A little background for you on white lions. They are not a separate, endangered species. Every now and then one will show up in the wild as a genetic mutation. These lions are not the same thing as an albino, which would lack all pigment. Rather, white lions are leucistic. This means that they lack pigment in the hair and perhaps in the skin, but still have pigmentation of the eyes and other parts of their bodies. White variations of non-polar animals do not tend to thrive in the long run. It is not an especially advantageous adaptation, since it tends to make the animal more readily visible in situations where it might rather not be seen.
I did some brief research on the 'Al Ain Wildlife Park.' Funny, CNN failed to use its entire name. It is actually the 'Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort.' Says their website: "Each neighborhood will contain amenities for residents including clubhouses, convenience shops, cafés, desert parks, trail systems, playgrounds and green spaces for outdoor entertainment in a natural desert setting."
Huh. This place isn't so much a wildlife preserve as it is a typically ostentatious United Arab Emirates real estate development. Come get your tennis, high-end shopping and white lions all in one exclusive location. Hell, they'll probably have a casino before this thing is done.
Among the many problems with this whole white lion thing is the fact that they have been so desirable as exotic pets, zoo inmates and prey for canned hunts that the breeding of them has been highly suspect for a long time. Heart defects and deformities or partial paralysis of the hind limbs are common among these animals. Fundamentally, when there is a very small population of animals with a weird recessive gene like this, you are going to have to do a lot of inbreeding to keep making animals that express that gene.
I traced back the ancestry of the Al Ain lions back as far as I could. These animals were brought from the Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in South Africa, owned by Mantis.
Mantis consists of World Famous Game Reserves and Boutique Hotels with a presence in South Africa, England, Scotland and Europe. It is a collection of some of the World’s finest resorts.
Mantis acquired two white lions that were the foundation of their breeding project in 2003 for what the Guardian says may have been 150,000 British pounds each. Those lions, Queen and Jabulani, had been raised as private household pets, and there the trail runs cold.
These appear to be fairly typical exotic pet trade lions. By Mantis and probably by previous stewards of the line, they have been occasionally interbred with whatever subspecies of standard lion was handy. The result is an animal that is completely worthless from a conservation perspective. Currently there are a number of distinct subspecies of African lion and most conservationists would agree that it is important to preserve these various subspecies. Therein lies one of the problems with lions that have been captive bred by humans for some generations. These lions are usually hybrids which are inappropriate for release into the wild in any location. In the case of white big cats, you are usually looking at either hybridization or inbreeding. Either way the animals have no place in the wild.
The major danger that wild lions face is loss of habitat (wire snares set by poachers, intending to take something with a more docile disposition is probably the runner up). If there is a patch of native habitat suitable for lions to live in, then we need to be populating that habitat with the subspecies of lion indigenous to the area. Not with a bunch of inbred side-show pets.
Yet we have this grandstanding nonsense from CNN about how this is some great program to eventually 'restore' white lions to the wild. No, CNN. Perhaps you should have spent 10 minutes or so with Google before running what amounts to an infomercial for a luxury resort in the UAE.
I hate this sort of nonsense masquerading as conservation.
2 comments:
Polar lions?
Don't give them any more ideas, Jack! :-)
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