The Last Wild Lions of Europe | Hacker News Reader

The Last Wild Lions of Europe

sapiens.org

Obviously this has implications in academia, but I wonder how this will affect museum tours and the explanations of art the docents give.

And I must admit, I clicked this article hoping to discover there were lions wandering around the south of France today.

I thought this was already well known for at least a couple hundred years according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe . There's also lots of lions in heraldic designs.

> And I must admit, I clicked this article hoping to discover there were lions wandering around the south of France today.

After recently having my first encounter with a wild pig in Berlin, I was also expecting having to run from lions.

> After recently having my first encounter with a wild pig in Berlin, I was also expecting having to run from lions.

A girlfriend from Berlin once told me a story of how she had to hold out on top of a car for hours after being ambushed by hogs while coming home from a party in the early morning.

Berlin is a funny place.

I had to take a detour once because an entire group of them was blocking the street.

Close to there, I once at night encountered the same group on the boardwalk, switched sides, and had to warn a couple that I saw a few meters ahead.

Last year ago I saw and heard the entire group go along our street at 5am or so ... (from the safety of my room). The lady who delivers newspapers around that time told me she sees them often after I warned her, and didn't seem to be particularly concerned.

I think they're very much used to humans and even with young ones not overly aggressive, unless you really push/surprise them, so she must have been unlucky.

> After recently having my first encounter with a wild pig in Berlin, I was also expecting having to run from lions.

And how was it? I've heard lots of stories of funny encounters with wild pigs in Corsica, but sadly never crossed one when visiting.

I encountered a lot of free roaming (possibly wild??) burros in Corsica, but did not see any pigs during a few week stay in summer 2008 or 09.

But you are aware, that even a group of ordinary wild pigs can kill you and the corsican breed is especially famous for it?

If you are, thats cool, because in general I had many close encounters with boars at dawn or night in the forest and nothing ever happened. They are interesting and smart animals and usually respect you, when you respect them and stay calm. I even was quite close to mothers with young ones and the most that happened was, they snorted angrily at me to go away.

Central Europe has a lot of wild pigs and I encountered them several times right in the streets of villages or small cities adjacent to bigger forests - but always around midnight or later. They are smart and try to avoid humans, and they have obviously determined that the small hours are the optimal time to go scouting for some food with no one around.

Oh it was quite uneventful, the pig seemed a bit scared so I just went in another direction and we were both relieved.

I hope I never find a pig mom, though.

An important aspect is that you can’t take your clothes off near them: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/hey-thats-mine...

I know exactly what picture that is without even having to click that link! I love that he was a great sport about it.

> There's also lots of lions in heraldic designs

That's true but there are also quite a lot of unicorns and griffins so I'm not sure that that's a clinching argument.

Check out medieval depictions of rhinos, giraffes, and elephants.

The fact that heraldic lions look anything like actual lions rather than deformed dogs and sheep convinces me that they were somewhat nearby.

I also took the title to mean that these were contemporary "lions", which I supposed must be some kind of wildcat or lynx (like American mountain lions).

I have a close friend and colleague from Paris that I worked with in Philadelphia. She once told me that she attributes the American attitude of independence and self-reliance on the fact that we still can run into animals that will kill us. Our perspective is directed by the inherent risk of living with wild (I don't think she had downtown Philly specifically in mind when forming these observations/ideas :) )

> She once told me that she attributes the American attitude of independence and self-reliance on the fact that we still can run into animals that will kill us

That would have been plausible I suppose if it wasn't for the fact that animals that can kill humans exists in many other places, but the attitude of Americans (fortunately) doesn't.

> but the attitude of Americans (fortunately) doesn't.

Perhaps you meant "Unfortunately"? I know it is very vogue to bash America and Americans these days. Perhaps you have spent too much time online, or have had some very negative experiences, but I do not share your view at all. Almost all Americans I have met are kind, helpful, and friendly. Coming from Eastern Europe, it's been an overwhelmingly positive change to have the default be "How can I help you", rather than "Fuck off".

being eastern europe is the key there, that basically means you're white. I'm not surprised you're treated well in America.

For the rest of us, it can be hit or miss depending on where in the country we're in.

I'm willing to wager that no matter your ethnicity you'd have an overall much worse time in Eastern Europe (where I am also from) than most of the US.

I spent 3 months traveling around ukraine in 2020 (I know.. hell of a year to be traveling)

While lviv and ukraine were lovely, I had to remind myself that I'm comparably wealthy compared to most of the people I was meeting and of course, money changes a lot of things.

I don't know. I, for one, am happy the USA exist as a country and Americans exist as a people.

The attitude of independence and self reliance has to do obviously with low population density, history and ancient cultural roots, but is commendable.

Judging by the news there is also a lot to complain about, and these days more then in the past, unfortunately.

But it's a bit stupid to give up on the good things of your culture because of internal bashing

Wild animals can kill you anywhere in the world, in Europe too. Just not the spectacular ones like lions, more mundane ones like bears, wolves, vipers. And of course anything with rabies or borreliosis.

I'm not sure how that explains Australia, heh

100% agree. And we are kind of justified after learning how damn many wild pigs there are in Europe, not to mention many thousands of wild horses (and millions of wild pigs) in the USA.

Yes, it makes sense that Lions roamed the area. It was a warmer period, and humans were still not that numerous.

Today, the Balkan Lynx, is the last large cat that lives in the Albania and N. Macedonia area. It is a beautiful animal. Most likely it has survived so far because it is a relatively shy animal, and doesn't attack people, or doesn't instill fear like Lions did and wolves to some extend do.

https://www.dw.com/en/balkan-lynxes-the-last-of-their-kind/a...

https://exit.al/en/2020/06/25/in-albania-the-balkans-last-ly...

Thanks for ruining my evening :(

Magnificent animals. Best wishes to the poachers, their enablers, and their customers. Let there be no mercy for their souls, provided they have them

It's a good read if only for seeing how science works, how we establish sufficient evidence to support a hypothesis and how real scientists actually change their minds when presented with sufficient evidence to the contrary of their current point of view.

> Peloponnesian settlement of Aigeira, in what is now northwestern Greece

The Peloponessus does not include the northwest of modern Greece. Aigeira appears to be in the Peloponessus, judging from the supplied map. Ergo Aigeira is not in northwestern Greece.

Google maps has it here quite near Athens https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Aigeira+250+10,+Greece/@...

You'd be better of using an actual map as a source instead of Google Maps, as Google Maps redraws borders depending on what country you access it from, sometimes makes it really hard to discuss things around Google Maps links.

The article says it's in the Peloponessus, and includes a map showing it in the Peloponessus. Google maps also shows it in the Peloponessus.

The Peloponessus is in southern Greece. Even Athens is not in northwestern Greece.

Checks out. I think they got a bit muddled.

Wikipedia gives the location as "northeastern Achaea, West Greece". Maybe some of that got lost.

A lion is my pet theory for The Beast of Gévaudan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_Gévaudan

> pet theory

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