{"id":1226,"date":"2018-12-19T19:08:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T19:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/?p=1226"},"modified":"2018-12-19T19:08:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T19:08:54","slug":"fragmentation-of-lion-populations-a-global-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/2018\/12\/19\/fragmentation-of-lion-populations-a-global-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragmentation of lion populations: a global threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/files\/2018\/12\/Current-and-recent-lion-Distrobution-2018.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-1227 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/files\/2018\/12\/Current-and-recent-lion-Distrobution-2018-226x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"420\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/files\/2018\/12\/Current-and-recent-lion-Distrobution-2018-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/files\/2018\/12\/Current-and-recent-lion-Distrobution-2018-768x1021.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/a>Lions are one of the more numerous charismatic carnivores, merely &#8216;vulnerable&#8217; according to the IUCN Red List.<\/p>\n<p>However the real picture, aside from core populations in east Africa, is one of fragmentation. For most of their historic range lions are today only found either in isolated protected areas, the remnants of habitats from their former range (particularly in West Africa, Central Africa and India) or in fenced reserves (Southern Africa).<\/p>\n<p>Their history of survival and decline elsewhere suggests this is a very poor situation. We see our surviving African and Indian populations suffering pressures for the last two or three decades but clinging on. This may not be sustainable. In North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco) and the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey) the same situation held true from the 1880s through to the 1940s (even 1950s). Today few people would associate any of those countries with the lion.<\/p>\n<p>Will we say the same about many of its current range states in the next ten or twenty years?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Black, SA (2016) \u201cThe Challenges and Relevance of Exploring the Genetics of North Africa\u2019s \u201cBarbary Lion\u201d and the Conservation of Putative Descendants in Captivity,\u201d\u00a0<i>International Journal of Evolutionary Biology<\/i>, vol. 2016, Article ID 6901892, 9 pages, 2016.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1155\/2016\/6901892\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1155\/2016\/6901892<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/files\/2018\/12\/Current-and-recent-lion-Distrobution-2018.png\">.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Black, SA, Fellous, A, Yamaguchi, N. and Roberts, DL (2013) Examining the extinction of the Barbary Lion and its implications for\u00a0felid conservation. PLoS ONE,\u00a0 8 (4), Article ID e60174<\/p>\n<p>Bauer, H,\u00a0 Chapron, G,\u00a0 Nowell, K. et al., (2015) Lion (Panthera leo) populations are declining rapidly across Africa, except in intensively\u00a0managed areas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u00a0of the United States of America, 112 (48), pp. 14894\u201314899.<\/p>\n<p>A. E. Schnitzler, AE (2011) Past and present distribution of the North<br \/>\nAfrican-Asian lion subgroup: a review. Mammal Review, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 220\u2013243.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lions are one of the more numerous charismatic carnivores, merely &#8216;vulnerable&#8217; according to the IUCN Red List. However the real picture, aside from core populations in east Africa, is one of fragmentation. For most of their historic range lions are today only found either in isolated protected areas, the remnants of habitats from their former [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2246,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[122193,122052,1346],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1226"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1234,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions\/1234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/barbarylion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}