«Гигиена» на Яндекс.Фотках
Maybe you are right because you have a TV, visit zoos and see lions relatively often. Sometimes the artists have to paint or make a sculpture of something or somebody that he/she had nevewr seen before. On my next photo is the entrance in the Dom of Salerno.
There are a lion and a lioness symbolizing the power and the love of the church. A medieval sculptor had never seen a lioness. So, the lioness for the door has a mane. And maybe it's the only lioness with the mane in the world!