TIL: These Are the Only Wild Lions Outside of Africa
When thinking about lions, you might picture an African safari, but did you know that lions also live in India?
The Asiatic lion, a subspecies that split from African lions around 100,000 years ago, once prowled across Asia and the Middle East. Sadly, the lions were hunted nearly to extinction, with as few as ten individuals left in existence by the late 1800s.
Today in Gujarat, India, the tiny population of wild Asiatic lions has found refuge in Gir National Park. With the help of conservation groups and local communities, the population has grown to around 500 individuals.
Come join National Geographic explorer Uri Golman in this week’s Today I Learned to find out more about these resilient animals.
Over the next four years, Uri Golman and his partner Helle Olsen will undertake twenty separate expeditions on all seven continents to document some of the last wild places on the planet.
SERIES PRODUCER: Christopher Mattle
PRODUCER/EDITOR: Laurence Alexander
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Elaina Kimes
