Today, lions are the second largest cats (after tigers), but at the same time the most beautiful and majestic, and black lions are also the most mysterious. Myths constantly develop about black lions, since no one can give reliable information about whether these beauties exist in nature or not.
Abnormality is fascinating
Rumors about how black lions roam somewhere in the back streets of the planet Earth arise mainly due to the fact that such a color is extremely unusual and uncharacteristic for them. Everyone is used to seeing these large majestic cats of yellow, sandy, golden, and sometimes white color, but no one saw them black. There are also no reliable photos or videos that show that black lions live in nature. All found photos of these fictional beauties are the creation of experienced photoshop users.
Why not?
Why is the presence of such an animal as a black lion in nature categorically denied by scientists, because in the savannas you can meet albino lions with a snow-white mane and wool?
In fact, the complete denial of such cats in nature is based on their inability to adaptto the environment. And albino lions are simply victims of genetic mutations or they were born after inbreeding.
About adaptation
According to Clark Tonge, a scientist who specializes in mutations among large cats, in the process of evolution, dark and black lions simply did not survive. Nature itself gave preference to lighter individuals, which means that today the possibility of their appearance is close to zero. If a lion cub with black hair was still born in the flock, then many factors contributed to its death:
- difficulties with thermoregulation (the lion cub could die literally immediately after birth from overheating);
- significantly reduced immunity;
- difficulties encountered while hunting (if the lion cub could survive to the point where it was necessary to go hunting on its own, its color did not allow it to disguise itself well, and accordingly, it could die of hunger).
If you ask biologists if there are black lions, then in response you will hear that even if they do, it is clearly not in the wild, but only bred and raised in captivity.
Don't lose hope
Despite the fact that both scientists and biologists are extremely skeptical about this, someone still believes that black lions can be found in nature. The opinions of these people are based on reports that once came from Okovango and Persia, which told of cases when the locals happened to see a large black lion with a blackmane.
Melanism
In nature, you can find such a phenomenon as albinism, when the animal has absolutely no spots and color in general, although it is quite rare. Melanism is the direct opposite of albinism, most believe that black lions have this coloration precisely because of this phenomenon, but nevertheless this hypothesis is extremely doubtful.
