"Lions?" I said. "In India? Don't you mean tigers?" "No," my friend said. "They have lions in Gujarat. The last surviving Asiatic lions in the wild. And we can see them on safari." Now, I don't have much luck on safari. I've been to tiger reserves across India, and never seen a tiger. But chance encounters with wild animals, that's another story. Once, near the Syria-Lebanon border, I woke to a wolf howling right outside my window. Driving through north Bengal late at night, I had to stop … [Read more...]