Habitat and Distribution Optimal habitat appears to be open woodlands, and thick bush, scrub and grass complexes, where sufficient cover is provided for hunting and denning. The lion has a broad habitat tolerance, absent only from tropical rainforest and the interior of the Sahara desert. Although lions drink regularly when water is available, they are capable of obtaining their moisture requirements from prey and even plants (such as the tsama melon in the Kalahari desert), and thus can survive in very arid environments (Eloff 1973b). They may range quite high into the mountains of East Africa, up to 3,600 m on Kenya's Mt Elgon (Guggisberg 1961), and 4,240 m in Ethiopia's Bale Mountains (Yalden et al. 1980). The lion formerly ranged from northern Africa through south-west Asia (where it disappeared from most countries within the last 150 years), west into Europe, where it apparently became extinct almost 2,000 years ago, and east into India (where a relict population survives today in the Gir Forest: see species account in NORTH AFRICA AND SOUTH-WEST ASIA) (Guggisberg 1961). Lions survived in the desert on the edge of Niger’s Aïr Mountains up to about 60 years ago (Rosevear 1974).

© 1996 IUCN - The World Conservation Union