Urgent call for further breeding of the relic zoo population of the critically endangered Barbary lion (Panthera leo leo Linnaeus 1758) |
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Authors: | Joachim Burger Helmut Hemmer |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Anthropology, Mainz University, Saarstrasse 21, 55099 Mainz, Germany;(2) Institute of Zoology, Mainz University, Saarstrasse 21, 55099 Mainz, Germany |
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Abstract: | The Barbary lion became extinct in the wild around 1942. Since the end of the 19th century, a last purebred captive breeding
stock existed at the court of Morocco. The rest of these animals became the core exhibition of the new Rabat Zoo after passing
through repeated bottlenecks and possibly some introgression events by foreign lions. This study uses mitochondrial DNA sequencing
data to clarify the relationship among these lions and their sub-Saharan and Asian relatives. We analysed mitochondrial cytochrome
b sequences obtained from a sample from a Barbary lion descended from a young female of the Barbary lion breeding group at
the Rabat Zoo and various other members of the genus Panthera. In our cytochrome-b-based phylogenetic tree, the North African Barbary lion, represented by a biopsy sample from the Neuwied Zoo, joins the Asian
lion clade, although it is slightly different from its Asian sister group. However, it is clearly distinct from sub-Saharan
lions and can be considered as a genetically defined phylogeographic group of its own. Molecular dating of the extant sub-Saharan
and Asian lion groups shows that the split between North African Barbary lions and Asian lions must be considerably more recent
than 74–203 kilo years ago. |
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Keywords: | Panthera Molecular phylogeny Lion conservation Supportive breeding |
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