Black Maned Lion

No, this is not a lion wearing a dog sweater. It is what people call a black maned lion.

Black manes - and the manes are actually dark not black - can appear in almost any species. Lions in the Kalahari desert have a relatively high proportion of black maned lions.

The most famous black maned lions are the Barbary lion of Morocco and the Cape lion of South Africa. Although you will find zoos that say they have honest-to-goodness Barbaries and Capes, DNA tests have not found that any currently living beasties have genetic profiles that fit those from preserved hair samples from those actual subspecies. Other tests have even raised doubt that the historically black maned lion are really genetically distinguishable from other species.

Sad to say, the consensus is that last true Barbary lion, also called the Atlas lion after the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, fell to a hunter's rifle in 1922. The true Cape lion disappeared in the 19th century.

You can learn a bit more about lions - of whatever mane characteristics - if you just click here.

References

"The Black-Maned Kalahari Lions", Tswalu Kalahari, Tswalu, August 10, 2013.

"When Did the Barbary Lion Really Go Extinct?", John R. Platt, Extinction Countdown, Scientific American, April 22, 2013.