Barbary lions North America

[TheAnimalKing]

Hello does anyone have information about Barbary lions in North America?

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

There are no barbary lions anywhere let alone North America, it is an extinct subspecies and is only extant in the dreams / pretentions and papers of academics and the claims of some zoos.

 

[TheAnimalKing]

There are no barbary lions anywhere let alone North America, it is an extinct subspecies and is only extant in the dreams / pretentions and papers of academics and the claims of some zoos.

why about the zoos claiming to have them

 

[TinoPup]

why about the zoos claiming to have them

It makes them sound rare/important. Barbary were also known for being fairly large.

 

[birdsandbats]

Many (but not all) of the animals claimed to be Barbary do have some Barbary Lion ancestry.

 

[carlos55]

I saw a pair of so called Barbary lions at Zacango zoo in Mexico last year. I have no idea where they came from. The male was a very large and impressive animal of which I have posted a photo on the gallery.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

why about the zoos claiming to have them

@TinoPup pretty much nailed it , it makes it sound far more exciting than a boring old African lion that every other zoo has.

From what I've read I think back in the early days zoos like the Aspinall parks did genuinely think that their stock were Barbary lions and this was to some extent due to how undeveloped mitochondrial DNA analysis was (though I'm sure some of it was also down to the eccentricity and wishful thinking of John Aspinall).

Nowadays I think it comes down to pretentiousness with zoos claiming barbary lions.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Many (but not all) of the animals claimed to be Barbary do have some Barbary Lion ancestry.

Yes, I agree that there are many that probably have Barbary lion ancestry / genes but that doesn't make them a Barbary lion in the same way that 20 % of modern humans having neanderthal ancestry / DNA doesn't mean that the neanderthal is not extinct.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I saw a pair of so called Barbary lions at Zacango zoo in Mexico last year. I have no idea where they came from. The male was a very large and impressive animal of which I have posted a photo on the gallery.

Yes, it does seem to be very physically large and have a very dense and dark mane which were apparently distinguishing characteristics of the Barbary lion but I don't think this animal is anything other than a rather large and impressively maned African lion that may have some very distant and insignificant Barbary ancestry.