Barbary Lion part two
الأسد البربري
الجزء الثاني
Final photograph of a Barbary Lion in the wild © Marcelin Flandrin
A Barbary Lion—that grand majestic creature, also known as the Atlas Lion.
Mystery surrounds this enigmatic animal.
Most sources state that the very last Barbary lion was killed by an Italian hunter in the year 1928—the 1854 painting “Lion hunt in Morocco” by French orientalist painter Delacroix depicts such a hunt.
Other sources claim it was in the 1940’s that this beautiful animal—according to hunters’ accounts the largest of all lions, with a sharper muzzle, lighter eyes and darker and longer manes that grew into their big furry front paws—was hunted into complete extinction.
There exist rumours that a pride of these mountain-dwelling large cats was seen as recently as the 1960’s. Yet other rumours claim the final specimens of this Felis Leo Barbaricus (reclassified in 2016 to Panthere Leo Leo) live currently in the private zoo of Moroccan monarch Mohammed VI. Then there are a few—just a handful—that maintain that some solitary specimens still dwell these mountains to this day…
What most people do agree upon, is that the very last photograph of a wild Atlas lion, was taken in 1925. “Dernière Photo d’un Lion de l’Atlas à l’état Sauvage, Maroc” was taken by French military photographer Marcelin Flandrin on a flight from Casablanca to Dakar.
This final photograph, taken from a low-flying aircraft, shows the lion as a proud solitary beast, trotting its heavy paws down the bottom of a deep and rocky gorge. Despite only appearing as a speck in the photograph, dwarfed by its dramatic surroundings, the steadfast animal nonetheless commands an awe-inspiring presence. Like a whisper creeping through silence, its slender body—lean with muscle, visibly agile and well-adapted to its mountainous dwelling—stands noble and strong, frozen in time, captured for eternity in the dramatic light of a low setting sun on a grainy and contrast-full black and white photograph.
I sit on a rock in the middle of the desolate plateau plain.
Never mind—probably just a fox or something.