Hi!
First I wonder how lion would bear the northern climate and environment.
Probably lion would not survive a though winter with -20/-30 Celsius?
If the winter could be warmer lion and lion would find a belowground cave for resting, he or she could survive?
Back in time there were cave lions but they probably evolutionarised during thousands and millions of years to stand the climate? African or indian lion could not adapt so fast?
Probably lion could capture some deer, moose or wild boar.
Secondly I wonder if smaller mammals (eg suricates) can live in territory of lion and have a benefit from lion being territorial and not letting smaller carnivores on its territory, and itself hunting only bigger pray not suricates?
Thirdly I wonder if lion father has a role of teaching his cubs?
Big cats (tiger; leopard) currently live in the Far East of the Eurasian continent at the indicated frost levels. Kalahari lions live in places with up to thirty frost nights per year. Consequently, ambient temperatures are unlikely to be a limitation. However, lion breed and hunt in groups, similar to canidae. Maybe the lion's high weight and pack hunting skills are best adapted to open plains rather than mountains where leopard and tiger thrive. My guess, as long as large herds of wild sheep, reindeer or saiga antelopes are present, a large, gregarious lion look-alike could be part of the boreal food web. The presence of herbivore herds implies C-3 grass to eat and limited deep snow cover; the latter means continental climatic conditions.
Lions lived far north of their current range during the Pleistocene. North America had the largest felid known, Felis atrox. They were even in ice-age Alaska. An animal from a warm climate would probably need acclimation, but their ancestors did it.
I think that while african lion (Panthera leo) adaptation to changing climatic conditions is likely, the lion survival and distribution would depend on food availability (prey base), dictated by levels of resilience of primary productivity to biotic and abiotic environment.
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