- Lions at London Zoo are descended from 'founders' brought to Europe in the 90s
- London's lions are all part of the European Endangered breeding programme
- But the programme is being questioned with 70 per cent of cubs dying
The lions at London Zoo are part of a breeding programme in which 70 per cent of cubs are dying, a study has found.
The lions are all descended from a very small number of ‘founders’ brought over to Europe in the 1990s.
But
the ‘extremely high degree of genetic similarity’ of the founders’
offspring is ‘detrimental’ to their health, according to researchers.
Lions at London Zoo are at risk as they are part of a breeding programme in which 70 per cent of cubs are dying
The European Endangered breeding programme was set up to save the Asiatic lion in the mid-1990s.
The idea was to have a pool of pure Asiatic lions that could be reintroduced to India if the species became locally extinct.
Nine
founder lions were brought to Europe, of which four went to London Zoo,
while the rest went to Helsinki and Zurich zoos. And even these
‘founders’ were already highly related – with six of the lions sharing
the same grandparents.
In December 2009 the EEP population
of Asian lions had risen to 93 individuals across 34 zoos. But the study
found 68.4 per cent of cubs from this family were dying at birth or
shortly afterwards.
Some 57 lions were
born between 2007 and 2009. Of these 39 died after birth, of which 35
died within 20 days, three within two months and one was euthanased at
four years old.
The report in the
journal Mammalian Biology said the breeding programme at the zoo was
‘not viable’ long term. There are currently four lions at London Zoo. Dr
Paul O’Donoghue, one of the report’s authors, said the high number of
deaths called into question the zoos’ lion conservation programme.
The Land of the Lion enclosure in London Zoo is designed to like an Indian village where the animals live in the wild
The
geneticist at the University of Chester said: ‘Sixty per cent of lion
cubs [are dying]. There are situations where they’ve bred the
grandfathers with the granddaughters. This shows that the concept that
zoos are conservation tools is completely false. This research blows
that idea apart.’
The report said the death rate was much too high considering the lions had access to top grade veterinary care.
There were 523 Asiatic lions in the wild at the last count – a species much rarer than the better known African lion.
The
EEP lions are so closely related, the report said, that further matings
were not advisable. It suggested new lions from India need to be added
to the breeding programme to ensure the ‘long-term viability of the
offspring’.
Malcolm Fitzpatrick,
curator of mammals for ZSL (Zoological Society of London) said: ‘We
welcome this study and the advancements in science that will assist in
the conservation breeding of Asiatic lions and other endangered species
in zoos throughout Europe and India.
‘[It] may also assist with management of isolated populations in the wild that themselves have limited genetic variability.’
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