“I tawt I taw a puddy tat!”: Lost lion populations are going unnoticed
A new study by conservationists Dr Simon Black and Dr David Roberts and from the Durrell Institute of Conservation & Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology & Conservation, University of Kent, has revealed that not only could the now extinct Barbary Lion have persisted until the 1960s in North Africa, but that these lion populations toward the end where going unnoticed for over a decade.
Using information gathered from old hunting records, photographs, museum specimens and published accounts, Drs Black and Roberts along with their colleague Dr Nobuyuki Yamaguchi from the University of Qatar found authentic records of lions existing in North Africa as late as 1956; considerably later that the well quoted records of the 1920s and 1940s.
Dr Black explained “Colonial hunters such as Sir Harry Johnston (who famously discovered the Okapi) went on trips to Algeria specifically to hunt the last Barbary Lions, but never saw them. Even though Johnston suspected a few lions still existed there in the early 1900s, he would never have guessed that a small population could have clung on for a further 50 years.” Supporting this analysis, recent interviews conducted in Algeria by their colleague Dr Amina Fellous (Agence Nationale pour la Conservation de la Nature in Algiers), unearthed eye-witness sightings from local people of lions seen in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s – all of which were unknown to naturalists and commentators who observed the wildlife, people and customs of North Africa at that time.
Dr Roberts explained that “when a species become very rare as it heads towards extinction it can go unnoticed for a long period of time. Because of this it is unlikely that the last record of a species was the time it became extinct, it probably existed for years or even decades before becoming extinct.” Using statistical models developed by Dr Roberts it is thought that the Barbary Lion may have survived into the 1960s. The few remaining lions descended directly from the Moroccan Royal Collection, and still living in a few zoos in Morocco and Europe, may therefore be more closely related to wild Barbary Lions than previously thought.
Dr Roberts went on to explain that “from these old records it is even possible to piece together information about the behaviour of these lions.” Previously it had been suggested that the behaviour of lions may change from pride-forming to a solitary lifestyle as populations get smaller. However, the results of this study show that no such change occurs, that lions continue to form prides even up until they become extinct.
Dr Black went on to explain that the research will “not only help us manage lions descended from the Moroccan Royal Collection, possibly the last of the Barbary Lions, but highlights the need for continued conservation of the highly threatened and rarely observed remnant lion populations in Central and West Africa.”
Paper details
Paper in PLoS ONE “Examining the extinction of Panthera leo in North Africa and its implications for felid conservation.” available online at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060174
Contact details
Dr Simon A. Black, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Marlowe Building, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR; Tel.: +44 (0)1227 823927; Email: s.black@kent.ac.uk
Dr David L. Roberts, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Marlowe Building, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR; Tel.: +44 (0)1227 827851; Fax: +44 (0)1227 827289; Email: d.l.roberts@kent.ac.uk
Co-authors
Amina Fellous – Agence Nationale pour la Conservation de la Nature, BP 115 Jardin d’Essai du Hamma Algiers, Algeria
Dr Nobuyuki Yamaguchi – Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Qatar, P. O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar