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Lion Conservation
From CopperWiki
When people think lions, they usually think Africa; the scientific name of the African Lion is Panthera leo krugeri. But there is another lion, the rare and endemic Asiatic Lion, Panthera leo persica, which survives in a small patch of forest — the Gir National Park — in Gujarat in India. Although genetically distinct from the sub-Saharan African lion, the difference is not large. In fact, the difference is less than that found between different human racial groups. The closeness in genetic make-up between the Asiatic and the African lions indicates that the two populations separated as recently as 100,000 years ago.
In India, the lion came under heavy hunting pressure and, by the turn of the century, was restricted to the Gir forest
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[edit] Description
The most noticeable physical characteristic found in all Asiatic lions is a longitudinal fold of skin running along the belly. Also, the mane of the Asiatic lion is generally shorter than that of the African lion. Asiatic lions are, in general, slightly smaller than African lions. Studies on Gir lions yielded the following figures: Adult males weighed 160-190 kg, while adult females weighed 110-120 kg. Like their African cousins, Asiatic lions are highly sociable animals living in social units called prides. The most common prey is cheetal and sambar deer. However, domestic cattle have historically been a major component of the lions’ diet.
[edit] History
The range of this lion sub-species formerly stretched from Northern Greece across south-west Asia to central India. It became extinct in Eastern Europe around 100 AD, and in Palestine around the time of the Crusades. It remained widespread elsewhere until the advent of firearms in the mid-1800s, and firearms led to the widespread extinction of the lion. The lion had disappeared from Turkey by the late 1800s; the last reported sightings in Iraq and Iran date to 1918 and 1942, respectively. In India, the lion came under heavy hunting pressure and, by the turn of the century, was restricted to the Gir forest.
Once the Asiatic lion commanded a range from Persia to Central India, but agriculture and demands of a burgeoning human population destroyed their forests, and hunting took a massive toll. For the Mughals, the lion was the ultimate trophy; Emperor Akbar killed seven in one go at Meerut and Emperor Aurangzeb put his son, Sultan Mauzzam, to test by ordering him to attack and kill a lion. Emperor Jehnagir records his encounters with the lion at Palam, the site of the international airport in Delhi.
After the Mughals, the various Maharajas and the British continued the destruction. The massacre took its toll and by the end of the 18th century, the lion king was no more, save in a tiny patch of forest in Kathaiawar. It was the Nawab of Junagadh, an ardent animal lover, who came to the rescue of the lion. The animal also found an unlikely saviour in the then Viceroy, Lord Curzon, who once wrote a letter urging their protection: “Up until the time of the Mutiny, lions were shot in central India. They are now confined to the ever narrowing patch of forest in Kathiawar. I was on the verge of contributing to their still further reduction a year ago myself, but fortunately found out my mistake in time, and was able to adopt a restrain that I hope others will follow.”
The Nawab of Junagadh protected his wards ardently, a practice continued by possessive devotion by the government today.
[edit] Threats
The Asiatic Lion is among the world’s most endangered cats today — at just about 350 wild lions. Big cats are territorial animals that demand large space and the 1,400 sq km of the Gir forest is too small for them. The result is that there are more than 80 lions outside the sanctuary, occupying about 4,000km, making their protection a harrowing, if not impossible task. Moreover, as the big cats are pushed into human habitation, conflict has intensified, and while man-eating is very rare, a large part of the lion’s prey is cattle. Consequently, lions are poisoned in revenge.
Poaching for trade was perhaps the only threat the Panthera leo persica was relatively safe against, but it has now been proved otherwise. In one month — March 2007 — eight lions became the poacher’s target, in much the same way tigers have always been. Investigations revealed that they were killed by the same gang — poachers from Katni in central India. This spurt in poaching has been linked to, what appears to be, an increase in demand for lion parts in the Chinese mainland. It is feared that they are being used as a substitute for tiger bones in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is learnt that with tiger bones getting scarcer, lions are now the target.
The biggest threat to the lion is that the gene pool is confined to one small habitat. The fear is that an outbreak of a disease or natural disaster could wipe out the entire population. It is a real threat; in 1994, canine distemper killed more than a third of Africa’s Serengeti lions. The Gir population is especially vulnerable to disease since they descend for from a gene pool of barely two dozen. If you were to do their DNA printing, the lions appear like identical twins.
[edit] References and Sources
- The King and I: Travels in Tigerland, Prerna Singh Bindra
- Wildlife of India, E.P. Gee
- The Story of Asia’s Lions, Divyabhanusinh
