Southeast African lion

Southern African lion
Male lion in Etosha National Park, Namibia
Lioness in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. leo
Subspecies:	P. l. melanochaita
Trinomial name
Panthera leo melanochaita (Ch. H. Smith, 1842)
Synonyms
formerly P. l. bleyenberghi, P. l. krugeri, P. l. vernayi

formerly P. l. bleyenberghi, P. l. krugeri, P. l. vernayi

The Southern African lion (Panthera leo melanochaita) is a lion subspecies in Southern Africa. In this part of Africa, lions occur in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, but are regionally extinct in Lesotho. Lion populations in intensively managed protected areas in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe have increased since the turn of the century.

The type specimen for P. l. melanochaita was a black-maned lion from the Cape of Good Hope, known as the Cape lion. The lion population in this part of South Africa is extinct. In the 20th century, living lion populations in other parts of Southern Africa were referred to as Katanga lion, Transvaal lion and Kalahari lion.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, several lion type specimens from Southern Africa were described and proposed as subspecies:

In the 20th century, some authors supported the view of the Cape lion being a distinct subspecies. In 1975, Vratislav Mazák hypothesized that the Cape lion evolved geographically isolated from other populations by the Great Escarpment. In the early 21st century, Mazák's hypothesis about a geographically isolated evolution of the Cape lion was challenged. Genetic exchanges between populations in the Cape, Kalahari and Transvaal Province regions and farther east are considered having been possible through a corridor between the Great Escarpment and the Indian ocean.

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