…maybe not so extinct after all
Although officially listed as no longer in existence, evidence has recently been found that the famed Barbary lion might not be so extinct after all. Dr. Hym Ebedes of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in South Africa discovered, to his great surprise, 11 lions at the zoo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which greatly resembled the Barbary lions of the past. They were larger than the African lion and the males had the characteristic black mane that reached half way down the back and underbelly. How the hell did 11 lions that are not to supposed to be alive, get to a zoo in Ethiopia?
The lions are the direct descentants of lions kept in the royal palace of Emperor Haile Selassie. The Selassie dynasty called itself the Lions of Ethiopia and the family kept lions as pets throughout the years as a symbol of power. When the family was overthrown by a military coup in 1974, the animals were sent to the zoo.
The question now is whether the lions at Addis Ababa zoo are in fact direct descents of the Barbary lion or some hybrid form. It is possible that the Selassie family obtained the animals from a private collector in Europe in the early 1900's before they became extinct. Inquiries into the possibility of this type of purchase have drawn blanks from Ethiopian historians and no records exist of this transaction. At this point, the best chance for finding answers to the lions' background is through DNA analysis.
Wildlink International, a non-profit animal welfare organization, is using the latest DNA technology to "fingerprint" (pawprint!) the exact species of the lions found in Addis Ababa. Bone samples have been taken from museums across Europe and will be compared to samples from the living lions. Wildlink has also located lions around the world that are hybrid descendants of the Barbary. Out of these, the best candidates will be chosen, those most closely related to the Barbary, and breeding will begin. The final stage of this project will be to reintroduce the lions into the wild, thereby resurrecting the formally extinct species.
Since the discovery of the 11 lions in Ethiopia, Barbary lions sightings have been reported elsewhere. Dr Haddane Brahim of the Parc Zoologique National de Rabat, Morocco claims that there are at least 40 Barbary lions in captivity in that country. It is also believed that a lion rescued from a circus in Mozambique in 1999 might be from the same sub-species.
At the time of writing there was no information about the results of these tests.
Picture:
http://www.wildlink.org.uk/proj/bar01.htm (comparison of Barbary and African lions)
http://www.il-st-acad-sci.org/mammals/cat1002a.html
Sources:
http://www.aristotle.net/~swarmack/nslions.html
http://www.wildaboutcats.org/barbary.htm
http://www.wildlink.org.uk/proj/bar01.htm