Pre-industrial emblem
72Heraldry, materia medica or first-fish law met the lion before film.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Speed73
Intelligence79
Range40
Resilience27
Cultural impact97
Ecological role79
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Quick answers
Why is the lion scored below the tiger on ecological role but above on culture?
Lions structure some savanna systems; elephants and wolves outrank both as engineers or keystones in this atlas. Culture is flags, churches and film -- lions win that axis. Scores stay relative across 24 types.
What is different about Gir lions?
Asiatic lions are a single-forest population with a distinctive belly fold and a thinner mane. A disease or fire there is a subspecies event.
Did Cecil change hunting policy?
The 2015 Hwange killing spiked petitions and some airline trophy bans. Zimbabwe and US Fish and Wildlife arguments did not end trophy hunting as a system.
Are lions recovering like some wolves?
No. Most African populations are still in long decline outside a few well-funded parks. VU is not a rebound band.
What did Born Free fix in the public mind?
Elsa the lioness (1960 book, 1966 film) made rehabilitation a children story. Field lion work is pride demography and conflict, not a single tame cat.
Who runs the Serengeti numbers?
The Serengeti Lion Project (Packer and successors) produced the long pride dataset that textbooks still mine.
IUCN: Vulnerable
Lion culture is local: the same silhouette is a licence in one country and a logo in another.
Status bars are editorial -- they track how loudly this type spoke in English-language media and law, not a best-species score.
Status through time
Industrial take
64Canneries, ivory, longlines or shikar scaled the take.
Cinema and logo
89A film, book or NGO mark often outran the field paper.
Statute and listing
73ESA, CITES, IWC or national parks made the type a legal object.
Live-cam and tourism
79Streams, jeeps and auctions are the present tense of attention.
Portrayals
Patterson book1907
The Man-eaters of Tsavo as imperial horror.
Born Free1966
Elsa as the rehabilitation myth.
The Lion King1994
A cartoon state that outran field guides.
Packer papers1970s-
Pride tables as the anti-myth.
Cecil news2015
A named death as a global feed.
Gir tourism2000s-
Asiatic lions as a Gujarat brand.
Rituals
Dawn game drives
Serengeti and Kruger jeeps time a pride on a kill.
Gir permit lotteries
A single forest rations viewing.
Warrior-monitor patrols
Lion Guardians walk the same ground as herds.
Sayings
Keep exploring
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Overall 65