I wasn’t planning on posting another photo of a lion this week, but as it turns out today is World Lion Day. In the last 50 years or so, we’ve seen the lion population in Africa decline nearly 95 percent which means that without immediate action, one day we could live in a world where images and statues of these creatures are all we have.

The photo that follows is a black and white rendition of the image that appeared in my last Thursday’s Special post. It is a local lion from the Zagreb Zoo, quite old and tired.

This summer I visited Slovenia, a beautiful mountainous country bordering with Croatia. There I was high up in the mountains at the Predel pass at the spot that once marked the border of Austro-Hungarian Empire. The fortress that can be seen there today was built in the 19th century to replace an earlier wooden fortress that was burned down in a fierce battle between Napoleon’s Armada and the Austrian defenders in 1809. In spite of the enemy’s superiority the border regiment of Austrian – Croatian soldiers bravely warded off all the attacks and did not answer the call to surrender.

In memory of the then killed soldiers Emperor Ferdinand I built a mighty monument consisting of a 6 m high rock wall with a pyramid leaning on it, and a cast-iron statue of a wounded lion at the bottom to stress the magnitude of the memorial.

You can grab my Black & White Sunday widget and join me. Show me your black and white photos regardless of the theme.

Related posts:

• Light: Black and White Sunday & Weekend in Black and White

• There’s something about Mary

• Black & White Sunday: Lion heart – Khimaira 

• The lions return

• Brighton Harbour