The majestic big cats, slightly smaller than their African cousins and with a fold of skin along their bellies, were once found widely across southwest Asia.
Hunting and human encroachment saw the population plunge to just 20 by 1913, and the lions are now found only in a wildlife sanctuary in India's western Gujarat state.
Above, lion cubs in their open enclosure at the Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden, which takes part in a captive breeding programme for endangered Asiatic lions, in Junagadh, some 320 kilometers from Ahmedabad.
AFP