Who knows a lot about lions in the wild ?
There is only one species of lion, Panthera leo, but there are several subspecies, all of which live in Africa with the exception of the Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), which is found only in the Gir Forest of India. White lions occasionally occur – these are not a different species or subspecies – they are simply ordinary lions with a genetic condition called leucism which results in reduced pigmentation (this is the same condition which causes the white tigers often seen in zoos). The mountain lion of the Americas is not a lion – this is simply one of the common names for the cat also known as the puma, cougar, catamount or catamountain (Puma concolor). It’s related to the lion in that they are both members of the cat family, but it’s in a different genus and is not a close relative. The cave lion of Europe (Panthera leo spelaea) and the American lion (Panthera leo atrox) are extinct lion subspecies that lived during the last Ice Age. They were the largest cats that ever lived,
