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Central African lion

The Central African lion is a Panthera leo leo population in most northern parts of Central Africa and a Panthera leo melanochaita population in other parts of Central Africa adjacent to East and Southern Africa. The population in the Central African Sahel is fragmented into small and isolated groups since the 1950s, and threatened by trophy hunting, loss of habitat and prey base. In 2005, a Lion Conservation Strategy was developed for West and Central Africa.

Results of phylogeographic research indicate that the northern Central African lion clade forms a phylogenetic group with lion samples from West and North Africa, the Middle East and India. This group diverged from lions in southern parts of East and Southern Africa at least 50,000 years ago. However, other lions in Central Africa, including in regions that are adjacent to East and Southern Africa, were found to group with East and Southern African lions. Morphometric analysis of lion skulls corroborates the assessment of two major evolutionary lion clusters, one in sub-Saharan Africa and the other in North Africa and Asia.

Characteristics
The lion's fur varies in colour from light buff to dark brown. It has rounded ears and a black tail tuft. Average head-to-body length of male lions is 2.47-2.84 m with a weight of 148.2-190.9 kg. Females are smaller and less heavy. A revision of lion skins in the British Museum Natural History revealed that Central African lions are about the same size as Asiatic lions.

Taxonomy
A lion from Constantine, Algeria was the type specimen for the specific name Felis leo used by Linnaeus in 1758. In the 20th century, several lion zoological specimens from Central Africa were described and proposed as subspecies:
 * Felis leo kamptzi described in 1900 by Paul Matschie was a lion skin from Cameroon.
 * Leo leo azandicus described in 1924 by Joel Asaph Allen was a lion that was killed in 1912 in northeastern Belgian Congo as part of a zoological collection comprising 588 carnivore specimens.

In the following decades, there has been much debate regarding classification of lion subspecies: In 2017, lion populations in North, West and Central Africa and Asia were subsumed to the nominate subspecies P. l. leo by the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group.
 * In 1939, Glover Morrill Allen recognized Felis leo kamptzi, F. l. bleyenberghi and F. l. azandicus as valid taxa among ten lion subspecies.
 * The British taxonomist Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated lions to the genus Panthera in 1930 when he wrote about Asiatic lion specimens in the zoological collection of the British Museum of Natural History.
 * Three decades later, John Ellerman and Terence Morrison-Scott recognized only two lion subspecies in the Palearctic realm, namely P. l. leo in Africa and P. l. persica in Asia.
 * In 2005, Wallace Christopher Wozencraft recognized P. l. kamptzi and P. l. azandica as valid taxa.
 * In 2016, IUCN Red List assessors used P. l. leo for all lion populations in Africa.

Phylogeographic research
Since the beginning of the 21st century, several phylogenetic studies were conducted to aid clarifying the taxonomic status of lion samples kept in natural history museums and collected in the wild. Scientists analysed between 32 and 480 lion samples from up to 22 countries. They all agree that the species lion comprises two evolutionary groups, one in the northern and eastern parts of its historical range, the other in East and Southern Africa; these groups diverged at least 50,000 years ago. They assume that tropical rainforest and the East African Rift constituted major barriers between the two groups. Among six samples from captive lions that originated in Ethiopia, one clustered with samples from the Sahel, but five clustered with samples from East Africa. For a subsequent study, also eight wild lion samples from the Ethiopian Highlands were included in the analysis. Of these, Other wild lion samples that clustered with the Central African lion include 16 from four national parks in Cameroon, four from Chad, one from Birao in Central African Republic, and four from Garamba National Park in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. These results corroborate findings of earlier studies about lion evolution and genetic diversity.
 * three clustered with the Central African lion clade, namely samples from Gambela and Bale Mountains National Parks and the Ogaden region, and
 * five clustered with samples from East Africa.

Genetic analyses of hair samples from a lion in Gabon's Batéké Plateau National Park revealed that they are genetically similar to historical lion samples from Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of the Congo. The samples were grouped with lion samples from Namibia and Botswana.

Cameroon lion
The Cameroon lion (formerly P. l. kamptzi) is found in Cameroon, in the western part of Central Africa. A study have shown that some captive lions in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa Zoo were found to be genetically similar to wild lions from Cameroon and Chad.

Congo lion
The Congo lion (formerly P. l. azandica) is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including Virunga National Park, which is adjacent to Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. Studies have shown that lions in part of Central Africa that are adjacent to East and Southern Africa are related to the Southern lion group. Four lion samples from Garamba National Park in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo also clustered with the Central African lion, as well as four wild lion samples from Chad, one from Birao in Central African Republic, and 16 from four national parks in Cameroon. These results corroborate findings of earlier studies about lion evolution and genetic diversity.

Distribution and habitat
The historical range of the Central African lion reached from the lower Niger river in West Africa to Ethiopia, encompassing most of the Sahel zone, where habitats range from forest patches and grassland, edges of rainforest and clearings in rainforest mixed with savannah grassland, semi-desert landscape at sea level to montane moorland and dry woodland that is partly flooded during the rainy season from July to December. Its range has declined in:
 * Cameroon, where today lions are present in Bénoué National Park. In the North Province, Cameroon, lions were recorded during a survey between January 2008 and May 2010. The small lion population in Waza National Park is isolated, and by 2008 had declined to maximum 20 individuals.
 * the Central African Republic, where the lion population is fragmented to small units in Bamingui-Bangoran National Park and Biosphere Reserve, Manovo-Gounda St. Floris and Awakaba National Parks, Aouk Aoukale, Yata Ngaya, Nana Barya and Zemongo Faunal Reserves, and in several hunting reserves of the country.
 * Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s during the first and second civil wars.
 * Chad, where lions were extirpated in Manda National Park. Some may still be present in pastoral rangelands and mountain ranges outside protected areas. Some persist in Siniaka-Minia Faunal Reserve and Aouk and Zakouma National Parks. The lion population in latter protected area was considered stable in 2013.  In 2004, the lion population in the country was estimated at maximum 225 individuals.
 * Sudan's Southern Darfur province, where lions were abundant in the 1950s; some caused damage to livestock and were poisoned; 76 lions were shot between 1947 and 1952. In the 1980s, lions were also reported in Southern Kordofan province, located west of the Nile River.
 * South Sudan, where little is known about lion distribution and population sizes. Lions in Radom and Southern National Parks are probably connected to lions in the Central African Republic.
 * Ethiopia since at least the early 20th century due to trophy hunting by Europeans, killing of lions by local people out of fear, for illegal sale of skins and during civil wars.

Contemporary lion distribution and habitat quality in savannahs of West and Central Africa was assessed in 2005, and Lion Conservation Units (LCU) mapped. Educated guesses for size of populations in these LCUs ranged from 2,765 to 2,419 individuals between 2002 and 2012.

Ecology and behaviour


In Waza National Park, three female and two male lions were radio-collared in 1999 and tracked until 2001. The females moved in home ranges of between 352 and 724 km2 and stayed inside the park during most of the survey period. The males used home ranges of between 428 and 1054 km2, both inside and outside the park, where they repeatedly killed livestock. One was killed and the other shot at by local people. After the pellets were removed, he recovered and shifted his home range to inside the park, and was not observed killing livestock any more. Lions probably prey on livestock when wild prey species occur at lower densities, especially during the wet season. An interview survey among livestock owners in six villages in the park's vicinity revealed that lions attack cattle mostly during the rainy season when wild prey disperses away from artificial waterholes.

Threats
In Africa, lions are killed pre-emptively or in retaliation for preying on livestock. Populations are also threatened by depletion of prey base, loss and conversion of habitat.

In Nigeria, the isolated lion population in Gashaka Gumti National Park is hunted and poisoned by local people. Between seven and 12 lion trophies were exported from Cameroon every year in the years from 1985 to 2010. Trophy hunting contributed significantly to the decline of the lion population and prey species in the country. In Bénoué National Park, local people were observed at a lion kill cutting off chunks of meat. Local people living in the vicinity of the protected area accounted in interviews that lions frequently attack livestock during the dry season. They use poison on carcasses to kill carnivores. In Waza National Park, two of four radio-collared lions were killed between 2007 and 2008, and probably also an adult female, two other adult males and three cubs. Nomadic herders use bow and arrows poisoned with cobra venom to kill lions in retaliation for attacks on livestock. In northern parts of Cameroon, the lion population is threatened due to increased migration of people from Nigeria following the political insecurity in the region.

Conservation
All lion populations in Africa have been included in CITES Appendix II since 1975.

In 2006, a Lion Conservation Strategy for West and Central Africa was developed in cooperation between IUCN regional offices and wildlife conservation organisations. The strategy envisages to maintain sufficient habitat, ensure a sufficient wild prey base, make lion-human coexistence sustainable and reduce factors that lead to further fragmentation of populations. Surveys and interviews with herders around protected areas revealed that improved enclosures for livestock significantly decreased depredation by lions, and hence contributed to mitigating human-lion conflict.

In captivy
In 2006, 1258 captive lions were registered in the International Species Information System, including 13 individuals originating from Senegal to Cameroon, and 970 with uncertain origin.

Cultural significance
The Cameroon national football team is nicknamed "The Indomitable Lions" based on the lion's strength in Cameroon.