Panthera leo azandica

Congo lion
Male Northeast Congo lion in Murchison Falls
Northeast Congo lioness in Murchison Falls
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. leo
Subspecies:	P. l. azandica
Trinomial name
Panthera leo azandica (Allen, 1924)

The Congo lion or Northeast Congo lion (Panthera leo azandica), was proposed as a lion subspecies from the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and western parts of Uganda. It is also known as the "Uganda lion."

The American zoologist Joel Asaph Allen proposed the trinomen Leo leo azandicus, and described a male lion as type specimen that was obtained by the American Museum of Natural History. This individual was killed in 1912 by museum staff as part of a zoological collection comprising 588 carnivore specimens. Allen admitted a close relationship to L. l. massaicus regarding cranial and dental characteristics but argued that his type specimen differed in pelage coloration.

In 1913, Heller gave the taxonomic name "Panthera leo nyanzae" to lions in Uganda. In 1924, Allen gave the trinomen "Panthera leo hollisteri" to lions on the northern bank of Lake Victoria, before Ugandan lions were seen as being of the same subspecies as those in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The British taxonomist Pocock subordinated lions to the genus Panthera in 1930 when he wrote about Asian lions. Three decades later, Ellerman and Morrison-Scott recognized just two lion subspecies, namely the Asiatic P. l. persica and the African P. l. leo.

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