Above, Alexander and Craterus fighting a lion. Alexander went on two such hunts, the Sidonian lion hunt (in Phoenicia, 332 BC) and the lion hunt in Basista (a.k.a. Bazaira, Sogdiana, in 328/327 BC). Herodotus recorded how Xerxes’ Persian invasion army of 480 BC was attacked by lions while bivouacking on the eastern fringes of Greece and Macedonia.
Loren Coleman poses this most intriguing thought on the Cryptomundo website:
The question of lions in Europe and specifically lions in England is not a fully answered mystery. Developing answers to one set of questions may merely open the door to other riddles. When two lion skulls were found in the Tower of London’s moat during excavations in the 1930s, the precise origins of these famous “Royal Lions” were undetermined.
Research now reveals the Tower lions were allegedly “Barbary lions,” but I want to push the inquiry beyond the obvious answer. What if these genetically-similar-to-Barbary-lions were instead Pleistocene survivors that were still to be found in England?
It is known that the relationship between Cave lions, Barbary Lions, and the Lions of Xerxes and Alexander were interwoven. Their physical and genetic characteristics were closer to each other than to sub-Saharan lions, except for the genetically distinct Cape Lion.
Barbary lion illustration above from 1898 and a "Barbary lion" below today descended from a long line of captive bred Barbary lions. The Barbary lion has been declared extinct in the wild.
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2 comments:
Pablo Noel's act in Europe used to be announced with Barbary lions. I was to young to identify them, but from videos and pics of the act one can judge.
(On youtube there is a Noel video from the Williams season 1963)
Raffaele,
I suspect it was circus BS, as was Ringling calling my white tigers, Burmese. LOL He only had one male and a number of Castrado's. The only male had a big roll of fat, but no belly mane. So I would be very suspect he was Barbary. Unless they were taking about the female's, in which case, it would take someone more versed in the subject then myself to make that claim. I have the clip that you speak of but have not posted or said much about Pablo. Although I never saw him work(I wouldn't have liked it anyway as I don't like comedy in an act or making them look like fools) I have seen enough of his video's and the condition of his animals to have been able to make a pretty fair assessment. From all accounts he was a wonderful, nice man, with a great sense of humor, bla, bla, etc. and realizing the shit storm that comes from criticizing a "sacred cow" in the business I have just avoided him.
I hope you have been well, and I have wondered what you have been up to. We never heard much about how your show went, and would look forward to hearing about it.
Regards,
Wade
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