I must admit that the only live lions that I have seen hav been at the Melbourne Zoo and in Circus when I was a child and lions and wild animals where able to be part of this form of entertainment. Lions have been a very important part of the juman culture. Lions are portrayed in heroic form by almost all "old world" countries everywhere. But to see a lion in the wild in the flesh would be a totally awsome experience.

Like most humans I am fascinated by all the big cats and when I read this short article I decided to do just a little bit of research myself. I wanted to know where lions live, because I for one, although fascinated by the big cats, would not like to be camping somewhere to be woken up by the road of one. This web site http://www.macroevolution.net/where-do-lions-live-2.html has a map that shows where lions once roamed and also shows where lions are still to be found today. I noted the spread of these magnificant animals and reflect the shrinking of their domain due to destruction of habitat, game and the onset of man's domain.

I recall visiting a cave in my birth country, Malta, as a child. The cave contained some remarkable skeletal remains of Sabre tooth tigers and mamoth that once inhabited the Mediteranean and Europe during the iceage. These animals too would have inspired awe if seen in the flesh, as indeed their remains did to me when I saw their remains as a small child.

The lions distribution map shows how their range has shrunk as man's range grew. If a creature is capable of killing and eating man, than we have sought to destroy it. It is Ok for mankind to hunt and kill for pleasure and food, but not for an animal to kill for food. Our reaction to watching a carnivour killing and consuming its prey is almost universally that of shere horror at the act of killing, sorrow for the prey, but almost always a feeling of detestation of the carnivour.

Mankind's range in increasing and it is destroying the habitat of both the great carnivours and the wild herds that they need to hunt and eat. The balance that the process of predation in only now begining to be understood. eg. the re introduction of the gray wolf into Yellowstone National Park has produced a remarkable re balancing of the environment with the resultant revegitation of vast areas of that park that had been over grazed in the past century since the gray wolf for almost exterminated in most parts of North America. Since the re introduction of the Gray Wolf visitors to the Yellow Stone National park have once again been thrilled by the call of the wild wolf.

We all need to be able to step into a wilderness. Some take to the sea to travel to isolated places where they can become part of the landscap, so to speak. Others travel into wilderness to get the same experience.

Looking at the previous and present range of the lion one has to wonder and hopr that it is possible to set aside areas where all creatures, carnivors and their prey and the land can remain as it has always been, untouched by man's relentlessness.