Asiatic Lioness and her cubs, Gir National Park, Gujarat, India 2015
About 400 Asiatic Lions left in the state of Gujarat in Western India. They are quite different from their African cousins. They are slightly smaller, the males have less of a mane and they have an unusual fold of skin running along their bellies. Having dallied with extinction, they now live in the beautiful national park of Gir where they are slowly increasing in number. In Gir there is also a small population of Gujarati speaking African settlers from Eastern Africa who contribute to the surreal nature of this landscape. I was in a safari jeep hoping to glimpse these beasts (never guaranteed) when we stumbled on two adolescent males who as yet did not have their own pride. Later on I had a much more lucky sighting, when we stumbled across a large pride who were enjoying a kill. As one mother took a rest under shady tree, she was joined by two cubs who just wanted to play and this conjured up this rather attractive family pose.