In this 1925 photograph captured by French photographer Marcelin Flandrin during a flight on the Casablanca-Dakar air route, a lone lion traverses the desert, possibly one of the last Barbary lions in the wild before their extinction.

Barbary lions once roamed the expansive deserts and mountains along the Barbary coast in North Africa, from modern-day Morocco to Egypt. Noted for their dark manes, these lions were captured for Roman colosseum games, where they played a role in "condemnation to beasts" executions.

The decline of Barbary lions continued with the Arab empire's expansion from 632 to 1258, as the Islamic Golden Age came to an end. Despite the turmoil and empires falling, Barbary lions endured until European colonists arrived in the 19th century. The rise of big-game hunting during this period led to the demise of the remaining population. No Barbary lions were sighted from 1901 to 1910, and by the 1920s, they were believed extinct.

While reported sightings occurred in 1948 in Morocco and 1958 near Sétif, Algeria, the Barbary lions' habitat was destroyed during the Algerian War. Today, approximately 100 captive lions carry Barbary lion genes, but none are purebred.

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