Panthera leo persicus is Asiatic lion

Asiatic lion
Scientific name: Panthera leo persicus
Country: India
Continent: Asia
Diet: Asiatic lions feed on wild pigs, cattle, antelope and deer in the wild. At the Zoo they are fed meat, raw eggs and a smear of marmite a week, to get a balance of vitamins. They are fed 6 days out of 7, as this reflects their natural behaviour in the wild where they would not successfully catch prey every day.
Food & feeding: Carnivore
Habitats: Tropical dry forest, tropical grassland, desert and semi-desert.
Conservation status: Critically Endangered
Relatives: African lion, Tiger, Domestic cat
Description: Asiatic lions have a shaggier coat than their African counterparts, and both sexes have a distinctive fold of skin that runs along the belly. They have a longer tassel of hair on the end of the tail and longer tufts of hair on the elbows. Males are 1.7-2.5 m long and weigh 150-250 kg. While females are 1.4-1.75 m in length and weigh in at 120-182 kg. Like all cats they are equipped with powerful retractable claws and long sharp canine teeth that are used in dragging their prey to the ground.
Lifestyle: Like African lions, hunting is a cooperative affair but adult males rarely participate. If vegetation is sparse, hunting usually takes place at night, but where it is thick, it may also take place during the day. The lions use stealth to approach their prey and then charge and either grab or knock it down before it outruns them. Only one in about four charges ends successfully. Lions are inactive for most of the day, spending up to 20 hours per day resting or sleeping.
Family & friends: Like their African cousins, Asian lions are highly social animals, living in units called prides. However, the Asiatic pride is much smaller, with an average of only 2 females compared to the African pride, which has an average of four to six. The males are also less social and only associate with the pride when mating or on a large kill. It has been suggested that this may be because of the smaller prey available in Gir. Small prey mean less animals are needed to hunt them down, and there would be less meat to share between more lions if the prides were larger.
Keeping in touch: As you can often hear when walking by Bristol Zoo Gardens in the late evening, Asiatic lions often communicate by roaring late in the day and into the night.
Growing up: Females reach sexual maturity at 2 to 4 years of age. They normally have 2 to 4 cubs after a gestation period of 100-119 days. The cubs start eating meat at about 3 months of age while continuing to suckle for up to 6 months. They spend 9 months perfecting their hunting techniques, become independent aged one and reach maturity at 3 to 4 years. Cub mortality is high, up to 80% may die before 2 years of age. They can live for about 17 years in the wild and up to 24 in captivity.
Did you know?
Although fearsome predators, Asiatic lions in the past have rarely attacked humans. But in recent years attacks on humans have been on the increase. The reason seems to be that restricting the entry of cattle that previously roamed the park has left the lions lacking a key food source, and hungry lions sometimes look to humans, whose numbers in the area have increased dramatically, for their next meal.
Conservation news
Conservation news: The Asiatic lion was once found in Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Middle East and most of India. It became extinct in Europe around 100 A.D. and in Palestine around the time of the Crusades. It remained widespread until the time of the advent of firearms in the mid 1800s, which led to widespread extinction through hunting as a sport. In 1900, the Nawab of Junagadh, the local ruler, declared the few remaining lions of the Gir forest in India protected animals. The Nawab told everyone that there were only 20 remaining to prevent people from going to the Gir to hunt them. The population was estimated to be around 100 between 1968 and 1979 but is now thought to be more than double this. However, the forest is now approaching the limit of the number of lions that it can support and other safe havens for Asiatic lions in India are sorely needed. One suggested location is the Barda Hills near Porbandar. The Gir Forest is a dry deciduous forest in Gujarat, western India. Its wildlife sanctuary is 545 square miles with only the central 100 square miles completely protected as a National Park. About 7,500 Maldhari people and their 14,000 cattle live in the Forest Sanctuary, with a further 160,000 people and 100,000 cattle living within 6 miles of the Sanctuary. As there are so few Asiatic lions, it is necessary to manage the captive and wild populations if the species is to recover. It is essential to ensure that all the lions are pure bred and that pairs are not closely related to one another. Bristol Zoo Gardens is actively involved in this programme.
Animals at Bristol Zoo
Our Asiatic lions are Moti (female) and Chandra (male). Moti was born at Helsinki Zoo in July 1994 and came to Bristol Zoo Gardens in 1996. Chandra was born at Chester Zoo in October 1994 and came to us from Cotswold Wildlife Park in 1996. Two cubs were born at Bristol Zoo Gardens in August 1998, Indi and Dacca, and a third in August 2001, Aiesha. They have since grown up and moved to other Zoos as part of a conservation breeding programme, coordinated by London Zoo.

landmark lion study in UK

Doha researcher contributes to landmark lion study in UK
Publish Date: Saturday,5 April, 2008, at 01:52 AM Doha Time

Yamaguchi with a model of a lion’s skull

Staff Reporter

A RESEARCHER at Qatar University (QU) has contributed to a landmark study which recorded the first genetic evidence that England’s first lions hailed from North Africa where the species is extinct in the wild today.Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, assistant professor of Animal Ecology at QU’s Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, was a member of a team of researchers from London’s Natural History Museum and Oxford University.

The mission centred on two lion skulls found during excavations at the Tower of London. The lions were part of the Royal Menagerie, a collection of animals also including leopards, bears and other exotic animals that were probably gifts to English monarchs.

The examination of the mitochondrial DNA of well preserved skulls and analysis of the jawbones of the two lions revealed that they shared unique genes with the North African Barbary lion.

The link was further strengthened by the comparison of the skulls with Asiatic and North African Barbary lion skulls that are preserved in natural history collections in the UK and Europe.

Radiocarbon dating of the skulls showed them to be from the 13th to 15th centuries, making them the earliest confirmed lion remains in Britain since the extinction of the Pleistocene cave lion. According to Yamaguchi, historic records show that lions could be found from North Africa through the Middle East to India until the growth of civilisations along the Egyptian Nile and Sinai Peninsula almost 4,000 years ago stopped gene flow, isolating the lion populations.

“Western North Africa was the nearest region to Europe to sustain lion populations until the early 20th century, making it an obvious and practical source for mediaeval merchants. Apart from a tiny population in northwest India, lions have been practically exterminated outside sub-Saharan Africa by the turn of the 20th century,” he explained.The Barbary Lion, which lived in North Africa from Morocco to Egypt, is now extinct in the wild. There are about 40 in captivity in Europe, with less than a 100 in zoos around the world.

Commenting on the study, Yamaguchi observed that through such research he is seeking to improve the quality of his teaching which in turn will have great benefits for his students at QU in terms of raising their level of interest in the sciences and in research. “Good research really helps teaching and more efforts need to be injected in supporting it,” he said.'>

Indian Lions Moving out of Gir Sanctuary

Indian Lions Moving out of Gir Sanctuary
It has been reported from India that at least 6 lions have recently left The Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary and relocated themselves some 50 miles to the Amreli region. There have been increasing reports of lions, sometimes in prides, roaming outside the boundaries of Gir Forest.
As the lion population in Gir grows, coupled with increasing encroachment into the park iteslf, it is inevitable that the lions will succumb to that pressure, and start to wander outside the sanctuary. New Habitat Required The pressue on Gir heightens the need for new habitat to be designated for the Asiatic lions. There are roughly 359 Asiatic Lions living in Gir forest today. However the conservation success over the last 50 years means that there are now more lions than there is room in Gir. Many of the Lions have been straying outside the sanctuary due to the population pressure, so the State and Central Government are planning to add 300 sq. km more area to the existing 1460 sq. km. In last two decades two regions have been added to the area of National Park, but there is now urgent need for a further expansion. There have also been plans made to create a second reserve, which would help protect the still severely endangered lions from outbreaks of disease, but these plans seems to have stalled at the moment.