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School project about animal behavior
Topic Started: Nov 7 2014, 09:25 AM (1,135 Views)
fridooh
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I've been working a lot with Asiatic lions, and I'm eager to hear you opinions about this;

The first Asiatic lion pair came to the zoo in 1999. Since then, there's been a total of 10 individuals at the park. 5 of them died, and one moved to another zoo. 4 lions still live at the zoo.

Deaths at the zoo:
2002 - Sam, male, 5 years old, euthanized, had tumors and a crooked spine
2003 - Unnamed, female, 8 days old - No one knows why she died
2005 - Ajay, male, 1 year old, euthanized due to body deformation from inbreeding
2014 - Achir, male, 1 year old, euthanized due to malfunctioning nervous system, probably from inbreeding
2014 - Kaya, male, 15 years old, euthanized, body was shutting down, probably due to age

What do you think of this? Is it normal that zoo has this many early deaths?
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Furka
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Well I'd say that zoo really had bad luck when it came to picking their animals, or they didn't pick the source carefully.
There isn't much they could do with inbreeding and old age.
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fridooh
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Sam was supposed to make a breeding pair with their lioness, Sarla. He was only 2 years old when he came to the zoo, but as the years passed, they noticed that he was walking weird. They think the crooked spine was from inbreeding.

Kaya replaced Sam - and Kaya was Sams little brother. They had the same mother and father. Although Kaya didn't show signs of inbreeding, half of his offspring where euthanized due to defects caused by inbreeding.

Kaya so far has one daughter who's reached mature age - Asha. She was moved to another zoo to form her own breeding pair with a male named Sohan. She's had 2 litters so far, and only one cub survived. The other two cubs had defects, probably from inbreeding. The zoo decided that Asha should not be allowed to breed anymore.

I don't know if this is normal, though.. Wasn't the asiatic lion count down to only 20 individuals some time ago? All asiatic lions are basically bred from a small group - so I guess inbreeding is just something that occurs when breeding asiatic lions? Or has this zoo just been really bad at picking lions? xD
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moki03
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Knysna turaco (Tauraco corythaix)

It's probably something connected to the low population of pure asiatic lions,but it might also be something genetically transmittable.I'm not a vet,but I'm pretty sure it's possible for both humans and other animals to be more or less prone to various heart and neurological malfunctions depending on their family tree.
Edited by moki03, Dec 8 2014, 11:50 AM.
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