298 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



representative, in this country at all events, of the now extinct race of 

 splendid liong which formerly inhabited Cape Colony. . . . 



The former range and the date of the extermination of the handsome South 

 African race are alike unknown. 



Pocock adds that Smith's type specimen appears to have been a 

 rickety captive. 



Roberts (1929, p. 92) quotes from Paterson (1789) the following 

 measurements of a lioness from the southern part of Cape Province : 

 total length, 8 feet 9^ inches; tail, 3 feet; "height before," 3 feet 

 8 inches. 



Owing to lack of material, the exact limits of the range of the 

 Cape Lion will never be known. For present purposes the Cape 

 Province and Natal will be considered to comprise the former range. 



"Civilization's steady march in South Africa during the past 

 twenty years has considerably limited the range of the lion. The 

 vast herds of game upon which he depended for food being swept 

 away, he has been forced to retire into remoter regions. From much 

 of the South Africa of Gordon Gumming he has vanished com- 

 pletely and forever." (Kirby, in Bryden, 1899, p. 549.) 



"With regard to past times Kolben (1731), states that lions 

 were not uncommon near Cape Town as late as 1707, Sparrman 

 (1785), Paterson (1790), Thunberg (1795), and Barrow (1801), all 

 met with these animals as soon as they got away from the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of Cape Town especially on the karoo and in 

 Uitenhage. The last record I have met with of the occurrence of a 

 lion south of the Orange River is of one killed with assegais near 

 Commetjes Post on the eastern frontier in 1842, as noted by Hall. 

 General Bisset shot a lion in Natal in 1865, which is probably the 

 last record for that Colony." (W. L. Sclater, 1900, vol. 1, p. 31.) 



"Their food . . . consists of the larger game, mainly antelopes 

 of all kinds, but also includes zebras, giraffes, and buffaloes. They 

 will kill the donkeys and cattle belonging to prospecting and hunt- 

 ing parties, and will raid Kaffir kraals when driven to it by hunger. 

 Man-eating lions are generally old animals with bad teeth." (Haag- 

 ner, 1920, pp. 69-70.) 



"It is stated that a lion was shot on the Ingonyama Tributary 

 of the Tsomo River, Transkei, in 1858. One was reported from Port 

 Alfred in 1846, and one was killed by shot from a spring gun on the 

 farm Lombards Post near Southwell, near Bathurst, about 1850." 

 (Hewitt, as quoted by Shortridge, 1934, vol. 1, p. 80.) 



The nearest areas to the former range of the Cape Lion, that are 

 still inhabited by some form of the species, are South-West Africa, 

 the Kalahari, and eastern Transvaal. The last-mentioned area 

 (especially the Kruger National Park) is the home of the Sabi 

 Lion (Leo leo krugeri Roberts) . 



