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This is Kamal a Asiatic lion from Bristol Zoo. I hadn't visited the Zoo for a few weeks and on my return I found a notice that Kamal had passed away recently at the age of 18. He is the first lion I ever photographed and I know he was much loved by the keepers at the Zoo. It is amazing the incredible sadness you feel when a familiar animal is lost but it is also a terrible sadness that he lost his life in captivity. I guess the following explains once again why there are captive animals. Oh and the white dot on his forehead is actually a small flower which fell from the tree in his enclosure. This photograph was taken in the summer; I was lucky to find this one as most were lost on a external hard drive which crashed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh I now have three external hard drives lol!

Kamal is an Asiatic Lion which are smaller than the African Lion. Asiatic Lions are critically endangered in the wild – with only about 300 remaining in the Gir Forest Sanctuary in Northern India. They were once widespread throughout Northern India and Pakistan, but hunting and habitat destruction has reduced their numbers drastically. Kamal, is looking at his lunch at this particular point in time! T