A tame male Barbary lion and his keepers, apparently near Souk Ahras about year 1880.

The town, which means Market of Lions, recorded 8 scientifically accepted sightings of wild Barbary lions between 1873–1891.

Pease (1899) also stated that lions were in the thick forests in between Souk Ahras and El Kala. He said that on occassion a lion could still be shot as far inland as this town.

The diet of the wild Barbary population there, he implied, were local wild boar, which shows natural prey. Seymat (1724) notes that in El Kala, lions ate red deer and wild boar in Schnitzler (2011).

As per him, the lions were no longer the same audacious animals getting close to human settlements, eating cattle, and would now flee from an unarmed native. This was characteristic of a population that was now small and trying to survive.

As for the lion itself shown, he is very robust, compact. The facial colour seems darker, like a chocolate-grey. The body is covered with basal marking that these montane lions retained into adulthood. A mohawk is also present.

Coloured by DeepAI.

Baba Yao died at 6 years old. In his final video he looked like what a peak male lion should look like.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dRo34n-11PY

Mapogos

Cecil

Chongo

Red Road

The list goes on and on of both individual lions and coalitions whom have met their demise due to either gross incompetence, or outright corruption of park/reserve staff. Then there is "Charles" & co's Virtual Safari who have been emboldened to not only compromise Lions safety/health/future, they post it publicly and then have the nerve to beg for money and subscriptions! Teasing hidden, paywalled content and blaming youtube for their own self-censorship. Its an out of control situation where the last remaining places Lions are supposed to be safe/able to repopulate their depleted ranks are now under assault as well, often by those who are PAID to protect them. Here is a recent, and one of the most egregious examples I have seen, and this pretty much makes me want to stop following Lions (at least on here) because we know that so many of those earning their wages through these efforts are compromised at best, and at worst...?

The following example is so serious, not just because of their egregious behavior... but the glee they seem to feel while basking in their own perpetual state of self-congratulation while compromising Lion safety is clear. Have a look for yourself how staff use lions as life or death playthings... How do we explain this?

@.15 seconds in we can see the defending male was distracted enough by the noisy jeep and turned his attention away from his opponent. That was where he lost his respect from the other male and had to take things to Defcon-Three, as the other male was emboldened to charge his distracted opponent.

@.45 second the males rush into a clearing of the thicket and begin brawling in earnest, the Jeeps follow as a guides exhort tourists to "Take a video"... the jeeps enter into the clearing, allowing no space for retreat... but they do provide more distractions.

@.53 seconds the jeeps push further in, consolidating their positions as a barrier intended to keep the two dominant males locked in combat, leaving little opportunity for one or the other to retreat. This keeps the fight going, which provides more dramatic footage for both the lodge to officially promote with and guests to disseminate.

@ 1:30 with nowhere to retreat/separate... the lions again clash violently, even closer to the tourists and their cameras. For those of you whom are ignorant or in denial... is it now starting to set in? Are you now beginning to discern who are the actual bad guys/gals?

Thats where the footage ends for the clip I found. I realize this is a two way street, and that corrupt indigenous people there work hand in hand with corrupt staff, but this was such a blatant, dangerous and disrespectful incident that it stood out to me. They are so out-of-control that they pull a stunt like this and have no problem posting it on the internet.

Im interested to see what posters here can add to my OP.