Most of them are dated at around 500 B.C.However,Europe saw its last Asiatic lion roaming freetwo thousand years ago.Over the next nineteenhundred years the numbers of Asiatic lions in theother areas declined steadily,but it was only in thenineteenth century that they disappeared fromeverywhere but India.
So,how can you tell an Asiatic lion from an Africanlion,with which you're probably more familiar?Well,ingeneral,Asiatic lions are not as big as Africanlions.The colour is more or less the same,but theappearance of the mane is different - that's the hair around the lion's face and neck.TheAsiatic lion's mane is noticeably shorter than the African lion's.Asiatic lions also have a long foldof skin on their undersides,whereas not many African lions have this.