By Laura Wileman, Community Newswire
ANIMALS Lions Kent, 12 Mar 2009 - 16:47
A Kent charity is backing an urgent assessment being carried out to discover if a group of lions which have been extinct in the wild for more than half a century could still exist in zoos.
Barbary lions were once valued as royal gifts from North African kings and used for entertainment in the Roman Coliseum and circus acts.
Scientists are now trying to find the lions in the hope of reintroducing the species into a protected area in North Africa.
Pete Thompson of Wildlink International, in Kent, and Professor Helmut Hemmer and Dr Joachim Burger of the University of Mainz are carrying out the assessment, which has just been launched.
The study is being carried out by researchers in Germany, but Wildlink International says the scheme needs support from all over the globe.
Pete said: "If there are any lions left in captivity that can make the case to preserve the subspecies, there is a huge responsibility to find them wherever they might be. Extinction is forever. Captivity with the highest welfare standards for the purpose of conservation can maybe help people understand the difficult choices wildlife supporters have to make to turn things around."
Philip Huckin, also from the charity, said if the lions do exist in captivity they will have been bred with different species. He said the barbary lion genes will be diluted. "The barbary lions may become more hybridised in our day because different species are breeding," he said.
He said there were reports that barbary lions existed in about 100 different locations across the world. The ultimate aim is to see if, once discovered, the species can be rehomed in West Africa.
"Unless we find out if there is enough DNA soon we will never get the chance to do it again. There are already lion problems in Africa and it seems incredibly wasteful not to see if there's enough genetic material to eventually add to the lion pool," he said.
http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=5572302
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