The world’s wild lion population is in grave danger. There are only 600 Asiatic lions remaining, all of which live in a wildlife reserve in the Gir Forest in northwest India. And just 23,000 African lions roam the land between the southern edge of the Sahara and northern South Africa. The total number of wild lions worldwide has dropped by more than 40 percent in the last half century. But in the past, lions were among the most geographically widespread animals on Earth. Each ancient culture that encountered lions had its own way of embracing their power, and the big cats became symbols of spirituality, kingship, bloodlust, divinity, and even safety and peace.
RITUALS
Spain
More than 15,000 years ago, a group of hunter-gatherers in northern Spain killed a lion and brought it home. Cave lions () had roamed Europe for at least 400,000 years, but by this time, their numbers were declining as they were forced to compete for prey with an increasing human population. The lion must have been a great prize. Rather than cut up the feline for food at their cave’s entrance, as they did with their other prey, the people carried parts of the huge animal 425 feet into the cave, now
