lions collected in Cameroon's Faro National Park revealed that lions preyed foremost on kob and harnessed bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus), and to a lesser extent also on waterbuck, crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata), bushpig, roan antelope, olive baboon (Papio anubis) and oribi (Ourebia ourebi). In India's Gir Forest National Park, lions predominantly kill chital (Axis axis), Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), cattle (Bos taurus), domestic buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and less frequently also wild boar (Sus scrofa). Outside the protected area where wild prey species do not occur, lions prey on buffalo and cattle, rarely also on Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius). They kill most prey less than away from water bodies, charge prey from close range and drag carcasses into dense cover. Lions probably prey on livestock when wild prey species occur at lower densities, especially during the wet season. An interview survey among livestock owners in six villages in Waza National Park's vicinity revealed that lions attack cattle mostly during the rainy season when wild prey disperses away from artificial waterholes.

In Africa, lions are killed pre emptively or in retaliation for preying on livestock. Populations are also threatened by depletion of prey base, loss and conversion of habitat. In Nigeria, the isolated lion population in Gashaka Gumti National Park is hunted and poisoned by local people. The lion population in Central Africa is threatened by loss of habitat and prey base and trophy hunting. Between seven and 12 lion trophies were exported from Cameroon every year between 1985 and 2010. Local people living in the vicinity of the protected area accounted in interviews that lions frequently attack livestock during the dry season. They use poison on carcasses to kill carnivores. In Waza National Park, two of four radio collared lions were killed between 2007 and 2008, and probably also an adult female, two other adult males and three cubs. Nomadic herders use bow and arrows poisoned with cobra venom to kill lions in retaliation for attacks on livestock. Local people around Chebera Churchura National Park kill lions, leopards (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) using traps to retaliate against attacks on their livestock. Surveys in the Central African Republic's Chinko area revealed that the number of lions decreased significantly between 2012 and 2017 after transhumant pastoralists from the border area with Sudan moved into the area. Rangers found multiple lion cadavers and confiscated large amounts of poison in the camps of livestock herders. They were accompanied by armed merchants who also engaged in poaching large herbivores, sale of bushmeat and trading lion skins. African lions are included in CITES Appendix II. In 2006, a Lion Conservation Strategy for West and Central Africa was developed in cooperation between IUCN regional offices and several wildlife conservation organisations. The strategy envisages to maintain sufficient habitat, ensure a sufficient wild prey base, make lion human coexistence sustainable and reduce factors that lead to further fragmentation of populations. The effect of lion trophy hunting and whether it is a sustainable conservation measure, has been discussed controversially. In 2016, a group of authors recommended a quota for lion trophy hunting of one lion per in the WAP protected area complex, and to refrain from imposing an import embargo of lion trophies from this region. This recommendation was questioned and strongly opposed, with the argument that the estimate for lion population size in the WAP region is not reliable and therefore the suggested quota inappropriate.

In 2006, 1258 captive lions were registered in the International Species Information System, including 13 individuals originating from Senegal to Cameroon, 115 from India and 970 with uncertain origin. Genetic research did not corroborate this result, but placed these lions in P. l. melanochaita.