KEEPING MY EYE ON YOU

I spent an enjoyable three years in the Gir Forest of India studying the Asiatic lion for my doctoral dissertation. On this occasion I was observing a familiar...
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I spent an enjoyable three years in the Gir Forest of India studying the Asiatic lion for my doctoral dissertation. On this occasion I was observing a familiar pride of lions when a yearling cub left the group to come over and check out my telescope. Fortunately I was able to shoo him away before he tried knocking it over, chewing on it or carrying it away. Once found across a broad swath of land stretching across Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and a major portion of India, the Asiatic lion was driven to near extinction during the British Colonial Empire days when firearms became abundant. While today they only exist in the wild in the Gir Forest and surrounding areas in western Gujarat State, locally their numbers are thriving thanks to the many conservation decisions taken by the Indian government.
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