Thousands of years ago, lions were common throughout southern Europe, southern Asia,

eastern and central India and over the whole of the African continent. Today, with the

exception of some 300 highly protected animals in the Gir National Park of India, the only

naturally-occuring lions are found in Africa. (But even in Africa lions have been wiped out in

the north; the last Numidian male was shot as a trophy in the 1930s.) Lions do not live in

heavy forests and jungles and they do not inhabit desert areas due to a scarcity of game.