Southwest African lion

Southwest African lion
Southwest African lion in Etosha National Park, Namibia.
Southwest African lioness in Etosha National Park, Namibia.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	Panthera leo
Subspecies:	P. l. bleyenberghi
Trinomial name
Panthera leo bleyenberghi (Lönnberg, 1914)

The Southwest African lion or Katanga lion (Panthera leo bleyenberghi) is a subspecies of the lion that lives in southwestern Africa. It is found in Namibia, Angola, Zaire, western Zambia, western Zimbabwe and northern Botswana. Besides the Southeast African lion, it is considered as the largest living lion subspecies, in the wilderness of Africa. The type specimen was from Katanga (Zaire). Kalahari lions may be either Panthera leo bleyenberghi or Panthera leo krugeri. In 2008, surveys were conducted in the Upemba and Kundelungu National Parks located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but no evidence for the presence of lions was found.

Males are around 2.5–3.10 metres (8.2–10.2 feet) long including the tail. Females are 2.3–2.65 metres (7.5–8.7 feet). The weight of males is generally 140–242 kg (308–533 pounds), and the females are 105–170 kg (231–378 pounds). They have a shoulder height of 0.90–1.20 metres (3.0–4.0 feet). Their manes tend to be lighter in color than those of other subspecies.

On record, the longest wild lion apparently was a male shot near Mucusso, southern Angola, in October 1973, which measured nearly 360 cm (11.8 ft), in total. By comparison, the biggest Siberian tiger reportedly measured 350 cm (11.5 ft) "over the curves," or 330 cm (10.8 ft) "between the ," the heaviest Bengal tiger (388.7 kg (857 lb)) reportedly measured 338 cm (11.09 ft) "over the curves," or 322 cm (10.56 ft) "between the pegs," and the record for the Indian lion was 2.92 m (9.6 ft), including the tail (Sinha, 1987).

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