About 85 Asian lions live in captivity. There are only about 280 Asian lions in the wild. What caused them to die off? It was the invention of gunpowder, which started spot hunting. The lions were hunted because they were slow and easy to kill. After the hunting of Asian lions for sport became illegal the greatest threat was habitat destruction. They now attack people because they think that people pose a threat to them.

Asian lions are not much different from their African cousins. The differences are: the Asian lion is much smaller, has a much shorter mane, and a fold of skin under the belly. They also hunt much smaller prey. The male Asian lion is not part of the pride (group of lions). Unlike the African lion pride where the male is part of the pride. Their prey is also much smaller. They have litters of one to five young.. Adult males weigh about 160 to 190 kg. (230 to 280 pounds.). While adult females weigh about 120 to 180 kg. (240 to 260 pounds.) Males are normally 1.7 to 2.5 meters (5 to 8 feet) long. while adult females are about 1.4 to 1.75 meters(4 to 7 feet) long. Their tails about 70 to 105 cm. long. They eat deer, antelope, wild boar, and buffalo. the Asiatic lion is the most endangered large carnivore in the world. India is the only know place in the world to find wild Asian lions. How do they count the lions you ask? First a rough count is made over the course of about a month. Then they count the plug (paw) mark for two days, then they put 100 buffalo calves in different places in the park.. The bait (the buffalo calves) is then watched and the lions that come to kill the calves are counted. That is how they count the lions in the Gir forest.