Most people think that lions only come from Africa. This is understandable because in fact most lions do come from there but this has not always been the case. If we went back ten thousand years, we would find that there were lions roaming vast sections of the globe. However now, unfortunately only a very small section of the lion's former habitat remains. Asiatic lions are sub-species of African lions. It is almost a hundred thousand years since the Asiatic lions split off and developed as a sub-species. At one time the Asiatic lion was living as far west as Greece and they were found from there, but in a band that spreads east through various countries of the Middle East, all the way to India. In museums now, you can see Greek coins that have clear images of the Asiatic lion on them. Most of them are dated at around 500 B.C. However, Europe saw its last Asiatic lions roaming free two thousand years ago. Over the next nineteen hundred years the numbers of Asiatic lions in the other areas declined steadily, but it was only in the nineteenth century that they disappeared from everywhere but in India.

The Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in India was established especially to protect the Asiatic lion. There are now around three hundred Asiatic lions in India and almost all of them are in this sanctuary. However, despite living in a sanctuary, which makes them safe from hunters, they still face a number of problems that threaten their survival. One of these is the ever-present danger of disease. This is what killed more than a third of Africa’s Serengeti lions in 1994, and people are fearful that something similar could happen in the Gir Sanctuary and kill off many of the Asiatic lions there.

India's lions are particular vulnerable because they have a limited gene pool. The reason for this is interesting is because all of them are descended from a few dozen lions that were saved by a prince who took a particular interest in them. He was very healthy, and he managed to protect them; otherwise they would probably have died out completely. When you see the Asiatic lion in India, what you sense is enormous vitality. They are very impressive animals and you would never guess that they have this vulnerability when you look at them.

According to the passage, nowadays we can find the Asiatic lion ........

Câu hỏi liên quan

• Why does the author believe that the Mandans were skilled farmers?

• The purpose of the passage is to ________.

• As used in paragraph 2, the word "seeking" could best be replaced by which of the following?

ZUNIA12

• The phrase “For example,” line 19, introduces a sentence that gives examples of ........

•  The word “metamorphosis” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ................

• Approximately when did English begin to be used beyond England?

• All of the following are true about the 1970 survey of Antarctica EXCEPT that it________.

• What can be inferred about machines that are not calculators or computers?

• The author mentions all the following as examples of the behavior of desert animals EXCEPT ..........

• Look at the verb accelerate in paragraph 3. Which of the following is the closest in meaning to _____.

• The best way to protect children from improper material is .............

• The topic of this passage is______________.

• The Beatles stopped their live performances because __________

• The word “them” in the second paragraph refers to ................

• According to the passage, how are ants guided by trail pheromones?

• It can be inferred from the passage that the Puritans who traveled to the Massachusetts colony were __________.

• The author mentions all of the following as jobs held by Moore EXCEPT ________

• What is the last paragraph mainly about?

• According to the passage, approximately how many non-native users of English are there in the world today?

• Which of the following can be inferred about the order in which Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vermont joined the Union?