Asian Lion, Gir Forest. (Fewer than 300 or so Asian lions left on Earth)

ORIGINAL: NatGeo

One of fewer than 300 or so Asian lions left on Earth, this adult male in India's Gir Forest Reserve naps in the shade, away from the afternoon heat. Photograph by Mattias Klum.

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Panthera leo ssp. persica (Asiatic - Indian Lion)

Affirmed as a unique subspecies on the basis of genetic analysis by O'Brien et al. (1987). This subspecies had a wide historic distribution across southwest Asia but is now restricted to a single population in India's Gir Forest.

The Asiatic lion currently exists as a single subpopulation, and is thus vulnerable to extinction from unpredictable events, such as poaching ,epidemic or large forest fire.

Organised gangs have switched attention from tigers to these lions for the Chinese "Traditional Medicine. There have also been a number of drowning incidents after lions fell into wells.

The range of the lion in North Africa and South-West Asia formerly stretched across the coastal forests of northern Africa and from northern Greece across south-west Asia to eastern India. Today the only living representatives of the lions once found throughout much of South-West Asia occur in India's Gir Forest (Nowell and Jackson 1996) but there are now also some groups outside Gir Forest - Girnar, coastal subpopulation, Bali Tana subpopulation.

EVERY SINGLE ONE MUST BE PROTECTED. 

— with Jynxetta Crosspostingforanimals .