When Did the Fabled Barbary Lion Go Extinct?

[UngulateNerd92]

It wasn’t the Roman gladiators that did in this black-maned beast, but the exact date of its disappearance remains a mystery.

History books tell us that the last wild Barbary lion was probably killed in 1922 by a French colonial hunter in Morocco. But in repeating the story of this well-documented death, the history books may have left a chapter or two out of the story.

When Did the Fabled Barbary Lion Go Extinct? • The Revelator

 

[Pantheraman]

And don't some zoos claim to have them?

 

[UngulateNerd92]

And don't some zoos claim to have them?

Somebody correct me if I am misunderstanding it, but as far as I understand it, the collections that claim to have them, or at least some of them that do, those animals are not pure Barbary lions (Panthera leo leo), but have Barbary lion admixture often with certain correlating phenotypes. Again, they are not pure, but they have some levels of Barbary admixture.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Somebody correct me if I am misunderstanding it, but as far as I understand it, the collections that claim to have them, or at least some of them that do, those animals are not pure Barbary lions (Panthera leo leo), but have Barbary lion admixture often with certain correlating phenotypes. Again, they are not pure, but they have some levels of Barbary admixture.

If you click on a further link in the article quoted you get to a excerpt from a paper by Black on the current stud book and references to 2 in depth analysis of captive purported Barbary lions. The verdict has been the conservation value of these lions with pure genetics from Barbary - northern lions and to ignore these at our own peril. Hence, these are a credible source and have potential for reintroduction purposes in Maghribi North Africa (the Atlas mountain range from Morocco to Tunisia).