The lion is the King Of The Jungle?

[Essentially]

This is said lots of time and many of us may have said it at some point; yet it isn't either accurate nor true. Lions are rarely seen in the jungle at all; 'rarely' being the objective word here and 'the jungle' is the jungle.

Is it a case of it being said one time back in history and it stayed? In any case; it clearly isn't accurate.

What do you think?

[heathfield]

I think you're right. Early travellers' tales about 'vast open plains' wouldn't have been nearly as exciting to an audience as would the descriptions of the dangers lurking in the jungle. No doubt this led to an impression that the whole of Africa south of the Sahara resembled what we know of the Amazon rain-forest!

[Buenchico]

Hmm.

I can see your point but perhaps the phrase 'king of the jungle' is a translation from Hindi?

According to the OED, the word 'jungle' is derived from Sanskrit (jangala), via Hindi (jangal), and originally roughly meant 'desert' and/or 'forest'. In which case, 'jungle' (in its original form) could have been used to describe the type of habitat which (prior to being hunted to near extinction) was favoured by the Asiatic lion.

Chris

[Essentially]

Thank you heathfield and Buenchico.

Heath: I take your point on that issue and perhaps it was a case of (at one time) there being no distinction between the plains and the actual jungle/forests. I guess that would account for how it was handed down. Buenchico: I think the same explanation would fall in line in what you say too; habitat of both jungle and plains accredited to be one and the same, although today there is a clear distinction between the two.

I think the only reason why this puzzled me for so long was when I watched a nature programme some time back. I remember little of the Wildlife Expert; but I do remember him saying it is now a common misconception that would always be forgiven purely for the great majesty of the lion and the great part it plays within the structure of what is Nature itself. It took all of 30 seconds for him to mention it and I have never heard it mentioned since; it was just a passing thought that always stayed with me � I just rambled into here.


In any case, I found it something to ponder over; when considering that the lion is the least likely inhabitant of the jungle itself.

Than you so much for your input; I greatly appreciate it :-)

~FrankiE~

[jno]

as Chris suggests, they live in fairly jungly areas in Asia, though there aren't many left. They used to range much more widely, as far as Yemen and Turkey, but are now confined to forest land in India.

[Aquagility]

Essentially speaks of jungle as though it were forest. but it need not be. Even today the native people of Assam refer to any uncultivated land as jungle, and to have gone jungli means to have gone wild.