A RARE colourised young Barbary lion
A tame male Barbary lion and his keepers, apparently near Souk Ahras about year 1880.
The town, which means Market of Lions, recorded 8 scientifically accepted sightings of wild Barbary lions between 1873–1891.
Pease (1899) also stated that lions were in the thick forests in between Souk Ahras and El Kala. He said that on occassion a lion could still be shot as far inland as this town.
The diet of the wild Barbary population there, he implied, were local wild boar, which shows natural prey. Seymat (1724) notes that in El Kala, lions ate red deer and wild boar in Schnitzler (2011).
As per him, the lions were no longer the same audacious animals getting close to human settlements, eating cattle, and would now flee from an unarmed native. This was characteristic of a population that was now small and trying to survive.
As for the lion itself shown, he is very robust, compact. The facial colour seems darker, like a chocolate-grey. The body is covered with basal marking that these montane lions retained into adulthood. A mohawk is also present.
Coloured by DeepAI.