Cape lion

The Cape lion was a lion Panthera leo melanochaita population in South Africa's Natal and Cape Provinces which has been locally extinct since the mid-19th century. The type specimen originated at the Cape of Good Hope and was described in 1842.

The Cape lion was once considered a distinct lion subspecies. However, phylogeographic analysis has shown that lion populations in Southern and East Africa are closely related. In 2017, the subspecies Panthera leo melanochaita was recircumscribed to include all lion populations in Southern and East Africa. Genetic analysis published in 2023 suggests that Cape lions were not particularly distinctive from other Southern African lion populations.