Lion
Lions(Panthera Leo) were Earth felids. They are one of 4 panthera big cats.
Lions lived in Greece in the 16th century BC, though they later died out. When the Tenth Doctor and June visited the place where there would later be the Parthenon, they were attacked by lions. The Doctor was able to defeat one and they both escaped. Later, when they were leaving they encountered the lions again, which the Doctor subdued by tickling with his sonic screwdriver. (NSA: The Stone Rose)
Ian Chesterton saw a lion while imprisoned in Rome. It was intended that he fight the beast but this event was changed in favour of a duel for Nero. (DW: The Romans)
In an alternate timeline, lions survived despite the Silurian's reintroduction of extinct species. In Africa, Baryonyx would kill and feed on gazelle and leave the scraps for the lions. (NA: Blood Heat)
K9 once encountered lions on an unnamed planet in another dimension, partially inhabited by ex-Tellac miners. They lived alongside other Earth animals from widely varying periods of evolutionary history. On this planet, prides of lions lived around acacia trees, males in the branches, females in the shade underneath. (AK9: K9 and the Missing Planet)
Cultural references to lions
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a book by C. S. Lewis. (DWM: The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop)
- In Pete's World, Mr Crane had "track 90" played once large-scale cyber-conversion was underway in London. This song referred to sleeping lions. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen)
- Nelson's Column, a monument to Horatio Nelson, had 4 lion statues around it. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
