Barbary Lion News
DNA tests help bring back legendary roar
Barbary lions, extinct in the wild since the 1920s, may make a comeback thanks
to scientists in Britain.
By Alexander MacLeod , Special to The Christian Science Monitor
At first glance, the playful bundle of fur with tufted ears and stretching claws
could be any other lion cub.
In fact, Saffiya (Saffi for short) who is approaching her first birthday, is
very special.
She may hold answers to two questions that continue to nag at the minds of
animal researchers:
Is the Barbary lion, believed to have been used by the ancient Romans to kill
Christians in the arena, really extinct?
And, if there are lions still carrying its genes, can genetic fingerprinting (or
should that be "pawprinting"?) be used to bring these beautiful big
cats back from the brink of oblivion?
Kay Hill, founder of the conservation charity Wildlink
International, based in
Essex, England, says she has "high hopes" that genetic testing
currently being carried out on lions and lion tissue in several European
countries will "result in a major breakthrough."
"It is a very exciting project," says Ms. Hill. "Barbaries are
such wonderful animals.
"Whenever people think of a lion, they think of a Barbary.... But it is
important to carry out precise research ahead of a breeding program. Many
believe any lion with a black mane and dark chest hair is a Barbary. That isn't
true. Only DNA testing can prove the lineage of a Barbary."
New additions to a noble line
Saffi's father is Kabir, known to descend from the Barbary lions owned by the
king of Morocco when the last known Barbary in the wild was shot in the 1920s.
Her mother is Jade, whose pedigree runs from the same source.
Both lions are held at Port Lympne Zoo, in Kent, where Saffi was born last July.
In a further sign of success, two more cubs, as yet unnamed, were born to the
pair early this year.
A full-grown male Barbary lion is said by historians to have weighed more than
500 pounds, compared with less than 400 pounds for today's male African lion. A
Barbary could measure 10 feet from its ears to the tip of its tail. It reached
Rome from North Africa more than 2,000 years ago.
"It is probable that the Romans used Barbary lions in their gladiatorial
contests," says Hill. "The authorities in the Italian capital have
granted us permission to take bone samples from skeletons in dungeons underneath
the Colosseum. That will happen in a few weeks.
"We are also taking powdered bone samples from known Barbary-lion skeletons
in museums in Italy, France, and Belgium, and subjecting them to DNA testing at
Oxford University. Then we'll take hair samples from Saffi and her parents, and
see whether we get genetic matches," Hill says.
"We're looking for the closest possible DNA match. We hope Saffi will
provide the start point for selectively breeding the Barbary lion back into
existence," she adds.
A fabled past
Panthera leo leo, as the breed is known formally in Latin, is famous in legend
and history.
In Aesop's fables, it would have been a Barbary lion that spared Androcles in
the arena, out of gratitude to the Greek slave who earlier removed a thorn from
his paw.
Julius Caesar once put 400 of the animals on show. His rival Pompey went one
better with 600.
In Ethiopia this century, the Emperor Haile Selassie tethered Barbary lions near
his throne.
A Barbary was used as a model for the bronze lions seen today in London's
Trafalgar Square.
Most recently, the menacing Scar in Disney's "Lion King" was patterned
on a Barbary. Hill has "serious doubts," however, about whether the
lion that roars before every MGM movie is a Barbary. "But we're checking it
out," she says.
Barbaries, also known as Nubian lions, used to prowl widely in North Africa,
which was then forested terrain. But by 1700, the last wild Barbary in Libya had
been killed by farmers concerned about the threat to livestock.
By 1800, the species was extinct in Egypt. Only in Morocco did it continue to
survive in remote areas. Eventually the last known Barbaries became captives in
the royal collection in Rabat, the capital.
"Through genetic fingerprinting we hope to identify and selectively breed
lions which carry Barbary genes," says Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, an animal
ecologist at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Unit, where the DNA
testing will be done. "I think we could reach our goal in a couple of
generations."
If all goes well, says Dr. Yamaguchi, the next step will be to release specially
bred lions on a site in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. Wildlink's Hill has already
made arrangements for that to happen. Two years ago, she persuaded the Moroccan
government to set aside some 250,000 acres in the mountain range for Barbary
lions to roam.
"We need to plant vegetation and introduce a food source," says Hill.
Arrangements are being made to provide the lions with natural prey, such as red
deer.
Morocco is keen to restore the Barbary lion's lineage.
"It is our ideal to see the Barbary lion back in the wild," says
Brahim Haddane,curator of Morocco's Rabat Zoo, which houses the king's
collection of about two-dozen animals. "I have been working for this for
the last 20 years."
Two decades ago, a team of German scientists also tried to breed Barbaries, but
failed.
Hill believes success this time is vital. "If we fail, another part of our
untamed past will live only as a symbol, a myth, and a memory," she says.
2007 Update:
Unfortunately the only female lion thought to be an appropriate candidate for breeding has died. The project has collapsed and there is no hope of reviving the Barbary Lion.
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