The Cave Lion Was a Magnificent Creature and, Yep, We Ate Them

The Cave Lion is regarded as the largest lion which ever existed and, as you can see from the diagram, all it needs to eat us is some chop sticks for the more formal occasions.  They disappeared fourteen thousand years ago so it looks like humans wiped them out.  (Science Daily:  Upper Paleolithic humans may have hunted cave lions for their pelts,  WIKI: Panthera leo spelaea)

No need for a crash helmet due to worry over a diatribe regarding conservation since the perspective wasn't quite the same when man was just another food source.

One more pic because they were such magnificent creatures.

That's more likely to be a female since usually lionesses do the hunting but you see the relative sizes and the Cave Lion may weigh up to a thousand pounds ... yet we managed to wipe them out.  The suspicion we wiped them out comes from markings on the bones of the animals discovered in a famous cave in Spain.

The researchers found that most bones showed signs of having been modified by humans using stone tools, with a specialized technique similar to that used by modern hunters when skinning prey to keep the claws attached to the fur.  The authors suggest that the toe bones they analysed may therefore have been part of a single lion pelt, which possibly lay on the floor of the occupied cave. La Garma is known to have been associated with human rituals, and cave lions may have been symbolic animals for Upper Paleolithic humans.

While the analysis is not definitive evidence that Upper Paleolithic humans exploited cave lions for their pelts, the authors speculate that human hunting of cave lions, perhaps as part of ritual activities, might have been a factor in cave lion extinction.

- Science Daily

(Ed:  you sound almost admiring!)

To some extent I am admiring in terms of defeating the formidable foe, David succeeding against Goliath, etc but still the ultimate lament is the same that Earth would be much richer if we still had Cave Lions, Mammoths, and other animals.

(Ed:  they were collecting trophies when they were skinning them for the pelts!)

Even that is forgivable since it's not the same as the Dallas Safari Club in doing it for amusement with no risk to the hunter.  From the ancient perspective, they probably would have laughed at the idea of conservation.  What do you mean, mate?  They will eat us like fops eat hors d'oeuvres at their poofy parties and you want to keep them around?  Get the fuck outta here!

Here's Lewis Black on hunting and it's a bit dated with a references to Dick Cheney's estimable hunting skills but he's not the primary story.