North Africa - Artensterben

A Barbary lion in Algeria, photographed by Sir Alfred Edward Pease in 1893. The particularly dense, dark mane was striking, but this provides little information about the species; rather, it may represent an adaptation to climatic conditions. (© Alfred Edward Pease (29 June 1857 – 27 April 1939), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

12. June 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Barbary lion

The cultural significance of North Africa’s lions Lions already played a role in early Egyptian art and literature. Archaeologists, for example, found statues and statuettes of lions from Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period (3100 to 2686 BC) in Hierakonpolis, the religious and political centre of Upper Egypt, and in the former

The head-body length of the bubal hartebeest was 150 to 244 centimeters. Its shoulder height ranged between 109 and 150 centimeters. (© Goldfuss, Georg August; Schreber, Johann Christian Daniel; Wagner, Andreas Johann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

10. June 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Bubal hartebeest

The bubal and ancient civilizations The German zoologist Alfred Brehm writes in the 1911 edition of his world-famous zoological reference work Brehms Tierleben: “Of the various species, the one known the longest is the bubal hartebeest, frequently depicted on Egyptian monuments Bubalis buselaphus.” And indeed: the bubal must once have

This is what the Atlas bear may have looked like. (© Nicolas Maréchal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

2. August 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Atlas bear

Beast hunts in the Roman Empire The Atlas bear is believed to have lived in the North African Atlas Mountains and the adjacent regions of Libya, Algeria, and Morocco. There are no photos, scientific illustrations, museum specimens, or complete skeletons of the Atlas bear. What remains are subfossil bones from

Drawing of the red gazelle from the 1899 book Great and Small Game of Africa. (© Rowland Ward, Limited. [d. 1912], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

1. March 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Red gazelle

The last animal died in 1894 The Red gazelle is known only from the skins and bones of three male specimens, which are currently housed in museums in Paris and London. The last known individual of this species was likely killed by a hunter in 1894, as there have been