That's a bit of a simplification of what the article reports, which is that desert lions were there before being driven out by nearby farmers in 2002. They came

That's a bit of a simplification of what the article reports, which is that desert lions were there before being driven out by nearby farmers in 2002. They came back because of the drought and lack of non-marine prey. Seems likely that there have been lions there for a very long time, which sort of by definition means that they're adapted for living there, even if that adaptation was spurred by difficulty in getting "normal" prey.