Zoo in northern India sets up old age home for dying lions

International Herald Tribune (The Associated Press, Published: Sept. 20, 2006)

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/20/asia/AS_GEN_India_Asiatic_Lions.php

NEW DELHI Zookeepers in north India are watching mournfully as nearly two dozen lions slowly die after a breeding program left many cats sick, a wildlife official said Wednesday.

The program, which began in the late 1980s at the Chhatbir Zoo, tried to crossbreed Asiatic and African lions. It was discontinued in 2002 after many of the nearly 80 lions bred were struck by a mysterious disease aggravated by inbreeding and a weakened gene pool, said Kuldip Kumar, Punjab state's conservator of forests and wildlife. The Chhatbir Zoo, near the city of Chandigarh, is in Punjab state.

When the program ended, all of the male lions were given vasectomies to prevent further breeding, Kumar said. It will take about six years for the remaining 22 lions bred through the program to die of natural causes, he said.

Zoo authorities have decided to launch a new captive breeding project using "pure Asiatic lion stock from other zoos in the country but only after the last of the earlier crop of lions have been phased out," he said. The zoo has recently built an enclosed area for the oldest and most infirm of the lions, so they are not attacked by the more robust cats.

"At any time the zoo has around four to five lions that are too old and weak to compete with the younger more aggressive lions. This enclosure for them separates them from the younger lot," Kumar said. The lions are fed boneless meat and kept away from the zoo's immensely popular lion safari area, which is spread over 15 hectares (37 acres), he said.

Wildlife officials had originally hoped the hybrid cats could be introduced into the wild in an effort to bolster India's endangered wild lion population. "But we decided to stop breeding them after the lions were struck by a mysterious disease and some 30 of them died in 1999 and 2000," Kumar said.

Since Indian wildlife laws prevent killing animals, a cull of the aging cats has been ruled out. Meanwhile, zoo authorities were trying to make life a little bit more comfortable for the beasts.

Wildlife experts say rampant poaching is driving the Asiatic lion to extinction, especially in the Gir forests in western India, the last wild refuge of the big cats.

The last lion census conducted in the Gir forests in 2000 put the number of Asiatic lions at 320. However, the animals' numbers have further dwindled due to poaching, open wells that act as death traps and human encroachment on the lions' habitat.

Lions are poached for their pelts and claws, both of which command a huge price in the illegal wildlife trade.

Find Everything about ASIATIC LION & GIR at www.asiaticlion.org

or contact info@asiaticlion.org

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------