Sleeping lion, Gir forest

The Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) or Indian Lion is a subspecies of the lion. The only place in the wild where the lion is found, is in the Gir Forest of Gujarat, India. The Asiatic lion is one of the five major big cats found in India, the others being the Bengal tiger, the Indian leopard, the snow leopard and clouded leopard. The Asiatic lions once ranged from the Mediterranean to the north-eastern parts of the Indian subcontinent, but excessive hunting, water pollution and decline in natural prey reduced their habitat. in 1857, a Colonel George Ackland Smith killed over 100 lions in and around Delhi, at the time of the Indian mutiny! No lions remain in north India now, and none around Delhi either.

This footage is part of the professionally-shot stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and Digital Betacam. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... wfi @ vsnl.com and [email protected].

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