Since lions were once to be found over the greater portion of the vast continent of Africa, it is self-evident that these animals are able to accommodate themselves to great variations of climate and surroundings; and I myself have met with them, close to the sea, in the hot and sultry coastlands of South-east Africa; on the high plateau of Mashonaland, where at an altitude of 6,000 feet above sea-level the winter nights are cold and frosty; amongst the stony hills to the east of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi; and in the swamps of the Chobi. In the great reed-beds of the latter river a certain number of lions appeared to live constantly, preying on buffaloes and lechwe antelopes. I often heard them roaring at nights in these swamps, and I once saw two big male lions wading slowly across an open space between two beds of reeds in water nearly a foot in depth.
Photo by Fratelli Alinari] [Florence.
A YOUNG LIONESS.
The sole of the hind foot shows the soft pads on which the Cats noiselessly approach their prey.
Although there are great individual differences in lions as regards size, general colour of coat, and more particularly in the length, colour, and profuseness of the mane with which the males are adorned, yet as these differences occur in every part of Africa where lions are met with, and since constant varieties with one fixed type of mane living by themselves and not interbreeding with other varieties do not exist anywhere, modern zoologists are, I think, now agreed that there is only one species of lion, since in any large series of wild lion skins, made in any particular district of Africa or Asia, every gradation will be found between the finest-maned specimens and those which are destitute of any mane at all. Several local races have, however, been recently described by German writers.
In the hot and steamy coastlands of tropical Africa lions usually have short manes, and never, I believe, attain the long silky black manes sometimes met with on the high plateaux of the interior. However, there is, I believe, no part of Africa where all or even the majority of male lions carry heavy manes, the long hair of which does not as a rule cover more than the neck and chest, with a tag of varying length and thickness extending from the back of the neck to between the shoulder-blades. Lions with very full black manes, covering the whole shoulders, are rare anywhere, but more likely to be encountered on the high plateaux, where the winter nights are extremely cold, than anywhere else. In such cases, in addition to the tufts of hair always found on the elbows and in the armpits of lions with fair-sized manes, there will probably be large tufts of hair in each flank just where the thighs join the belly; but I have never yet seen the skin of a lion shot within the last thirty years with the whole belly covered with long, thick hair, as may constantly be observed in lions kept in captivity in the menageries of Europe. There is, however, some evidence to show that, when lions existed on the high plains of the Cape Colony and the Orange River Colony, where the winter nights are much colder than in the countries farther north where lions may still be encountered, certain individuals of the species developed a growth of long hair all over the belly, as well as an extraordinary luxuriance of mane on the neck and shoulders.
By permission of Herr Carl Hagenbeck] [Hamburg.
A HAPPY FAMILY.