Читать книгу Geography For Dummies - Jerry T. Mitchell - Страница 34

Where are African lions located and why? Obviously, they live in Africa, and I know this to be true after nearly stepping on some — seriously — while in Kenya.

I was quietly walking up to some cape buffalo for a photograph and thought I could sneak up on them by being hidden behind a tree. As I approached the tree, suddenly three lions sprang out from the grass underneath it. I can only guess that the lions were enjoying the shade or hoping to surprise one of those same cape buffalo. Spooked, the lions ran off to the west. Spooked, I pondered a change of underwear.

So, we know that lions are in Africa but not in all parts. Why? That geographic question is central to our first case study.

I’d love to be able to pack you off to Africa (with your own change of underwear) and to have you acquire relevant geographic information, but that’s not very practical. Instead, I simply refer you to Figure 2-1, which presents geographic information that has been acquired and organized in a map. So where are African lions located? What’s the message of the map?

(© John Wiley & Sons Inc.)

FIGURE 2-1: A map of the historical geography of the African lion.

The answer is that African lions are much less widespread than they used to be. The map tells you this by using two kinds of shadings, the meanings of which are shown in the map legend. One shade shows areas where lions are found at present. Another depicts where lions formerly roamed. The last, blank space indicates areas where, so far as anyone can tell, lions have never lived.