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| Lion - Panthera leo | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:37 PM (37,438 Views) | |
| Panthera tigris soloensis | Jun 21 2013, 04:01 AM Post #16 |
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Autotrophic Organism
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Are Maneless Tsavo Lions Prone to Male Pattern Baldness? Bijal P. Trivedi for National Geographic Channel Updated January 10, 2005 The male lions of Tsavo, Kenya, which gained notoriety in the late 19th century as man-eaters, are unusual for two reasons. They lack the majestic golden mane commonly associated with male lions, and they have been found to have an uncommon family life, according to a report. "When we began this study there really was a question whether there was such a thing as a maneless lion," said Bruce Patterson, MacArthur Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago and co-author of the study. Maneless lions had been seen before. But a consistent study had not been done to determine whether these sightings were of adolescent male lions, which hadn't had time to grow a mane, or possibly castrated males who lost their mane within a few months. Patterson and colleague Roland Kays, senior scientists of zoology at the New York State Museum in Albany, initiated their study in Chicago's Field Museum, where the famous man-eaters of Tsavo—the two large males that killed 135 railroad workers in1898—lie stuffed on display. The two lions had been shot, killed, and skinned, and lay as "trophy rugs" for 25 years, before finding their way to the Field Museum in 1924. The curious thing about the lions was that they were maneless. What surprised Patterson and Kays was that these man-eaters were adults, between eight and ten years old; most males develop manes by age five. Earlier studies in the Serengeti had suggested that maneless lions were "losers" or "humiliated" members of the pride. "Lacking a mane was something like a badge of dishonor," said Patterson. Study in the Wild Curious about the social consequences of lacking a mane, Patterson and Kay traveled to Tsavo East National Park in Kenya to investigate the plight of maneless lions. Their hypothesis was that the prides in Tsavo East would be small because the region is very dry and food is scarce. They also expected fewer males would govern these petite prides. Unlike the Serengeti, where the food is plentiful and the lions are relatively easy to find, the challenge in Tsavo is finding the lions. To lure them from the dense woody thickets scattered through the arid open savannas, Kays used the ultimate bait: the "plaintive bleat of a wounded baby buffalo." While traveling in Tsavo, Kays saw a wounded baby buffalo trailing behind the herd and calling to its mother. Kays videotaped the scene which he later played over a loudspeaker system mounted on the landrover. "It was like ringing the dinner bell at Tsavo," says Patterson. The prides came right out of the undergrowth and close enough to the vehicle for the researchers to observe the tiny nicks and scratches that help distinguish one animal from another. What the researchers saw astounded them. The maneless lions had no trouble attracting a healthy harem of females—the Tsavo prides were surprisingly large, with seven or eight females, and were ruled by a single male lion. By contrast, Serengeti prides were slightly smaller, with six or seven females, and were ruled by a consortium of two to four males. "None of the Tsavo prides had more than one male, which makes them very distinctive," said Patterson. But the social scene gets even stranger. It seems that there are far more nomadic males in Tsavo than have been observed in other places. "Coalitions of three or four males live and hunt together—this is an alternative social structure that we have never seen," said Patterson. What surprised the scientists was that these coalitions were not able to displace the "pridemaster" and take over a pride. The results of the study were published online on April 11, 2002, in the Canadian Journal of Zoology. Hormones Gone Awry? Patterson's theory is that the social structure and the absence of the mane all boils down to hormones—testosterone, to be specific. He suggests that the coalitions are transient social groups made up of adolescent males whose testosterone levels have not yet peaked. "By the time testosterone peaks at around age six or seven, intolerance also peaks," said Patterson. This is when the coalition tends to break apart and the males go their separate ways. Manelessness might also be due to hormone levels, Kays said. High testosterone levels inhibit hair growth in human males and leads to male pattern baldness. Similarly, Tsavo male lions may be genetically predisposed to high levels of testosterone. The high hormone levels may also explain the heightened aggressive tendencies seen in these lions. Both authors are travelling back to Kenya this month to investigate how maneless lions in Tsavo East interact with maned lions in Tsavo West. The team will collect fecal and hair samples for DNA analyses that should reveal the family structure of lions in the area. The sample will also be used to measure hormone levels. The researchers plan to put satellite collars on lions to track where, when, and with whom the animals roam throughout the year. Patterson and Kays' work will help determine whether the Tsavo lions are actually a genetically unique population, said John Gittleman, a biologist at the University of Virginia. "These studies are critically important for long-range conservation of the entire species," he added. The role of the mane has never been firmly established. It was thought the manes were selected for during evolution because they attracted females, intimidated other males, and protected the neck regions during fights. But the findings in Tsavo indicate that the maneless males are certainly not starved for female attention and actually command larger prides than maned lions. The environmental cost of having a mane in Tsavo may be greater than in other areas, suggests Kays. It seems that "the Tsavo lions have a lot of tricks up their sleeve that will only become obvious as we study their behavior and ecology," Patterson added. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0412_020412_TVtsavolions.html Edited by Panthera tigris soloensis, Jun 21 2013, 04:04 AM.
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| Panthera tigris soloensis | Jun 21 2013, 04:04 AM Post #17 |
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Autotrophic Organism
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Groundbreaking study by Field Museum scientists explains mane variation in lions 27.09.2006 An article appearing in the current issue of the Journal of Zoology sheds light on several longstanding misconceptions regarding the controversial topic of mane variability among wild lions. This comprehensive scientific assessment of mane variation--including "manelessness"--is a first and took nearly seven years to complete. According to the overall findings of the study, wild lions generally develop manes in accordance with local climate regimes. In Equatorial east Africa, climate is determined by elevation. Thus lions with the most profuse manes occur at the upper limit of their altitudinal range, while similar aged males in the lowest and warmest environments like Tsavo typically carry only modest or scanty manes. However, the authors also found, paradoxically, that the majority of lions in regions like the greater Tsavo ecosystem (which is famed for its "maneless" lions), did appear to acquire respectable manes, eventually, contrary to most recent popular and scientific accounts of the lions from that region. "We knew about the climate/elevation correlation since we were the first to publish those preliminary results in GEO 2001, but this new development really threw us for a loop," says Tom Gnoske, of the Field Museum's Zoology Department and senior author of the paper. "However once we analyzed all of the statistical data we found a very strong correlation linking increased age and continued mane development, a significant variable ignored by all previous authors." Statistical data from this study demonstrates that the onset of mane development in lions living below an altitude of 800 meters on or near the equator is delayed, and that the "rate" or speed at which a mane develops in lions from those regions is slower on average than that of the more familiar lions living in the cooler, higher altitudes of the greater Serengeti ecosystem and elevated plains extending northward, such as the Athi/Kapiti Plains and beyond. According to the researchers, in environments like Tsavo that have especially high minimum temperatures throughout the year, lions in their reproductive prime--from the approximate ages of five thru seven years old--usually possess only very marginally developed manes, while most of the more thoroughly maned lions in those same territories were already well past their breeding prime. Furthermore, the researchers found compelling evidence indicating that manes of lions from all populations continue to develop long after a lion has achieved sexual maturity, such that the best-maned lions in any region are typically of an older age class. "Usually lions are well past their breeding prime when they carry the most extensive and often darkest manes of their lives," explains Kerbis Peterhans Adjunct curator of Mammals at The Field Museum, Professor at Roosevelt University, and co-author of the study. This finding stands in contrast to recent studies arguing that female-driven sexual selection in the species Panthera leo is focused on males with more extensively developed and darker manes. "Up until now, it has been incorrectly assumed that lions typically achieve the full extent of mane development by the time they reach four to five years of age," Kerbis Peterhans adds. "This phenomenon carries across the board to all African lion populations, including recently extinct ones, based on the data from our rigorous review of museum specimens." The team found no evidence that rainfall, season, habitat, soil nutrients, nutrition, lion density, prey density or biomass were correlated with mane-growth patterns, but established that increased humidity appears to have a negative impact on mane growth in especially warm environments. Recent theories, linking manelessness in Tsavo's lions to male pattern baldness (due to excessive testosterone and aggression), are not supported by this study. "There is a lot of dogma to overcome, and many important aspects of lion-hood, including behavioral repertoires and survival strategies adopted by lions in lesser known environments, have yet to be documented," explains Gastone Celesia, a retired surgeon and medical researcher based in the Chicagoland area and co-author of the paper. "Much of the current scientific thinking and most of the misconceptions about lion behavior and morphology stem from relatively few studies in select environments and habitats. If lions are to survive as a species, the full range of habitats, morphological variation and behavioral strategies must also survive and be maintained. Richer and more productive habitats are being co-opted, taken over by pastoralists and agriculturalists every day. It is the poorer habitats (like Tsavo) that may provide hope for future lion survival." The study's authors avoided using captive specimens for their study due to the abundance of variables these animals are subject to, including inbreeding, hybridization and unknown pedigrees, stress, chronic inactivity, and climate-controlled environments. Instead, the authors focused their efforts on the mane condition of two adjacent populations of wild lions that were separated by only elevation, and thus, climate. Equatorial east Africa was chosen for the study because the greatest range of mane variation occurs there. In fact, both maximum and minimum mane conditions have been documented there historically, and continue to exist today, making it an ideal region for addressing the questions posed by the authors (see Velizar Simeonovski's plate). This provocative topic was first discussed in a peer reviewed scientific venue in 1833 in this very journal (under its former name): Smee, Capt. W. "On the maneless lion of Gujerat," Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London; part 1, page 140, 1833. The Journal of Zoology is published by the Zoological Society or London. This study has just been published on the journal's "OnlineEarly" website at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/jzo/0/0. http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/studien/bericht-71216.html |
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| Jinfengopteryx | Jul 2 2013, 04:01 AM Post #18 |
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Aspiring paleontologist, science enthusiast and armchair speculative fiction/evolution writer
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Distribution of the Panthera leo subspecies:
![]() http://www.dur.ac.uk/greger.larson/DEADlab/Publications_files/Barnett_MEcavelions.pdf |
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| Jinfengopteryx | Jul 2 2013, 04:08 AM Post #19 |
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Aspiring paleontologist, science enthusiast and armchair speculative fiction/evolution writer
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A paper on the prey preference of lions in Addo:
Figure 1. Variation in selectivity (Jacobs' index) for encounters with moving lions, hunts by lions, and kills by lions for the eight most abundant potential prey species in Addo Elephant National Park from December 2003 until November 2005. Figure 2. Hunting success (number of kills observed divided by the total number of hunts observed) of lions in Addo Elephant National Park overall, and for the four species that were most frequently observed being hunted. Table 1: Source: Hayward MW, Hayward GJ, Tambling CJ, Kerley GIH (2011) Do Lions Panthera leo Actively Select Prey or Do Prey Preferences Simply Reflect Chance Responses via Evolutionary Adaptations to Optimal Foraging? In: PLoS ONE 6(9): p. 1-6 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023607 |
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| Canidae | Jul 18 2013, 11:53 PM Post #20 |
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Omnivore
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Leo's Star Sets in the West Vulnerable everywhere in the wild, lions already face regional extinction. By Cheryl Lyn Dybas ![]() Male lion in Bouba Ndjida National Park, Cameroon, is one of a dwindling number of the big cats in West and Central Africa, where humans are encroaching on their habitat—and that of their prey. Until the lions have their own storyteller, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. —African Proverb West Africa’s Mandinka tribe has a legend about the greatest of cats, the Wanjilanko. The Wanjilanko . . . the lion that eats lions. It’s said to be the color of grass, with longer teeth than a lion and a roar that freezes a hunter’s soul. Paralyzed with fear, the hunter becomes easy prey. Lions, even the Wanjilanko, stalk and ambush by night. When daylight comes, where does the Wanjilanko hide? In the deep gloom of a West African woodland, in the canyons and caves of the wildest tracts of wilderness. Does the Wanjilanko exist, or is it a figment of the human imagination? The answer could go either way, for the Wanjilanko and indeed for the lions it hunts. ![]() Map with data from scientists at the conservation organization Panthera, Duke University, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) illustrates the limited ranges of lions in mixed savanna-woodland habitats of West and Central Africa. Lion populations in West Africa, where the species is listed as Regionally Endangered on the IUCN Red List, are isolated from populations elsewhere in Africa. Red spots splashed across a map of West and Central Africa: the known range of lions in countries from Senegal to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “By ‘known’ we mean areas where it is certain that lions exist, certain being that there are data points within the last ten years,” says biologist Philipp Henschel. By “data points,” he refers to actual sightings. From an office in Gabon, he coordinates the West and Central Africa Lion Program for Panthera, an organization headquartered in New York. Panthera works to ensure the future of wild cats through scientific research and global conservation. On the map, as the lifeblood drains from the lion’s known range, red fades into pink for “possible” range: areas in lions’ historical territory where conditions remain favorable—healthy habitat, enough prey, and low numbers of humans. “And,” adds Henschel, “where there are no data to indicate that lions do not exist.” The living dead, scientists call them: populations of animals so tiny their extinction is inevitable. A century from now, lions may exist only in zoos or wildlife areas so small as to be quasi-zoos. That’s the view of conservation biologist Thomas Lovejoy of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. We are in the midst of a tsunami of extinction, he believes. “Although the status of the African lion everywhere is concerning,” says Henschel, “the situation is particularly alarming in West and Central Africa.” As few as 1,000 to 2,850 lions may remain there. The species’ range in West Africa was once more than 1.5 million square miles. Today it’s 52,000 square miles, a nearly 97 percent loss. ![]() Here be lions: the characteristic savanna-woodland habitat the cats inhabit in West Africa. Philipp Henschel/Panth An inventory of the lions conducted in 2001 and 2002 revealed that only 450 to 1,300 lions remained in West Africa and 550 to 1,550 in Central Africa: just 8 percent of the estimated total for African lions (Panthera leo leo) across the entire continent. In response to those findings, Henschel and colleagues undertook a new survey from 2006 to 2010 in West and Central Africa’s savannas and woodlands. Working alongside Panthera were scientists affiliated with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Côte d’Ivoire Office of Parks and Reserves, the Nigeria National Park Service, and the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission of Ghana. They searched high and low for lions. Their efforts took them from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to Nigeria, and beyond to the Republic of the Congo and the DRC. They padded along dry riverbeds, old park roads and game trails, and on paths through the Congo Basin’s lowland tropical rain forest. Along the way, they faced the same risks as the lions they sought to find. Henschel negotiated with rebel leaders for access to lands and invited poachers to work with the team. ![]() Ready for action: In preparation for a lion spoor survey in Yankari Game Reserve in Nigeria, Philipp Henschel trains rangers in the identification and scientific documentation of lion tracks. Gilbert Nyanganji/WCS Nigeria Among the scientists’ objectives was looking for spoor—tracks, trails, scents, droppings—in areas harboring lion populations, called Lion Conservation Units, or LCUs. “We were able to confirm lion presence in only two of the twelve LCUs surveyed in West Africa,” Henchel’s study reports. Coverage of the Congo Basin was not as comprehensive, but the LCUs the team surveyed yielded no signs of lions. “There may be no lions left in [the Republic of the] Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana,” the scientists conclude. In other West and Central African countries, lion populations have almost bled out. One swipe of a paw—disease, poaching, or habitat loss—could mean death. Before the survey, for example, the researchers identified only one favorable LCU in the Republic of the Congo, at the southern tip of Odzala National Park. A 5,250-square-mile mosaic of savanna and woodland, the park had been marked as the last stronghold for lions in that nation. Henschel and other scientists from Panthera, WCS Congo, and the Congolese ministry responsible for the environment canvassed the savanna sector of Odzala with a combination of foot surveys and camera traps, automatic cameras mounted on trees or poles and triggered by infrared motion sensors. The surveyors followed commonly used travel corridors for lions. Their circuits included habitat that might attract lion prey such as antelopes and other herbivores: water reservoirs and salt licks, floodplains and marshes. Twenty-five camera traps were installed at three-mile intervals along game trails. The investigators walked 285 miles, and their camera traps snapped 512 photographic “captures.” Leopards were recorded, as were spotted hyenas and several species of smaller carnivores, including African golden cat, serval, and African civet. Not a single lion was detected. “Despite persistent rumors about the continued presence of lions in Odzala and in the Batéké Plateau in southern Congo and neighboring Gabon, no evidence for the species has been produced in the last fifteen years,” says Henschel. “In fact, no resident we talked with had seen a lion in his or her lifetime.” In the past decade, a single set of tracks is the only lion spoor glimpsed in the Republic of the Congo. ![]() In Waza National Park in northern Cameroon, four-to-five-month-old cubs feed on a topi antelope taken near a permanent water hole. Ralph Buij Were lions ever there? “We believe so,” Henschel says, “but that was then. This is now, unfortunately for lions. It seems reasonable to assume that lions in the [Republic of the] Congo are extinct.” Lions are losing ground across Africa, even in the savannas of East Africa. Burgeoning human populations and massive land-use conversion are the culprits. In what some have called the most comprehensive assessment of the state of African savannas to date, a paper titled “The Size of Savannah Africa: A Lion’s (Panthera leo) View,” was published in December 2012 in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. It reports that lions have lost much of their original habitat in Africa. Twelve scientists collaborated in the study, including Henschel and conservation biologist Jason Riggio of Duke University and the National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative. ![]() Their mother cleans a cub after the meal. Ralph Buij Using Google Earth’s high-resolution imagery, they found sixty-seven isolated savannas across the continent where small lion populations likely persist. Of these, they judged, just fifteen contained a population of at least 500 lions. “The reality,” says Stuart Pimm of Duke University, a coauthor of the paper, “is that from an original savanna area a third larger than the continental United States, only 25 percent remains.” In West Africa, lions are predominantly found in savannas and woodlands similar to those of East and Southern Africa. In parts of the Central African Republic and the DRC, however, lions venture into forest-savanna mosaics. In times past their roars tore through the night in such habitats, from the Congo Basin to West Africa. ![]() Lioness and her three cubs lounge near a water hole on the seasonally inundated floodplain of the Logone River in Waza National Park in northern Cameroon. She was part of a small pride with an adult male and only one other adult female. Ralph Buij That landscape is vanishing. Uncontrolled logging and burning have led to rampant deforestation and habitat destruction, desertification, declining water quality, and other environmental insults, most glaringly in West Africa. Although riverbanks are still lined with ribbons of gallery forest, offering refuges for herbivores, what were once rain forests and woodlands have become savannas, dotted with such trees as acacias interspersed with low scrub bush. In some places, the landscape has become near-desert. The issues began in the colonial period, when West African farmers planted cash crops that required intensive farming. No fallow periods allowed soil to regenerate and water resources to refill. Then, a half century ago, the size of cattle and goat herds increased without adequate pastureland. Livestock ate the grasses that held body and soil together. Desert sands blew in, choking villages and towns. Caught in this trap are the region’s lions. The study of Africa’s savannas confirms that in West Africa, fewer than 500 lions still roam the wilds. “It came as one hell of a shock,” says Pimm. Because lions in West Africa are relatively isolated, even from their Central African neighbors, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species classifies them as Regionally Endangered. Lions in Central, East, and Southern Africa are listed as Vulnerable. The stakes are high. Lions in West and Central Africa are different from those in East and Southern Africa. Geneticist Laura D. Bertola of Leiden University in The Netherlands and other scientists analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from lions throughout Africa, as well as from Panthera leo persica, the Asiatic lion. A small population of the latter, listed as Endangered, hangs by one claw to a last small stronghold in and near the Gir Forest of Gujarat, India. In a 2011 paper published in the Journal of Biogeography, Bertola and coauthors reported that West and Central African lions are more closely related to the Asiatic subspecies than to their counterparts in East and Southern Africa. Previous studies had suggested that lions in West and Central Africa are smaller in size and weight, have smaller manes, live in smaller groups, eat smaller prey, and may differ in the shape of their skulls, compared with lions elsewhere on the African continent. Bertola’s research showed that the difference is also reflected in their genes. The distinction, she and colleagues say, can be explained by landforms that are barriers to lion dispersal. The Central African rain forest and the Rift Valley, which stretches from Ethiopia to Tanzania and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Mozambique, may inhibit lions from intermingling. Ancient climate may also have played a part. Following periods of severe drought 40,000 to 18,000 years ago, during the Late Pleistocene, lions in West and Central Africa may have fallen in numbers. And then there were none. But lions still ranged deep into Asia and found favorable conditions in the Middle East. When West and Central Africa were later recolonized by lions, the genetic relationship reveals, they must have come from the Middle East and southwest Asia, rather than from East or Southern Africa. Historically, lions were found “from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean, from Senegal to Somalia, and from Greece and Yemen to central India,” but “range collapse from persecution by humans has been rapid and continual.” So note molecular geneticist Jean Dubach of the Loyola University Medical School in Maywood, Illinois, and colleagues in a February 2013 paper published in Conservation Genetics. Lions were gone from the Cape Region of South Africa by the mid-nineteenth century; from Turkey, Syria, Tunisia, and Algeria by the end of the nineteenth century; and from Morocco, Pakistan, and Iran between 1922 and 1942. In Asia, only the population in Gujarat remains. The researchers’ mtDNA analyses further confirm the close relationship between Asian and West and Central African lions relative to other lions. “The IUCN manages just two forms of Panthera leo: Panthera leo leo across Africa, and Panthera leo persica in India,” says mammalogist Bruce D. Patterson of the Field Museum in Chicago, one of the coauthors of the paper. “Yet the principal subdivision of lions genetically is within Africa, between the lions in Eastern and Southern Africa versus all others. There is a lot to recommend the IUCN adopting a three-taxon management plan for lions.” The two groups in Africa, he suggests, should be listed and managed separately. Were that the case, what would West and Central African lions be called? Panthera leo senegalensis. If lions in West and Central Africa indeed went extinct once, could that again be the fate of P. leo senegalensis? “It’s already happening,” says Henschel. ![]() In the first effort to track lions in West Africa using Global Positioning System (GPS) collars, scientists from Panthera and Leiden University tranquilized four animals in Benin’s Pendjari National Park, examined them, and equipped all four with the collars. Paul Funston In 2010, as tensions in Côte d’Ivoire were leading to the Second Ivorian Civil War, Henschel and scientists from the Côte d’Ivoire Office of Parks and Reserves and the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation conducted a survey of the country’s only defined LCU, the 4,400-square-mile Comoé National Park. In nearly 2,000 miles of aerial transects in small planes, the overflight team recorded 8,477 observations of mammals, 90 percent of which were domestic livestock. Ungulates such as roan antelope, Western hartebeest, and waterbuck were found in just a 770-squaremile core area in the center of the park; the researchers restricted their later ground survey to this area. “We initially intended to use a combination of foot surveys and camera trapping,” says Henschel. “But the overflights showed very high poacher and pastoralist activity, so we abandoned the idea of camera traps.” Vehicle access was limited to two jeeptracks. “The lack of a road network in the park’s interior prohibited the use of ‘call-up’ stations, where we play animal sounds over loudspeakers to attract lions,” Henschel says, “so we conducted spoor searches on foot along predefined circuits.” ![]() The surveyors covered more than 375 miles, concentrating on the core area that had shown ungulates during overflights. They found leopards in areas with dense gallery forests. Spotted hyenas were widespread. Humans were no less so, as indicated by eighty-eight campsites, most of them poachers’ dens. “In one camp we found evidence for the persecution of lions,” says Henschel, including “a large steel gin trap” that snaps the legs of the unwary. ![]() Teeth are measured. Paul Funston ![]() Unblinking eyes are protected with drops. Paul Funston The biologists encountered twenty small groups of people: sixteen groups of poachers and four of pastoralists. The poachers fled or reacted aggressively. The twelve pastoralists were more approachable. None had seen or heard lions in recent years, however. The last lion anyone could remember was in 2004. “Our results suggest that lions no longer occur in Comoé National Park,” says Henschel. “Since this is the best area for lions in Côte d’Ivoire, the prospects for lions in the country are poor.” But news for West and Central African lions is not all bad. The region’s best hope for P. leo senegalensis may lie where the buffalo and antelope still roam: in Pendjari National Park in northwestern Benin, which adjoins Arly National Park in Burkina Faso. ![]() Elephants in Arly National Park in Burkina Faso: Young elephants may be taken by lions if not defended, but the adults are vigilant. Philipp Henschel/Panthera Along with W Transborder Park spanning Niger, Burkina Faso, and Benin—“W” refers to the shape-hugging bends of the Niger River—they form the WAP (W-Arly-Pendjari) complex. At 12,000 square miles, WAP is the largest protected ecosystem in West Africa. From March 19 to May 22, 2012, Henschel and scientists at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin and the Regional WAP/UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services) Program surveyed nearly 10,500 square miles of the WAP complex, the areas known to harbor lions. They conducted spoor transects about every nine miles along the dirt-road “network.” Lion numbers were highest near permanent rivers in the national parks of the Arly-Pendjari block, with the lowest numbers in dry parts of the W block. The total lion population in the WAP complex was estimated at 311 lions: 148 in Benin, 147 in Burkina Faso, and 15 in Niger. ![]() Lion in Zakouma National Park in the Central African nation of Chad turns over a young elephant he killed. During a period of elephant poaching in the region there were many orphaned young elephants, and some lions became adept at hunting them. Nathalie Vanherle “With the relatively low cost of the survey in dollars,” says Henschel, “we recommend repeating the survey biennially using the same protocol. At this time, there’s nowhere more important for lion conservation in West and Central Africa than the WAP complex.” Lions aren’t safe even there, however. In March 2012, two poachers hiding a lion skin and bones were arrested by a patrol team in the Banikoara sector of W National Park in Benin. The poachers had killed the lion to offer it to the king of the town of Banikoara. The story of West and Central Africa’s feline kings and queens—the lions and lionesses—and their future is less about P. leo senegalensis than it is about Homo sapiens. “Weak management of lions’ habitat due to a lack of funds has led to a collapse in lion prey populations—and in lions,” says Henschel. One West African park’s management budget is, he says, “roughly US $20 per square kilometer, incredibly low. To reverse the declines and stabilize populations of lions and their prey, we need a huge increase in financial backing for protected areas.” Projects supporting conservation issues “seem to swarm in the Congo Basin rain forests and the East African plains,” Henschel says. “West African savannas are practically devoid of international conservation efforts.” He points out that the WAP complex, the last best hope for the West African lion, has received sustained assistance from Germany and the European Union. Hence, here be lions. ![]() Lioness on the floodplain of the Logone River, in Waza National Park Ralph Buij Lions generate millions of tourist dollars across East and Southern Africa, Henschel observes, “spurring governments to invest in their protection.” But wildlifebased tourism is only slowly developing in West Africa, he says. Lions still have little economic value in the region, and West African governments need significant foreign assistance to stabilize the lions that are left, he believes, until conservation programs can be developed. “Conservationists are already failing to save elephants and tigers, and lions won’t fare any better unless there’s a change in approach,” writes ecologist Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota, in an op-ed published on April 25, 2013, in the Los Angeles Times. “If the world really wants to conserve iconic wildlife for the next 1,000 years, we need a latter-day Marshall Plan that integrates the true costs of park management into the economic priorities of international development agencies.” The empty forest, or empty savanna, syndrome, it’s called: a habitat that echoes only silence, its lifeblood drained by a gamut of environmental problems. The savannas and forests of West and Central Africa grow quieter with each passing year, their lion roars fainter. The last lions are vanishing from places like Pendjari. But for the Wanjilanko, the only voices we soon may hear will be our own. ![]() Adult male lion does what lions do best, and most—rest. Nathalie Vanherle http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/192535/leos-star-sets-in-the-west A very sobering read. Consider how many parks list themselves as having lions through general tourist information and yet how many were just debunked by that article, and the lion's plight in Africa is made much more severe I.M.O. |
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| Jinfengopteryx | Aug 6 2013, 09:03 PM Post #21 |
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Aspiring paleontologist, science enthusiast and armchair speculative fiction/evolution writer
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| Jinfengopteryx | Aug 16 2013, 11:05 PM Post #22 |
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Aspiring paleontologist, science enthusiast and armchair speculative fiction/evolution writer
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http://www.jstor.org/stable/3504539 A good overview source (although I don't have access anymore). Edited by Jinfengopteryx, Aug 16 2013, 11:07 PM.
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| Asadas | Aug 20 2013, 01:10 AM Post #23 |
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Herbivore
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Variation in Craniomandibular Morphology and Sexual Dimorphism in Pantherines and the Sabercat Smilodon fatalis Panthera are strongly sexually size-dimorphic in cranium (Fig. 2) and mandible size (Fig. 3). P. leo appears to be the most sexually size-dimorphic ... ..Among Panthera, size-differences are of course an immediate and easily recognisable difference between males and females, since males usually cover a size-range that is somewhat overlapping and outside that of females. Some species vary geographically in size, such as the P. onca, P. pardus, and P. tigris, and small males from small-sized populations, whether or not they constitute actual subspecies, may be no larger than large females from populations where the modal size is larger. ..Sexual dimorphism is common among mammals and strong sexual dimorphism is usually present in species with a polygynous social ecology, and is thought to reflect increased male-male competition for access to breeding females [1]–[6]. Among carnivores, sexual dimorphism in the size of the skull, canine and carnassial teeth is widespread and appears to be most pronounced in felids; this is also thought to be related to breeding ecology and not to diet, habitat or activity patterns ..There are few exceptions among extant felids to the basic polygynous social ecology, the two most notable are the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and P. leo, the only truly social felid..However, it is often overlooked that the typical fusion-fission social structure of resident females and offspring with dominant males migrating in and taking over the pride at regular intervals, is not ubiquitously present in all lions, but is primarily characteristic of the well-studied sub-Saharan/East African populations. The sub-Saharan lions may or may not constitute several distinct subspecies, but there is a widespread consensus that they are evolutionarily younger than the Asiatic lion (P. l. persica) and the North African Barbary lion (P. l. leo) [86], [87]–[91], [188]... ..Several of the included pantherines vary in size and morphology across their biogeographic ranges, and to ensure adequate representation of the morphological variation characteristic of the species and not merely populations within it, specimens were sampled from a comprehensive portion of the known biogeographic range and purported subspecies. For comparison with S. fatalis we used all five extant Panthera or great cats, the lion (Panthera leo); jaguar (P. onca); leopard (P. pardus); tiger (P. tigris); and snow leopard (P. uncia). For comparisons of overall cranial and mandible size, we measured condylobasal and mandibular length, respectively, in a sample of 931 specimens comprising: P. leo (crania: n = 247, 140♂, 107♀; mandibles: n = 189, 103♂, 86♀); P. onca (crania: n = 93, 55♂, 38♀; mandibles: n = 70, 42♂, 28♀); P. pardus (crania: n = 303, 198♂, 105♀; mandibles: n = 247, 153♂, 94♀); P. tigris (crania: n = 192, 96♂, 96♀; mandibles: n = 165, 81♂, 84♀); and P. uncia (crania: n = 43, 17♂, 26♀; mandibles: n = 32, 13♂, 19♀). For morphometric and geometric morphometric (shape) comparisons we used a slightly smaller database of 686 specimens (Table S1): P. leo (crania: n = 247, 144♂, 103♀; mandibles: n = 177, 102♂, 75♀); P. onca (crania: n = 71, 42♂, 29♀; mandibles: n = 49, 27♂, 22♀); P. pardus (crania: n = 152, 102♂, 50♀; mandibles: n = 132, 83♂, 49♀); P. tigris (crania: n = 183, 101♂; 82♀; mandibles: n = 119, 69♂, 50♀); and P. uncia (crania: n = 33, 13♂, 20♀; mandibles: n = 27, 13♂, 14♀). All specimens were fully adult as evidenced by closure of cranial sutures. ..More work has been done on tiger subspecies differentiation than any other extant felid [77], [105]–[113], but the number of valid subspecies remains a subject of debate; all of the traditionally proposed eight subspecies (altaica, amoyensis, balica, corbetti (including 7 specimens of jacksoni), sondaica, sumatrae, tigris, virgata) were included in this study...our sample encompassed 81 specimens of the large mainland populations (traditionally referred to P. t. altaica, tigris, and virgata); no female had a CBL of more than 290 mm, the largest being two P. t. tigris females (BM32.8.19.1, 282.3 mm; and BM10.7.21.1, 284.8 mm). ..Among Asiatic and African lions, adult females typically outnumber males by 2:1 owing to high mortality among juvenile males [191], [192], [196], [197]. http://www.plosone.org/ar...ournal.pone.0048352.t004 ![]() Dangerous prey and daring predators: a review II. What makes prey dangerous? Weapons and defensive structures include hooves, spines, flukes, horns,tusks, shell, teeth, and noxious chemicals among others.While some structures are permanent body parts, others are induced in response to increased predation risk. III. FREQUENCY OF INJURIES FROM DANGEROUS PREY Carnivores also appear to be injured frequently by their prey. High rates of fractured canines were recorded for many species of carnivores (see table 3 in Van Valkenburg, 2009). These included 5.4% of lions (Panthera leo), 9.2%of tigers (Panthera tigris).. ..Since carnivores drive their canines into moving and struggling prey, the observed breakage rates are likely to be due to injuries sustained during hunting (Van Valkenburg & Hertel, 1993). While these data provide compelling evidence that injuries during hunting (Van Valkenburg & Hertel, 1993)… ..Recent studies have shown important roles of personality traits on the foraging decisions of animals [see Wilson et al. (1994)..it is possible that boldness could be related to propensity to attack risky prey, and this could be referred to as the predator’s ‘daringness’ (Brown &Kotler, 2004; Berger-Tal et al., 2009). ..Aggression in prey has several advantages beyond potentially reducing predation risk including enhanced resource (food, mate, offspring, etc.) defence. Previous studies have found that there is higher correlation between aggressiveness and boldness (via correlative selection) in populations facing strong predation pressure (Bell & Sih, 2007)… ..Prey that require many attempts before a hunt is successful as well as relatively long times to capture should generally the most dangerous prey for a predator (area III in Fig. 4)many attempts are needed because the predator has to catch and release its prey several times in order to avoid physical injury. It also helps tire the prey so that the predator can easily subdue it at a later stage. Buffaloes, which have been observed to injure and even kill lions (Mangani, 1962; Mitchell, Shenton & Uys, 1965; Makacha & Schaller, 1969) fit such a description. II. FREQUENCY OF INJURIES FROM DANGEROUS PREY 5.4% of lions (Panthera leo), 9.2%of tigers.. Prey that require many attempts before a hunt is successful as well as relatively long times to capture should generally the most dangerous prey for a predator (area III in Fig. 4)..Buffaloes..fit such a description. http://www.academia.edu/2563176/Dangerous_prey_and_daring_predators_a_review ..* Though note that some lion populations are specialist buffalo-killers. In Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park, George Schaller (1972) reported that an amazing 62% of all lion prey was made up of Cape buffalo, with 81% of this 62% being adult male buffalo. Buffalo-killing is also important to the lions of Kruger National Park, and studies here have shown, significantly, that male lions are not just frequent and successful hunters: they are also the lions that are best at killing buffalo (Funston et al. 1998). .. We found that lions encountered preferred prey species far more frequently than expected based on their abundance, and they hunted these species more frequently than expected based on this higher encounter rate. Lions responded variably to non-preferred and avoided prey species throughout the predatory sequence, although they hunted avoided prey far less frequently than expected based on the number of encounters of them. We conclude that actions of lions throughout the predatory behavioural sequence, but particularly early on, drive the prey preferences that have been documented for this species. Once a hunt is initiated, evolutionary adaptations to the predator-prey interactions drive hunting success. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21915261 ..Figure 2 clearly shows that all the lions preferred the direct approach, but our two sisters within the group do display a certain degree of cooperation with flanking; Female A’s left and right approach are directly opposed to that of Female B’s. page 21 .The favorite prey of the lion are medium sized herbivores, such as zebra and wildebeest. ..Lions hunt individually or in groups. Many hunting methods are used. Behavior: The healthy behavior of a lion is directly proportional to how close to ideal it's relationship is to other lions and caring humans. Lions I have observed who have had little human contact didn't seem nearly as happy or well-adjusted. I have also ob http://www.lionalert.org/documents/Annual-Report-2009.pdf http://www.lionalert.org/pages/annual-report South African Journal of Wildlife Research ..An analysis of 32 studies over 48 different spatial locations or temporal periods throughout the distribution of the lion shows that it preferentially preys upon species within a weight range of 190–550 kg. The most preferred weight of lion prey is 350 kg. The mean mass of significantly preferred prey species is 290 kg and of all preferred species is 201 kg. Gemsbok, buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe and zebra are significantly preferred. http://www.bioone.org/doi...0.3957/0379-4369-38.1.66 Journal of zoology, London ..The strategies of a predator are forged by natural selection to maximize nutrient intake while being tempered by a wide range of ecological constraints, such as prey density and habitat, that differ throughout its geographical distribution (Sunquist & Sunquist, 1997). ...As long as a predator can increase its survival chances or reproductive success by hunting more efficiently, natural selection will favour efficient, optimally foraging predators (J. R. Krebs, 1978). For lions Panthera leo L. this means preying upon a broad range of medium- and large-sized mammals (Hanby & Bygott, 1991). .. Giraffe are at the upper end of the preferred weight range and are preyed upon more frequently than expected based on their availability. Between 50% and 75% of calves are preyed upon in their first few months (Estes, 1999). .. Klipspringer, grysbok, steenbok, common duiker, impala, reedbuck, Grant’s gazelle, ostrich, bushbuck and Thomson’s gazelle are all less than half of the preferred body mass of lion prey and are significantly avoided. .. There have been suggestions that the stripes of zebra evolved to reduce the risk of predation (see review by Ruxton, 2002). http://www.zbs.bialowieza.pl/g2/pdf/1595.pdf Demographic And Evolutionary Implications Of Lion Body Size The tiger is the most studied big cat.. Sunquist, the lion... ..The African lion (Panthera leo) is no exception to these effects yet there has been little research conducted on their body size and, being social carnivores, it is possible that complex correlates of body size exist. There is an ongoing concern surrounding hunting of lions which is closely linked to body size, particularly in males where the largest are most desirable, and so any insight into how dynamics will change with the removal of a particular subset of the population could be particularly valuable. ..In lions, the smaller females are superior at hunting the fleet-footed prey, whereas the larger males tend to stand and fight (Funston et al. 2001). ..The link between body size and resource availability is intuitive. Since all lions within a pride share a kill equally (Caraco & Wolf 1975), the influence of resource availability should have a homogenous effect on body size across a pride but will differ between prides. Packer et al. (2005).This effect is not so abrupt in the lions of the Ngorongoro Crater due to the resident herds (Kissui & Packer 2004). Adult males weigh approximately 170kg and females 120kg, but with significant variation, and individuals continue growing until they are six years old (Schaller 1972). ..An important feature of Coulson et al.’s (2010) study is the comparison between observed and predicted quantities indicating that IPMs can make reliable estimates demonstrating the potential value they can present to studies aiming to quantify how population dynamics are affected by phenotypes and environmental factors (Ezard et al. 2009). The IPM will be parameterised for the lion population spanning Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area taking a similar approach to that applied by Coulson et al. (2010).... ..It is significantly more difficult to collect data on males than females due to the differences in life history; males will commonly leave their natal pride when they are between 2-3 years and will remain nomadic until they are able to take over another pride (Pusey & Packer 1987). This difficulty is conveyed in the volume or reliability of data for various variables required for model construction, therefore only data from the female cohort was used...Direct measurement of lion weight was inconvenient or not possible given the associated risks of immobilisation and the sheer size of a lion. It was therefore more practical to use a linear measure of weight and the most consistent measurement of lion body size was found to be the chest circumference around the heart (Bertram 1975). ..Maximal survival rates are maintained between the ages of 3 and 12yrs (fig. 2) and, as survival increases with heart girth, the highest survival rates are estimated for individuals between 7 and 8yrs which possess the greatest heart girths.....The highest heart girths are attributed to 7 to 8 year olds and, as a consequence, are estimated to have the highest survival; however, this ignores the averaged survival of the young and old that both possess the same, lower measurement. It has been shown that mortality rates increase after the age of four (Packer et al. 1998) with the average female lifespan being 14 years (Schaller 1977). ..The effect of the focused removal of males averaging 5 years on population dynamics could then be explored further. Males around this age are most likely to be in residence therefore are contributing to the reproductive success of the pride; their removal greatly increases the likelihood of a male takeover by another coalition and consequent infanticide (Loveridge et al. 2007)...In species where paternal care exists, the age of hunted males has a highly significant impact on the population (Whitman et al. 2004). This may suggest that the removal of particular body sizes may also be of significance, specifically as the larger males are likely to be targeted. ..The main issue concerning the model is that it ignores any social attributes exhibited by lions. Although yellow-bellied marmots also possess a social life history and the IPM predicts accurately in the absence of this trait (Ozgul et al. 2010), it has been well documented that social structure has a highly significant influence over lion population dynamics and is therefore likely to have some effect on model predictions (e.g. Packer et al. 1990; Scheel & Packer 1991; Packer et al. 2005; Fryxell et al. 2007 As an example, all cubs within a pride up to the age of at least 18mths are killed after a male takeover (Packer & Pusey 1983a) and, as a consequence, cub survival in those years is zero irrespective of any other factors. For this reason, it is quite possible that a facet of the model inaccuracies could be rectified by incorporating social structure into the model in some form and would therefore be a recommendation for model improvement. It does, however, provide the promise of being effectively applied to large, solitary carnivores where their life history is less complex. Introduction Body size is frequently a central consideration in studies of predatory performance , having notable effects on fitness, motility and supremacy (MacNulty et al. 2009) , but also has an important influence on the ir potential prey niche (Funston et al. 1998, 2001), territory size (Reiss 1988) and intra and inter specific competit ion (Stamps & Krishnan 1994) . The African lion ( Panthera leo ) is no exception to see effects.There is an ongoing concern surrounding hunting of lions which is closely linked to body size, particularly in males where the largest are most desirable , and so any insight into how dynamics will change with the removal of a particular subset of the population could be particularly valuable . It should therefore prove interesting to examine the ultimate impact that body size has on lion dynamics, not only for furthering our understanding, but also in terms of applied science. This study will aim to gain insight into the influence lion body size has by modelling the consequent dynamics...an addition to impacting on their capacity to hunt, body size is also likely to influence lion interactions with other lions and other species. ..To takeover a pride, and furthermore maintain their residence, a male coalition must fight with any competing male s (Packer & Pusey 1983a ) so an increased body size is likely to be an advantage...he females may be able to prevent this by grouping together and defending the cubs (Packer & Pusey 1983 a ) rendering an increased body size favourable to females as well. ..There is clearly a wealth of support for the possibility that body size influences fitness in lions, manifesting as survival and reproductive success, and therefore affects the population growth rate and structure . This implies that some form of selection acts on body size and that the distribution of body sizes in the population change sover time. Being able to consider all of these interactions and processes together crosses the border between population ecology and evolutionary biology (Pelletier e t al. 2009).. Body size has been found to be an important determinant of lioness survival and their probability of reproduction; however, there is a limit to body size where, if exceeded, a lioness will experience a probable reduction in size....in species where paternal care exists, the age of hunted males has a highly significant impact on the population (Whitman et al. 2004) . This may suggest that the removal of particular body sizes may also be of significance, specifically as the larger males are likely to be targeted . https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/lifesciences/Public/postgraduate/courses/QB%20MSc/DemographicAndEvolutionaryImplcationsOfLionBodySize.pdf Conclusions 3.2 Recent Extinction of Lions in North Africa In recent years it has become widely asserted that the animal shot in 1942 on the Tizi-n-Tichka pass in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains [18] has been considered the last wild Barbary lion [4]. However, our analysis suggests that wild lions actually persisted longer in Algeria until 1958 (TE), with an upper bound for the 95% CI of = 1962. This is 10 years after 1948 (TE), the estimated extinction date of the western (Morocco) population. However, the estimated 95% confidence intervals have a substantial overlap: with upper bounds (TE) of 1962 for the Algerian population and 1965 for the western (Morocco) population. Insights from historical sightings are relevant to current lion conservation. We suggest that wild lions persisted in the Maghreb into the 1950s, much later than previously recognized. The lion is a well-known, visible and potentially threatening species, yet small populations survived in North Africa decades after being generally considered extinct. This persistence reflects the recent rediscovery of a small population of Barbary leopard nearly 20 years after the last previous sighting and a decade since being declared extinct [1] [48]. Careful consideration should be given to mammalian carnivores currently presumed extinct or near-extinct in other regions, coupled with a greater understanding of extinction patterns and the conservation potential in relict populations. Finally, we suggest caution when considering the current conservation status of lions. Although lions in the Maghreb adapted to reduced population density, prey availability and habitat encroachment, our analysis reveals that lion group-living behavior did not change significantly as human pressures increased. As a pride-forming species [45], P. leo populations are prone to collapse, whereas other felids may survive at lower local population densities by not living in social groups [49]. Lions in today’s small populations in Central and West Africa persist [16] [50], even if rarely seen, in fragmented remnants, yet clearly exist at the edge of a precipitous drop into extinction. Continued, carefully considered conservation effort remains vitally important. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060174 .. Although deaths/ disappearances that occurred within 1 year may be less clearly related to a specific wound, lions are commonly observed with wounds that fester for months before the animal disappears ( Schaller 1972; West & Packer 2002 )...‘Multiple wounds’ complicate the mortality analysis because they may be associated with higher mortality rates. ..General Wounding Patterns A total of 1332 wounds were recorded between 1974 and 2001. Seventy-eight of these were on juveniles less than 2 years of age and were eliminated. Of the remaining 1254 wounds, 991 (79%) were categorized as lion-inflicted. Of all lion-inflicted wounds, 336 were ‘unique’ and not associated with wounds to other areas of the body within the previous or following years. The proportion of wounds that were lion-inflicted was high in all age–sex classes (adult males: 310/398 (88%)..However, although fights between lions are seldom observed,our results suggest that a large proportion of injuries to lions are inflicted by other lions and that these injuries are a significant source of mortality. The most severe injuries are probably inflicted during fights with lions outside of the pride. .. In contrast, males fighting with strange males engage in more aggressive attacks and generally attempt to incapacitate their rivals..The high mortality rates of forehead wounds in mane- less lions may be related to difficulties in licking and cleaning forehead wounds, but necks are equally difficult to clean and showed no similar trend. ..Regardless of the exact cause of death, the results suggest that males would beneit most from extra protection on their forehead, and that the length and darkness of forehead manes should develop earlier and more rapidly...Our results suggest that the current protective benefits of the mane are minimal, but they do not exclude the possibility of past protective benefits..Regardless of the lion mane’s original function, protective benefits are not sufficient to explain the maintenance of the trait; rather, the key benefit of the mane appears to derive from its function as a signal of male condition. http://www.cbs.umn.edu/sites/default/files/public/downloads/Wounding_mortality_and_mane_morphology-West_et_al.pdf ![]() ![]() ..They found that while a preference for shade caused both male and female lions to rest in areas with dense vegetation and similarly short viewsheds during the day, the real difference between males and females emerged at night. Female lions both rested and hunted under the cover of darkness in areas with large viewsheds. But at night, male lions hunted in the dense vegetation, areas where prey is highly vulnerable, but which researchers rarely explore. The scientific results show that ambushing prey from behind vegetation is linked to hunting success among male lions, despite lacking the cooperative strategies employed by female lions in open grassy savannas. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130318132639.htm Emerging evidence suggests that male lions are not dependent on female's hunting skills but are in fact successful hunters. But difficulty locating kills and objectively characterizing landscapes has complicated the comparison of male and female lion hunting strategies. We used airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) measurements of vegetation structure in Kruger National Park, combined with global positioning system (GPS) telemetry data on lion, Panthera leo, kills to quantify lines-of-sight where lion kills occurred compared with areas where lions rested, while controlling for time of day. We found significant differences in use of vegetation structure by male and female lions during hunts. While male lions killed in landscapes with much shorter lines-of-sight (16.2 m) than those in which they rested, there were no significant differences for female lions. These results were consistent across sizes of prey species. The influence of vegetation structure in shaping predator–prey interactions is often hypothesized, but quantitative evidence has been scarce. Although our sample sizes were limited, our results provide a mechanism, ambush hunting versus social hunting in the open, to explain why hunting success of male lions might equal that of females. This study serves as a case study for more complete studies with larger samples sizes and illustrates how LiDAR and GPS telemetry can be used to provide new insight into lion hunting behaviour. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347213000468 Dr. Packer Group hunting behavior of lions:a search for cooperation ..refraining is "cheating: and that lions exhibiting this strategy are thus exploiting the hunting behavior of their companions... https://www.cbs.umn.edu/sites/default/files/public/downloads/Group_hunting_behaviour_of_lions-a_search_for_cooperation.pdf Prey preferences of the lion ( Panthera leo ) The most preferred weight of lion prey is 350 kg. The mean mass of significantly preferred prey species is 290 kg and of all preferred species is 201 kg. Gemsbok, buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe and zebra are significantly preferred. ..While the modal prey size of felids is usually less than their body weight (Packer, 1986), lions are expected to take prey > 45% of their body mass as they are larger than Carbone et al .’s (1999) 21.5 kg threshold, but the preferred weight range of lions is greater than 100% of their body mass There, group hunting species, such as lions and wild dogs, killed the broadest range of prey, from the largest to the smallest, with a predator:prey body mass ratio ranging from 1:1.0 for lionesses to 1:2.1 for lions and 1:1.2 for wild dogs (Radloff & du Toit, 2004)..We also hypothesize that individually hunting predators, such as caracal Caracal caracal , leopard Panthera pardus , tiger P. tigris , jaguar P. onca , mountain lion Felis concolor , Ethiopian wolf Canis simensis and red fox Vulpes vulpes would have optimal preference for prey species with body masses closer to the mean of their own species and with less of a skew toward large bodied prey. For solitary hunting cheetah and leopard at Mala Mala, the predator:prey ratio was less than 1:1 (Radloff & du Toit, 2004). http://www.ibs.bialowieza.pl/g2/pdf/1595.pdf ..Lions are almost a different species at night. This is their element; this is when they really do seem like kings, afraid of nothing, less concerned about being seen by either humans or their prey... http://books.google.com/books?id=BuRNzkcAP_YC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false http://www.largecarnivoresafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/LionPopulation.pdf Cheetahs appeared to perceive lions as a greater threat than hyenas since they were significantly more vigilant and were less likely to make a kill after lion playbacks than after hyena playbacks, although they did not move significantly farther. These differences are likely to be particularly marked given that two calls were played during hyena experiments while only one call was played during lion experiments. http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/11/6/624.full http://natagri.ufs.ac.za/dl/userfiles/Documents/00000/325_eng.pdf ![]() Hypovitaminosis A (HA)-related skull malformations resulting in neurologic abnormalities and death have been, and still are, reported in captive lions (Panthera leo) worldwide. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16642713 Immobolization and Anesthesia of African lion The dose of these drugs was determined based on estimated body weight of the lion (≈ 200 kg). http://www.ivsa.ir/pdf/Vol%202%20No%203/1001.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,842 Twenty-one anaesthetic events of 17 free-ranging lions (5 males and 12 females, body weight 105-211 kg) were studied in Zimbabwe. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16642713 Waza National Park, Cameroon (10°50′–11°40′N, 14°20′–15°00′E) during the dry seasons of 1999 and 2000 as part of a current study on behavioral ecology. These included two males (lions 1 and 2; age, 6–12 yr; estimated body weight, 150–180 kg) and three females (lions 3, 4, and 6; age, 5–7 yr; estimated body weight, 90–150 kg). http://www.jwildlifedis.org/content/42/2/432.long Mane variation in African lions and its social correlates Roland Kays, and Bruce D.Patterson Throughout history, manes of male lions (Panthera leo) have inspired admiration, fear, and legends in human societies. This adornment serves to make an already impressive 150–260 kg carnivore appear even larger....Competition between male coalitions (and even within them; Packer and Pusey 1982) for access to prides is fierce and territorial fights are sometimes to the death (Iwago 1995). Both lion pride size and density are correlated with prey abundance (Van Orsdol et al. 1985). ..Within this social organization, the mane might serve as intimidation, advertisement, and (or) physical protection. The manes of residents may deter trespassers and intimidate nomadic males contemplating a takeover attempt on a pride by serving as a visual signal of a territorial male’s control of a particular area. Females may be more likely to subordinate themselves to males with impressive manes and (or) might select males based on their mane condition. Finally, some have proposed that the mane offers physical protection to the vital head and neck areas against the teeth and claws of competing males (Schaller 1972; Ewer 1973; Bertram 1978; Myers 1987). ..In studies of maned lions, males left alone to defend a group of females are soon displaced by a coalition of males with superior fighting strength, which are much more likely to maintain tenure of a pride (Schaller 1972; Bygott et al. 1979)...How single maneless males are able to hold relatively large groups of females remains unknown. A common explanation for both the small manes in these males and their ability as singletons to retain tenure of and exist alongside large female groups is suggested by human male pattern baldness (i.e., androgenetic alopecia). Testosterone is thought to cause inhibition of hair growth and balding on the scalp in genetically disposed human males and stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides) (Thornton et al. 1993; Randall et al. 1994; Obana et al. 1997). Testosterone is also higher in territorial males compared with nonterritorial individuals (Millar et al. 1987; Woodroffe et al. 1997; Rachlow et al. 1998) and is known to raise aggression levels (Hubert 1990; Lumia et al. 1994). Increased aggression by male lions may raise the stakes of male–male conflict and permit solitary males to fend off groups of challengers. http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staffpubs/docs/14363.pdf Males are quick to challenge lions they do not know real or not. Whenever we broadcast tape recordings of a strange male roaring within a coalition’s territory, the response was immediate..Indeed, the males’ responses sometimes bordered on suicidal, approaching the speaker even when they were outnumbered by three recorded lions to one. The enemy is other lions other males, other females and they will never be defeated. Over the years, we have seen hundreds of males come and go, each coalition tracing the same broad pattern of invasion, murder and fatherhood, followed by an inevitable decline and fall. Dozens of prides have set out to rule their own patch of the Serengeti, but for every new pride that has successfully established itself, another has disappeared. Lions can seem grand in their common cause, battling their neighbors for land and deflecting the unwanted advances of males. But the king of beasts above all exemplifies the evolutionary crucible in which a cooperative society is forged http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/kalthoff/bio301c/readings/17Packer_Pusey.pdf Divided we fall: Cooperation amongh lions Dr.Craig Packer and Pusey Although they are the most social of all cats, lions cooperate only when it is in their own best interest MALES are quick to challenge lions they do not know—real or not. When the authors played tape recordings of strange males roaring within a coalition’s turf, representatives from that coalition immediately homed in on the sound. Moreover, they often took the offensive, pouncing on decoys placed nearby... ..Male lions display their greatest capacity for teamwork while ousting invaders— the situation that presents the greatest threat to their common self-interest. At night the males patrol their territory, claiming their turf with a series of loud roars. Whenever we broadcast tape recordings of a strange male roaring within a coalition’s territory, the response was immediate. They searched out the speaker and would even attack a stuffed lion that we occasionally set beside it...Indeed, the reproductive advantages of cooperation are so great that most solitary males will join forces with other loners. These partnerships of nonrelatives, how-ever, never grow larger than three. Coalitions of four to nine males are always composed of close relatives. Why do not solitary males recruit more partners until their groups also reach an insuperable size? The reasons again come down to genetic self-preservation and, in particular, weighing the odds of gaining access to a pride against those of actually fathering offspring...In fact, the first male to find a female in estrus will jealously guard her, mating repeatedly over the next four days and attacking any other male that might venture too close. Dennis A. Gilbert, in Stephen J. O’Brien’s laboratory at the National Cancer Institute, performed DNA fingerprinting on hundreds of our lion samples and found that one male usually fathered an entire litter Surviving in the Serengeti. Male lions are rarely affectionate to their offspring, but their territorial excursions provide effective protection...More than a quarter of all cubs are killed by invading males. The mothers are the ultimate victims of this never-ending conflict, and they vigorously defend their cubs against incoming males. But the males are almost 50 percent larger than the females, and so mothers usually lose in one-on-one combat.Sisterhood, on the other hand, affords them a fighting chance; in many instances, crèchemates succeed in protecting their offspring. Male lions are not their only problem. Females, too, are territorial. They defend their favorite hunting grounds, denning sites and water holes against other females. Large prides dominate smaller ones, and females will attack and kill their neighbors. Females can count, and they prefer a margin of safety. Numbers are a matter of life and death, and a pride of only one or two females is doomed to a futile existence, avoiding other prides and never rearing any cubs. The lions’ pride is a refuge in which individuals united by common reproductive interests can prepare for the enemy’s next move. The enemy is other lions— other males, other females—and they will never be defeated. Over the years, we have seen hundreds of males come and go, each coalition tracing the same broad pattern of invasion, murder and fatherhood, followed by an inevitable decline and fall. Dozens of prides have set out to rule their own patch of the Serengeti, but for every new pride that has successfully established itself, another has disappeared. Lions can seem grand in their common cause, battling their neighbors for land and deflecting the unwanted advances of males. But the king of beasts above all exemplifies the evolutionary crucible in which a cooperative society is forged. http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/kalthoff/bio301c/readings/17Packer_Pusey.pdf Hyoid apparatus and pharynx in the lion (Panthera leo), jaguar (Panthera onca), tiger (Panthera tigris), cheetah (Acinonyx Justus) and domestic cat (Felis silvestris f. catus) Pharynx Thyrohyoideum The Thyrohyoideum of the lion, tiger and adult jaguar consists of a ventral bone and a dorsal cartilage (Figs 2–4). An additional short cartilage at the ventral end of the Thyrohyoideum can be observed in the lion. In the adult jaguar and the lion the caudodorsal tip of the thyrohyal cartilage is caudally elongated and attaches to the Cornu rostrale of the thyroid cartilage via an elastic ligament. In the Panthera species studied the Cornu rostrale lies caudomedial to the dorsal end of the Thyrohyoideum. The ligament between thyrohyal and thyroid cartilage measures approximately 10 mm in the jaguar. In the lion it is shorter and more delicate than in the jaguar. In the tiger the Articulatio thyrohyoidea is a synovial joint with a taut capsule (Fig. 3). In the cheetah and the domestic cat the Thyrohyoideum consists of a bone with a narrow cartilaginous border on its dorsal end. In the last-mentioned two species the Cornu rostrale of the thyroid cartilage is located dorsomedial of the Thyrohyoideum and connected via short, taut ligaments Comparative morphology and ontogenetic development Pharynx In the lion, the tiger and the adult jaguar the pharyngeal wall is caudally elongated showing numerous longitudinal folds on its inner surface. As compared with the cheetah and the domestic cat the enormous pharyngeal elongation is caused by the expansion of the Pars nasalis and Pars oralis pharyngis, which in the Panthera species are separated by an elongated Velum palatinum. The length of the Pars oralis pharyngis, measured from the caudal end of the Radix linguae to the Basihyoideum, is 7.5 cm in the lion, 7 cm in the jaguar and 5.5 cm in the tiger, whereas in the cheetah and the domestic cat it is less than 1 cm. Besides the muscles, numerous collagenous and elastic fibres can be observed within the lateral pharyngeal walls and the soft palate. In the Pantherinae examined an extensive and voluminous venous network (Rete mirabile) is developed within the submucosal layer of the Vestibulum oesophagi rostral to the Limen pharyngoesophageum.. The lion and the jaguar also possess a ligamentous connection between Apparatus hyoideus and larynx, whereas the tiger has a synovial articulation (Kurz, 1926; Schneider, 1964). Considering the differences in this joint, the shape of the ceratohyal bone, the length of the epihyal ligament as well as the breadth and shape of the stylohyal bone and the Tympanohyoideum it can be assumed that lion and jaguar are more similar to each other than to the tiger and that the tiger occupies a special position among the examined Pantherinae... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1570911/ Edited by Asadas, Aug 20 2013, 02:46 AM.
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| Ursus arctos | Aug 20 2013, 10:05 AM Post #24 |
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Autotrophic Organism
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![]() From Funston et al (1998). Nearly three quarter of all prey killed by non-territorial males in Kruger were cape buffalo. The difference between territorial and non-territorial males seems odd. Anyone have an explanation? Regarding types of cape buffalo targeted: "In particular, the mortality hazard was almost four times greater for bachelor males compared with adult females (exp(β) = 3·79, 95% CI = [1·85, 7·79], P = 0·0003). While the mortality rates of adult males and females within breeding herds were not statistically different (exp(β) = 1·67, 95% CI = [0·62, 4·52], P = 0·31)." From Hay et al (2008). Food/day/female vs group size in the Serengeti: ![]() From Packer et al (1990). Mosser and Packer (2009) info discussing & explaining sociality: "Cooperative hunting was a leading explanation for female lion sociality (Schaller 1972; Macdonald 1983; Turner 1997), but empirical evidence has failed to support this hypothesis. Social grouping patterns in lions are not strongly associated with increased food intake (Caraco & Wolf 1975; Packer 1986; Packer et al. 1990). Although hunting success increases slightly with the size of the hunting group (Schaller 1972; Elliot et al. 1977; Van Orsdol 1984; Stander & Albon 1993; Funston et al. 2001), lions often opt out of a group-hunt (Scheel & Packer 1991) and actual hunting success, for groups of more than two, fails to match the capture rates predicted by full cooperation (Packer & Ruttan 1988). More importantly, detailed analyses (Packer et al. 1990) showed that during periods of prey scarcity, subgroups of two to four adult females had the lowest rates of food intake, compared with lone females or subgroups of at least five females. During periods of prey abundance, food intake did not significantly differ with group size." AND "Cooperative defence against infanticide is a major benefit of grouping for female lions (Pusey & Packer 1994), but it is difficult to tease apart the relative importance of cub defence from territorial defence, as the threat posed by conspecifics leads to larger group sizes in both cases. Playback experiments, however, have shown that creche groups typically retreat from extrapride males but that mothers approach female intruders and they do so more often than females without dependent cubs (McComb et al. 1993, 1994). Leaving cubs unprotected puts them at considerable risk, suggest- ing that the need to respond to territorial threat may often override the value of protecting cubs." AND "Our analyses show a strong long-term individual advantage to group territoriality in lions and explain why individuals in larger groups have higher rates of reproductive success than do individ- uals in smaller groups. Larger groups are the successful despots on the savanna landscape, gaining access to the best reproductive real estate near river confluences. The effects of intergroup competition between females are direct and immediate, so much so that male coalitions attempt to modify the dynamics of territorial competi- tion. Group-territorial competition therefore provides strong selection for cooperative territorial defence and a clear benefit to grouping in lions." Info on % of carcasses scavenged from Kruger National Park: ![]() From Funston et al (1998). |
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| Asadas | Aug 20 2013, 01:36 PM Post #25 |
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Herbivore
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Ursus arctos great find, lions in many populations specialize in hunting cape buffalo. I hope I don't repeat any material so much to share, panthera leo atrox and cave lion- bear material. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZTz34WKkg-8 ![]() ![]() ..* Though note that some lion populations are specialist buffalo-killers. In Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park, George Schaller (1972) reported that an amazing 62% of all lion prey was made up of Cape buffalo, with 81% of this 62% being adult male buffalo. Buffalo-killing is also important to the lions of Kruger National Park, and studies here have shown, significantly, that male lions are not just frequent and successful hunters: they are also the lions that are best at killing buffalo (Funston et al. 1998). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21915261 Predator–prey studies, especially of prey choice by predators, are becoming increasingly important due toanthropogenic modification of ecosystems..Some potential prey may harm or even kill their predator, or the habitat in which particular prey are found may pose an injury or mortality risk to a predator...The overall level of danger posed by a particular prey type may extend beyond its own attributes. Indeed, habitat characteristics may influence injury and mortality risk to predators as could the particular tactics used to hunt prey,but these sources of danger to predators have been largely overlooked with respect to injury risk. II. What makes prey dangerous? Weapons and defensive structures include hooves, spines, flukes, horns,tusks, shell, teeth, and noxious chemicals among others.While some structures are permanent body parts, others are in duced inr esponse to increased predation risk. http://www.academia.edu/2563176/Dangerous_prey_and_daring_predators_a_review . We found that lions encountered preferred prey species far more frequently than expected based on their abundance, and they hunted these species more frequently than expected based on this higher encounter rate. Lions responded variably to non-preferred and avoided prey species throughout the predatory sequence, although they hunted avoided prey far less frequently than expected based on the number of encounters of them. We conclude that actions of lions throughout the predatory behavioural sequence, but particularly early on, drive the prey preferences that have been documented for this species. Once a hunt is initiated, evolutionary adaptations to the predator-prey interactions drive hunting success. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21915261 Dr. Packer ..Cave lions (Panthera atrox) were a different species from the lion we know today in Africa and India. Larger than Siberian tigers, cave lions once ranged throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Their bones are common in the La Brea tar pits of Los Angeles, and mummified remains have been found in Alaska and Siberia. http://www.shamanandscientist.com/Curiouser/Curious_Images/Chauvet03.pdf ![]() .Burger et al. (2004) compared cytochrome-b sequences of two P. l. spelaea from the late Pleistocene of Europe with an assortment of pantherines and found they differed from modern African lions by 5–6%. Although modern lions differ from leopards and tigers by 13.8% and 19.8%, respectively, differences from cave lions greatly exceed those among modern lions (range 0–1.22%, mean 0.63%), between African and Asian lions (1.1%), (Patterson). http://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/Files/patterso/Patterson_2007_Evolutionary_Biology.pdf The European Cave Lion was larger than most living cats today and grew to average weights and lengths meeting or exceeding the largest ever recorded Siberian Tiger in modern time. References: Diedrich C. 2006a- http://www.paleodirect.com/pgset2/lmx042.htm ![]() ![]() Manabu Sakamoto School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK I haven't had an opportunity to look at the body skeleton of Panthera atrox but I have seen a cast of the skull, which is huge (450 mm in length). The skull of P. atrox is roughly 113% the length, and about 114% the size (geometric mean), of a large P. leo skull (400 mm). This proportion jumps to about 145% if we compare to an average P. leo skull length (310 mm). On the other hand, the body mass of P. atrox is about 350 kg while that of P. leo on average is about 170 kg, so the former being about 2 times heavier than the latter. Converting this to a length ratio, you can take the cubic root, and you get P. atrox being roughly 127% in length of P. leo, which is roughly similar to the 5ft/4ft ratio of 1.25 (125%). So I'd say this diagram is in the correct range, within margin of error. http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/answers/viewtopic.php?id=8002 ...The American Lion (pan/hera leo atrox) entered the continent from Asia several million years ago and traveled as far South as Perbefore going extinct at the end of the last ice age (Turner and Anton 1997). It was the largest member of the cat family known.. http://www.davidgoldlab.com/Reprints_files/Gold07lion.pdf http://animalsversesanimals.yuku.com/topic/2882/Cave-lions-hunted-bears American lion and sabertooth cats did not starve to death Researchers at Vanderbilt University say they have found evidence that saber-toothed cats did not starve to death. They believe that the American lions and saber-toothed cats that roamed North America in the late Pleistocene had plenty of food to eat. According to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Danish paleontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund was the first person to describe the Saber-toothed cat from fossils he found in a cave in Lagoa Santa, Brazil, in 1842. While the public typically thinks of the saber-toothed cat as a bloodthirsty tiger, the prehistoric cat has more in common with today’s modern African lion. After examining microscopic wear patterns on the teeth of saber-toothed cats recovered from the La Brea tar pits in Southern California, researchers concluded that starvation did not lead to their extinction. Previous studies have argued that the large cats were having trouble locating prey in the period before they disappeared 12,000 years ago. However, this study found no evidence to suggest that saber-toothed cats could not find food. Researchers believe that their findings present a major problem for the most popular explanations for the Megafaunal extinction. “The popular theory for the Megafaunal extinction is that either the changing climate at the end of the last Ice Age or human activity – or some combination of the two – killed off most of the large mammals,” said Larisa DeSantis, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt, in a statement. “In the case of the great cats, we expect that it would have been increasingly difficult for them to find prey, especially if had to compete with humans. We know that when food becomes scarce, carnivores like the great cats tend to consume more of the carcasses they kill. If they spent more time chomping on bones, it should cause detectable changes in the wear patterns on their teeth.” In 1993, Blaire Van Valkenburgh at University of California Los Angeles analyzed the teeth of American lions, saber-toothed cats, wolves and coyotes recovered from La Brea. She discovered that these mammals had approximately three times as many broken teeth as contemporary predators. “These findings suggest that these species utilized carcasses more fully and likely competed more intensely for food than present-day large carnivores,” she wrote in a paper at the time. Researchers utilized a new technique, called dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA), to examine the teeth of saber-toothed cats. DMTA uses a confocal microscope to generate a 3D image of the surface of a tooth. The image can then be examined for microscopic wear patterns, such as small parallel scratches (patterns produced by the consumption of red meat) and deeper pits (patterns produced by consumption of bones). Researchers consider DMTA more accurate because it relies on automated software. Researchers used DMTA to examine the fossil teeth of 15 American lions and 15 saber-toothed cats recovered from the La Brea tar pits. Researchers discovered that the wear pattern on the teeth of the American lion was very similar to those of the present-day cheetah. They also found that the saber-toothed cat’s wear pattern looked a lot like those of the present-day African lion (which will sometimes chomp on bones when it consumes an animal). Researchers learned that neither American lions nor saber-toothed cats maximized their consumption of carcasses during a period of 35,000 to 11,500 years ago. Their findings suggest that the proportion of the carcasses that both carnivores ate declined toward the end of this period. Researchers think that the high rate of tooth breakage reported in the 1993 study is probably a result of the animals trying to bring down prey. “Teeth can break from the stress of chewing bone but they can also break when the carnivores take down prey,” Ms. DeSantis said. The cheetah, for instance, which is more likely break canines than rear teeth, does not chomp on bones during feedings. The researchers note that previous examinations of the jaws of saber-toothed cats from this period revealed that they have more than three times as many broken canines. This is evidence, researchers contend, that saber-toothed cats primarily broke their teeth while capturing prey. Researchers also point out that the extinct carnivores and their prey were much larger than today’s mammals. The saber-toothed cats, which were approximately the size of today’s African lions, had to capture mammoths and bison. The large teeth of these big carnivores were more likely to break than smaller teeth. “The net result of our study is to raise questions about the reigning hypothesis that ‘tough times’ during the late Pleistocene contributed to the gradual extinction of large carnivores,” Ms. DeSantis said. “While we can not determine the exact cause of their demise, it is unlikely that the extinction of these cats was a result of gradually declining prey (due either to changing climates or human competition) because their teeth tell us that these cats were not desperately consuming entire carcasses, as we had expected, and instead seemed to be living the ‘good life’ during the late Pleistocene, at least up until the very end.” The study’s findings were recently published in the journal PLOS ONE. http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/saber-toothed-cats-did-not-starve-to-death-say-researchers/ Extinct Animals – American Lion Posted by Dena Rabadi ⋅ December 27, 2011 ⋅ 3 Comments Filed Under American lion, Animals, Nature American Lion—The American lion was substantially larger than the living lion. Bones from more than 100 individuals have been recovered from the Rancho La Brea asphalt deposits. (Renata Cunha) Scientific name: Panthera leo atrox Scientific classification: Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivore Family: Felidae When did it become extinct? The American lion became extinct around 10,000 years ago. Where did it live? This cat was widespread in America, and its remains have been found from Alaska all the way down to Southern California. No remains have been found in the eastern United States or on the Florida peninsula. The American lion is a very well known fossil animal. More than 100 specimens of this cat have been recovered from the asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea alone, and disjointed bones and entire skeletons have been recovered from a host of other sites. All this material gives us a good idea of what this animal looked like as well as how it lived. Similarity with other lions: The bones of the American lion are very similar to the lion ( Panthera leo ) we know today, but scientists disagree on how these two animals are related. We do know that felines of lion proportions crossed into America via the Bering land bridge, and the American lion may simply be a subspecies of the living lion or possibly the same as the extinct European lion ( Panthera leo spelaea ), commonly known as the cave lion. Alternatively, the American lion may have been a distinct species and more similar, genetically, to the jaguar ( Panthera onca ). This extinct American cat was a big animal and one of the largest predators of the Americas, second only to the short-faced bears. It was around 25 percent larger than an average African lion, and it also had relatively longer legs. His living style and his behavior: We know this was a big, fearsome cat, but can ancient remains shed any light on how this feline lived? Is it possible to say whether the American lion was a social animal that lived and hunted in prides, as lions do today, or whether it was a solitary predator? Amazingly, there is some evidence to suggest that the American lion used teamwork to catch and subdue prey. This evidence is in the shape of a 36,000-year-old mummifi ed bison that was found in Alaska by a gold prospector in 1979. Blue Babe, as this bison came to be known, has wounds that seem to be the work of two or three American lions. In the hide of this dead animal are the puncture wounds made by canine teeth and the characteristic slashes made by large feline claws. The only other animal capable of inflicting such wounds was the large scimitar cat, Homotherium serum , but a bite from this animal would have left a big tear in the skin, rather than puncture wounds. For some unknown reason, the lions that attacked this bison only ate part of the carcass before they were disturbed. We know the kill was made in winter as the bison had its winter coat and good stores of fat under its skin in preparation for the harsh conditions ahead. Perhaps some really bad weather closed in, forcing the lions to abandon their kill. Most tellingly of all, there was a large piece of American lion cheek tooth buried in the neck of the bison. Maybe the killers returned to the carcass after it had been frozen, and as they gnawed at the rigid flesh, one of them broke a tooth. The carcass was left for good and eventually covered by silt during the spring thaw, only to be unearthed by a high-pressure water hose 36,000 years later. Finds like Blue Babe give us vivid glimpses of the how the American lion lived, and as with other extinct animals, the bones of the animal itself also tell many stories. Two specimens of the American lion from the Yukon show severe damage to the front of the lower jaw. The damage had healed, leaving large swellings on the mandible. We know that living lions are kicked in the face by struggling prey, and it seems that the American lion was also met with a hoof in the face when it was tackling the large herbivores of prehistoric North America. Not only did these cats get injured by their prey, but they also suffered from various diseases. One specimen from the Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming, has the telltale signs of osteoarthritis around the knee joint. This painful condition undoubtedly affected the ability of this individual to hunt eff ectively. Fast pursuits may have been impossible for it, so instead, it may have relied on scavenging, and perhaps it was the smell of decaying fl esh that drew it to its death in the huge pitfall trap that is Natural Trap Cave. How did he disappear and when? Like all the other American megafauna, we will never know the exact cause of the demise of this cat. As a species, the American lion survived for many thousands of years, experiencing glaciations and warm interglacial, but like much of the American megafauna, it disappeared at the end of the last glaciation. Humans were spreading though North America at this time, and as they hunted the prey of the American lion, this feline and humans were in direct competition. Various finds from around Europe show that prehistoric humans hunted lions, but it is doubtful whether direct human hunting could have led to the extinction of this cat. It is highly likely that this animal may have been better suited to the habitats and the colder conditions of the glaciations, rather than to the warm periods, and the pressure of climate change on its prey may have been amplified by human activity. • American lions were drawn to the Rancho La Brea because the sticky asphalt was a trap for all sorts of animals . The cats were attracted to the struggling animals, and they, too, became hopelessly stuck, eventually becoming entombed in the sticky tar. With this said, there are fewer American lions in the deposits than other predators such as saber tooth cats and dire wolves. Perhaps scavenging was only a last resort for the American lion, or maybe they were more wary of the potential dangers of tar pits. • You can see the mummified remains of Blue Babe in the University of Alaska Museum. It is known as Blue Babe because phosphorus in the bison’s tissues reacted with iron in the soil to produce a white substance called vivianite. This mineral changes to a brilliant blue when it is exposed to the air. Further Reading: Kurtén, B. “The Pleistocene Lion of Beringia.” Annales Zoologici Fennici 22 (1985): 117–21. http://blueline2011.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/american-lion/ .Simpson (1941) moved F. atrox to the genus Panthera and suggested that P. atrox was not a lion, but might be a giant jaguar. He considered it to be distinct from P. onca and named it P. jaguarius atrox onca Simpson (1941) could not find reliable differences between P. onca and P. atrox in the preserved elements. Unfortunately, all fossil material described by Freudenberg is lost and,therefore, cannot be restudied. http://www.academia.edu/991317/Panthera_leo_atrox_Mammalia_Carnivora_Felidae_in_Chiapas_Mexico My Recent Posts ..Simpson (1941) moved F. atrox to the genus Panthera and suggested that P. atrox was not a lion, but might be a giant jaguar. He considered it to be distinct from P. onca and named it P. jaguarius atrox onca Simpson (1941) could not find reliable differences between P. onca and P. atrox in the preserved elements. Unfortunately, all fossil material described by Freudenberg is lost and,therefore, cannot be restudied. http://www.academia.edu/991317/Panthera_leo_atrox_Mammalia_Carnivora_Felidae_in_Chiapas_Mexico It appears Dr Christiansen theory is repetition not really his own (will not call it plagiarized but close) this botched theory of a Jaguar rather than lion and no evidence left from the past study to file a claim. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/6057083/American-Lion A biomechanical constraint on body mass in terrestrial mammalian predators BORIS SORKIN Article first published online: 10 APR 2008 Sorking.. estimate 420 kg, 930 lbs. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1502-3931.2007.00091.x/abstract;jsessionid=D941BD75C17008166B6CAFC2FC2DDBA8.d01t03 15. Fleeing Black bears survive by being ready to flee, often to a tree. During the Ice Age, they lived among powerful predators like saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, American lions, and giant short-faced bears, none of which could climb trees. Black bears developed the timid personality of a prey animal, which serves them well today among grizzly bears, wolves, and people. Photo: September 1988. Minnesota http://www.bear.org/website/live-cameras/slide-shows/black-bear-show.html ...These are remarkably rare finds and have huge significance” End Quote Kevin Campbell University of Manitoba "Already there is dramatic evidence of a life-and-death struggle between Yuka and some top predator, probably a lion," says leading mammoth expert, Daniel Fisher, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17525070 ![]() ![]() further.. While excavating caves in Germany and Romania, scientists have unearthed the bones of large numbers of cave bears, a now extinct species that stood bigger than today's grizzly bears. The bears' bones, claw marks they left in the caves in which they lived, and even the beds they slept on, paint the best picture yet of how these magnificent creatures once lived. But more than that, researchers have also uncovered the petrified bones of the cave bear's foe, the Pleistocene cave lion. Dr Diedrich has discovered tens of thousands of bones belonging to several generations of cave bears, from young cubs to old animals... ..Crucially the lions were mostly older males, reinforcing the impression that only the bigger males entered the caves, supporting the idea they did so to hunt bears. Or it could be that whole prides entered, with the adult males doing most of the fighting. The cave lions may have targeted the bears after their usual prey, mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, disappeared. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/12819243 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618211003764 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() A well-preserved right lower jaw with complete P 3 -M 1 and an isolated canine of a large felid was found in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico. It is identified as the American lion Panthera leo atrox . Its presence in Chiapas documents its southernmost distribution in North America ..the Pleistocene American lion;some authors considered P. atrox as a subspeciesof the African lion P. leo (e.g., Kurte´n and Anderson, 1980; Anderson, 1989; Turner and Anto´n, 1997);..The fossil record of felids in Mexico is scarce,so geographic and temporal distribution andpaleodiversity are not possible to determine at present. This attests to the geographical impor-tance of the find. The fossil material describedhere is identified as P. l. atrox , which indicatesthat the most southern distribution documentedfor this lion in the Pleistocene was Chiapas. Itsassignment as a subspecies of P. leo follows theidea that sometime during the Pleistocene, thespecies P. leo dispersed from Africa, invadingEurope and Asia where P. l. spaleae , P. l.vereshchagini , and P. l. fossilis are known. It latercrossed Beringia and reached North America,living there in open habitat http://www.academia.edu/991317/Panthera_leo_atrox_Mammalia_Carnivora_Felidae_in_Chiapas_Mexico Abstract The saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis, and American lion, Panthera atrox, were among the largest terrestrial carnivores that lived during the Pleistocene, going extinct along with other megafauna ~12,000 years ago. Previous work suggests that times were difficult at La Brea (California) during the late Pleistocene, as nearly all carnivores have greater incidences of tooth breakage (used to infer greater carcass utilization) compared to today. As Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) can differentiate between levels of bone consumption in extant carnivores, we use DMTA to clarify the dietary niches of extinct carnivorans from La Brea. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that times were tough at La Brea with carnivorous taxa utilizing more of the carcasses. Our results show no evidence of bone crushing by P. atrox, with DMTA attributes most similar to the extant cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, which actively avoids bone. In contrast, S. fatalis has DMTA attributes most similar to the African lion Panthera leo, implying that S. fatalis did not avoid bone to the extent previously suggested by SEM microwear data. DMTA characters most indicative of bone consumption (i.e., complexity and textural fill volume) suggest that carcass utilization by the extinct carnivorans was not necessarily more complete during the Pleistocene at La Brea; thus, times may not have been “tougher” than the present. Additionally, minor to no significant differences in DMTA attributes from older (~30–35 Ka) to younger (~11.5 Ka) deposits offer little evidence that declining prey resources were a primary cause of extinction for these large cats. Table 2 Pairwise comparisons using Dunn’s procedure of extant and extinct taxa.Table 1 Descriptive statistics for each DMTA variable by species. Concluding Remarks DMTA here suggests that extinct carnivorans at La Brea may have utilized carcasses less than do some carnivorans today. This idea is inconsistent with interpretations of high incidences of tooth breakage in extinct Pleistocene carnivorans from La Brea compared with extant taxa. We suggest that tooth breakage data may be recording damage from both carcass utilization and prey-capture, with greater tooth breakage occurring due to increased prey size. Lower mean values for DMTA attributes consistent with greater durophagy (i.e., Asfc and Tfv) in both S. fatalis and P. atrox compared with both P. leo and C. crucuta, suggest that the late Pleistocene at La Brea was not any “tougher” (or perhaps “harder”) than the African savanna is today. Further, dental microwear texture comparisons through time offer no evidence that carcasses were utilized consistently more over time, especially for P. atrox. Thus, DMTA provides no support for the idea that prey-resources became scarcer over time. While competition with humans for prey is unlikely to explain the extinction of P. atrox and S. fatalis via competition for prey resources at La Brea, further work is necessary to assess the situation at other sites. Collectively, there is no evidence for greater carcass utilization during the Pleistocene; however, high levels of anterior tooth breakage could instead result from hunting megafauna and/or conspecific competition at La Brea. Thus, times may have been "tough," but not as originally proposed. http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0052453 http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/p/panthera-leo-atrox.html http://phys.org/news176648509.html |
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| Taipan | Sep 16 2013, 09:26 PM Post #26 |
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Another study! Lion predation on elephants in the Savuti, Chobe National Park, Botswana R. John Power* & R.X. Shem Compion Carnivore Conservation Group, Endangered Wildlife Trust, De Beers Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve, P.O.Box 192, Musina, 0900 South Africa Received 17 July 2007. Accepted 13 January 2009 Abstract Lions rarely prey on elephants. Botswana’s Savuti lions, however, switch to preying on elephants during the late dry season (August–November), and the frequency of this has increased in the last two decades (1985–2005). An opportunity to document this phenomenon was made possible with infrared viewing and filming equipment. A pride of 30 lions killed one elephant every three days. Seven of eight elephants killed were between four and 11 years old, as deduced from molar teeth ageing, and this age group represented over half the kills recorded by Joubert (2006). It is suggested that this weaned, maternally less dependent age class, may be more vulnerable to lion predation. Lions prey on elephants since the density of conventional ungulate prey is reduced as a result of an annual migration, and artificial water provisioning has prompted an increasingly sedentary population of elephants. Notes are presented on the lion’s behaviour in hunting elephants and the evolutionary significance of this. PDF : Lion predation on elephants in the Savuti, Chobe National Park, Botswana |
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| Taipan | Sep 18 2013, 06:01 PM Post #27 |
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Evolution of a Predator: How Big Cats Became Carnivores By Tia Ghose, Staff Writer | September 17, 2013 11:00am ET ![]() The Siberian tiger, also known as Panthera tigris altaica The biggest and perhaps most fearsome of the world's big cats, the tiger shares 95.6 percent of its DNA with humans' cute and furry companions, domestic cats. That's one of the findings from the newly sequenced genomes of tigers, snow leopards and lions. The new research showed that big cats have genetic mutations that enabled them to be carnivores. The team also identified mutations that allow snow leopards to thrive at high altitudes. The findings, detailed today (Sept. 17) in the journal Nature Communications, could help conservation efforts by preventing closely related captive animals from breeding, said Jong Bhak, a geneticist at the Personal Genomics Institute in South Korea. Lions and tigers Tigers are the biggest members of the cat family and are closely related to other big cats, such as snow leopards and lions. The predatory felines are critically endangered, and only 3,050 to 3,950 tigers are thought to remain in the wild. Without tiger conservation, most scientists believe the iconic orange cats will eventually go extinct. To aid those efforts, Bhak and his colleagues sequenced the genome of a 9-year-old Amur tiger living in the Everland Zoo in South Korea. The team also acquired DNA from around the world and compared the Amur tiger genome with that of the white Bengal tiger, the African lion, the white African lion and the snow leopard. The tiger shares 95.6 percent of its genome with the domestic cat, from which it diverged about 10.8 million years ago, the comparison showed. In addition, several genes were altered in metabolic pathways associated with protein digestion and metabolism, or how the body uses fuel like food to power cells. Those changes, which evolved over tens of millions of years, likely enable the majestic felines to digest and rely solely on meat, Bhak said. Big cats also have several mutations that make for powerful, fast-acting muscles — a necessity when chasing down prey. The team also found two genes in the snow leopard that allow it to thrive in the low-oxygen conditions of its high-altitude habitat in the Himalayan Mountains. Those genetic changes are similar to ones found in the naked mole rat, which also lives in low-oxygen conditions, though underground. In addition, the genetic analysis identified the mutations that give Bengal tigers and white African lions their distinctive white coats, Bhak said. The new results could aid conservation efforts by giving scientists a tool to estimate genetic diversity in the wild. By sequencing the genomes of tigers and other endangered cats like snow leopards, "we can find whether they are inbreeding," Bhak told LiveScience. "If their population diversity is very low, then one flu virus can kill a lot of them quickly, because they have the same genetic makeup." Scientists can then take measures to introduce fresh blood into the population, which could make it more resilient. The genomes can also aid captive breeding programs by helping zoos choose animals that aren't closely related for mating, he added. http://www.livescience.com/39695-tiger-lion-leopard-genome-sequenced.html The tiger genome and comparative analysis with lion and snow leopard genomes Yun Sung Cho, Li Hu, Haolong Hou, Hang Lee, Jiaohui Xu, Soowhan Kwon, Sukhun Oh, Hak-Min Kim, Sungwoong Jho, Sangsoo Kim, Young-Ah Shin, Byung Chul Kim, Hyunmin Kim, Chang-uk Kim, Shu-Jin Luo, Warren E. Johnson, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Anne Schmidt-Küntzel, Jason A. Turner, Laurie Marker et al. Nature Communications 4, Article number: 2433 doi:10.1038/ncomms3433 Received 02 May 2013 Accepted 13 August 2013 Published 17 September 2013 Abstract Tigers and their close relatives (Panthera) are some of the world’s most endangered species. Here we report the de novo assembly of an Amur tiger whole-genome sequence as well as the genomic sequences of a white Bengal tiger, African lion, white African lion and snow leopard. Through comparative genetic analyses of these genomes, we find genetic signatures that may reflect molecular adaptations consistent with the big cats’ hypercarnivorous diet and muscle strength. We report a snow leopard-specific genetic determinant in EGLN1 (Met39>Lys39), which is likely to be associated with adaptation to high altitude. We also detect a TYR260G>A mutation likely responsible for the white lion coat colour. Tiger and cat genomes show similar repeat composition and an appreciably conserved synteny. Genomic data from the five big cats provide an invaluable resource for resolving easily identifiable phenotypes evident in very close, but distinct, species. ![]() (a) Orthologous gene clusters in mammalian species. The Venn diagram shows the number of unique and shared gene families among seven mammalian genomes. (b) Gene expansion or contraction in the tiger genome. Numbers designate the number of gene families that have expanded (green, +) and contracted (red, −) after the split from the common ancestor. The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) has 17,841 gene families. The time lines indicate divergence times among the species. http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/130917/ncomms3433/full/ncomms3433.html |
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| Asadas | Oct 24 2013, 04:09 AM Post #28 |
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Herbivore
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Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest A LION’S SHARE OF ATTENTION: ARCHAEOZOOLOGY AND THE HISTORICAL RECORD L. BARTOSIEWICZ Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University ..A. Meyer noted with immense foresight over a century ago, “From the philological side there is evidently no basis to doubt... that lions indeed lived in Europe... around 500 BC... [Although] until recently no lion bones have been found in Greece, one should consider how few excavations took place in those lands”. 2 Only a quarter of a century later, ecavations at the 5th–2nd century BC site of Ol’bia, a Greek colony on the Black Sea coast in modern-day Ukraine indeed yielded the fi rst bones of large Felids, 3 attributed at the time to animals kept in a menagerie or the import of precious pelts. 4 Although these pos- sibilities must always be taken into consideration, reconfi rming Meyer’s optimistic view large faunal assemblages recovered in the Balkans during the last three decades have produced increasing numbers of lion remains from prehistoric as well as early historical times. This study seeks reconciling the remianing discrepancies between the historical record and archaeozoological evidence. As for the zoological aspect of this work, there are fundamental diffi culties in distinguishing between the bones of Late-Glacial and Holocene lions in Europe. Morphometric differences between the Pleistocene cave lion ( Panthera leo spelaea Goldfuss, 1810) and the recent lion ( Panthera leo Linnaeus, 1758) are negligible. While the bones of cave lion tend to be larger, precise identifi cation is often impossible using only sporadically occurring re- mains. Ancient DNA sequences indicate that cave lion from Austria and Southern Germany represent lineages that diverged from lions in Africa and Asia about 600,000 BP, and became extinct without mitochondrial descendants in those two continents. Depending on convention, even this ancient, distant form, however, may fit within a single species nomenclature. 5 Modern lions are closely related. Craniological traits of the now extinct North African Barbary lion ( Panthera leo leo Linnaeus, 1758) and Asiatic lions ( Panthera leo persica Meyer, 1826) are very similar. There must have been a contiguous population inhabiting North Africa and Asia. Moreover, the population in South-East Europe possibly once linked lions in the Middle East and North Africa, although the European form 2 L. BARTOSIEWICZ Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hugaricae is sometimes considered part of the Asiatic subspecies 6 . It seems, however, that it was the expansion of human populations along the Nile and the Sinai Peninsula some 4,000 years ago that de facto disrupted gene fl ow between the lion populations in North Africa and the Middle East. 7 Following the decline of lion populations in Europe, the regions whose lions were imported for the elites of European Antiquity included Africa, Arabia and Syria as well as Mesopotamia. 18 Until approximately the AD 10 th century, lions were probably also found in the Azerbaijan area. Their disappearance from the reed thickets and open woodland is primarily explained with an increase in human population and a change in environmental condi- tions, that resulted in the decline of ungulates in that region ( Fig. 2.3 ). 19 It is probably the Asiatic lion that makes repeated appearances in the Old Testament (some 150 times), most notably as having fought Samson in the Book of Judges. They are thought to have existed in Palestine until about AD 1400. Lions could still be found in the vicinity of Samaria and around the 12 th century ( Fig. 2.4 ). 20 At this point the fi rst wave of lion extinctions in north Africa is worth briefl y discussing. Stocks of Barbary lion, the largest of all subspecies, had served as a steady sup- ply to Europe throughout Antiquity: for example Sulla staged 100 “maned” lions in Rome in the 2 nd century BC, a gift of King Bocchus of Mauretania. 21 It was certainly from Africa that Claudian believed that Stilicho would obtain the “superb lions” ( eximii leones ) for display at his consular games. 22 These written sources are complimented by the iconographic record. In a number of AD 3 rd –4 th century mosaics, mostly from North Africa, great hunting parties are depicted, with animals being captured, packed, and shipped to various destinations so that they could be put on stage. 23 The earliest known Holocene lions in the British Isles belonged to the Royal Menagerie of the Tower of London. DNA evidence shows that the skulls of two male lions (dated to AD 1280–1385 and AD 1420–1480), found in the moat of the Tower, also originated from Barbary lions. 24 Lions disappeared from the Tripoli area by around 1700 ( Fig. 2.5 ) and from the Moroccan coast by the mid 1800s Looking at the far end of the eastern range of lion distributions it may be noted that the last known speci- men in Pakistan was killed near Kot Deji in Sind province already in 1810 ( Fig. 2.7 ) although lion was distributed even farther east toward the states of Bihar and Orissa in India. A rare specimen was killed in Palamau district (Bihar State) in 1814 ( Fig. 2.8 ). 26 The decades to follow saw a rapid decline of Indian lion populations: the last specimen killed at the southern end of its Indian range was shot at Rhyl in Damoh district at the turn of 1847–1848 ( Fig. 2.9 ). 27 Lions remained widespread in many areas until the mid-19 th century when the advent of fi rearms led to their extinction over vast areas. The intensity of hunting is clearly shown by reports of slaughtering fi fty lions in the district of Delhi between 1856–1858 ( Fig. 2.10 ). 28 In 1891, only a generation later, Blanford wrote that “in India the lion is verging on extinction”. 29 It is possible, that the lion populations of Asia were not contiguous in recent historical times, since no lions were reported either from eastern Iran or Afghanistan, the region indicated by a question mark in Figure 2 . Meanwhile it is worth mentioning that Dashtiarjan valley, west of Shiraz in Iran, remained famous for its lions even as late as the late 19 th century ( Fig. 2.11 ). 30 During the mid-19 th century, lions were also re- corded in the vicinity of Mosul, Iraq ( Fig. 2.12 ). 31 The last lion in Southeastern Turkey was reported in 1870 ( Fig. 2.13 ), 32 while at the same time, lions were reported to be still numerous in the reedy marshland along the Tigris and the Euphrates ( Fig. 2.14 ). 33 This area had a long tradition of exporting lions. Those captured in Northern Mesopotamia were sent to Constantinople (mid 4 th century AD) especially for games organized by the emperor. 34 Gaius Cassius (?85 BC–42 BC), quaestor of Syria ordered the shipment of live lions (presumably of local, Syrian origins) to Italy, but the transport was hijacked at the ancient city of Megara in Attica (northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth) on the way to Italy. 35 The resilience of the Middle Eastern population is also illustrated by a 1891 report of lions from west of Aleppo in Syria ( Fig. 2.15 ) Meanwhile, the last Barbary lions were killed in the lowlands of North Africa near Barbuch in Tunisia (1891; Fig. 2.16 ) and near Batna in Algeria (1893; Fig. 2.17 ). 37 By the 20 th century both killings and sightings of lions became sporadic in the Middle East. In 1914, the Turkish governor shot two lions in the area of Iraq, 38 while the last known specimen in that country was killed in the lower reaches of the Tigris in 1918 ( Fig. 2.18 ). 39 However, a British admiral travelling by train reported seeing a maneless lion near Quetta in northwestern A LION’S SHARE OF ATTENTION 5 Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hugaricae Pakistan ( Fig. 2.19 ), although “many offi cers expressed doubts as to its identity, or the possibility of there being a lion in the district”. 40 The last observation of lions in Iran was made by American railway engineers near Dizful in 1935 ( Fig. 2.20 ). 41 The unconfi rmed last sighting of a live lion (between Shiraz and Jahrom) was reported in 1941. A dead lioness was found on the banks of Karun river, Khuzestan province in 1944. Western North Africa, the most accessible region from Western Europe where lions were available until the early 20 th century, had also served as an evident source for animal merchants throughout the Middle Ages. 42 The last known Barbary lion was killed by a poacher in the Moroccan Atlas in 1922 ( Fig. 2.21 ), although it is reputed to have survived in the high Atlas Mountains until the 1940s. 43 The last population of Indian lions consists of some 350 individuals kept in the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat State (India), located near the northeast coast of the subcontinent. Otherwise, the modern distribution of lions is limited to sub-Saharan Africa To date, the supposedly earliest remains of subfossil lions in Europe were recovered in the Basque country, along the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. They were dated to the pre-Boreal/Boreal period (9600–7000 BC). 44 These important fi nds, however, are beyond the chronological and culture-historical focus of the current dis- cussion, since this population in the Iberian Peninsula must have disappeared by the beginning of the Holocene. 45 At this point, the single Iron Age fi nd from Huelva, Southern Spain 46 may be attributed to an imported specimen associated with the Roman colonization of the Mediterranean region. Additional fi nds may change this picture. Reviewing the archaeozoological evidence of lions in southeastern Europe shows a combination of geo- graphic and diachronic trends. This may be largely described as the withdrawal of lions towards the Southeast. The phenomenon looks far more complex, however, in light of the number and nature of lion remains found. In the Balkans, the earliest evidence of Holocene lions, an upper canine tooth fragment ( Fig. 3 ), came to light from the Middle Neolithic II Phase (ca. 6000 BC) of the Karanovo tell settlement in Bulgaria ( Fig. 4.1 ). 47 It is the only fi nd that is early enough to represent the Atlantic Period (ca. 7000–5500 BC) in conventional climatic terms. In deposits assigned to the end of the Atlantic/beginning of the sub-Boreal (ca. 5500–3000 BC), the pres- ence of lions is evidently more frequent. With the notable exception of the aforementioned Iron Age record from southern Spain, 48 osteological evidence for sub-Boreal and sub-Atlantic lions in Europe is restricted to the Ponto- Mediterranean region. At the site of Dikili Tash in Greek Macedonia, a radius was found in a Neolithic (ca. 4460– 4000 BC) context ( Fig. 4.2 ). 49 In chronological sequence, the next evidence originates from the area of the Late Neolithic cemetery of Zengővárkony in Western Hungary ( Fig. 4.3 ). That specimen is actually know only as the plaster cast of a lower left canine tooth recovered as a stray fi nd from the Lengyel culture (ca. 3500 BC) cemetery before World War II ...The fi rst discovery of lion bones in Bulgaria has attracted considerable popular attention. These important prehistoric fi nds link relevant fi nds in the Carpathian Basin and near the Black Sea coast to those in Greece. 57 One may wonder, however, whether the conspicuous paucity of lion remains between the Ponto-Mediterranean coast and the Carpathian Basin refl ects a pattern in zoogeographical distribution or difference in the intensity of archaeozoological research ( Fig. 4 ). The fi ve Copper Age sites yielding a variety of skeletal parts in Bulgaria include the tell settlement of Goljamo Delčevo, where an atlas fragment was identifi ed ( Fig. 4.9 ). 58 The 2 nd horizon of another tell at Slatino yielded a proximal fragment of a right ulna, dated to the end of the Early Copper Age, ca. middle of the 5 th millen- nium BC ( Fig. 4.10 ). 59 The distal end of a right humerus came to light from the Copper Age in Devetashka Cave ( Fig. 4.11 ). 60 Underwater deposits, believed to be of a Copper Age date, have yielded the tibia of a juvenile lion as well as a proximal phalanx in Sozopol on the Black Sea Coast ( Fig. 4.12 ) . 61 In contrast to the aforementioned neolithic tooth remains, these bones represent the entire body, often meat rich regions All animals, and extreme creatures such as lions especially, tend to be seen in a dualistic manner. Shades between the extremes of bipolar perceptions ( sensu Claude Lévi-Strauss) such as “destructive/noble” or “agrarian/ royal” also exist, and they may be better understood as stages of a continuum defi ned in taphonomic terms. The concepts outlined here through the interpretation of various skeletal remains within differing cultural contexts are summarized in Figure 7. It is suggested, that with the disappearance of local lion populations in Europe, the vernacular, overwhelmingly negative perception of these animals (rooted in fi rst-hand experience) developed in a more abstract, idealistic picture, best embodied by lions imported as live animals for the purposes of high-status display at popular games.... CONCLUSIONS Thanks to the increasing body of archaeozoological information gained through the systematic analysis of large animal bone assemblages, the time gap between the latest known Holocene lion fi nd and the fi rst description of a lion hunt by Homer 94 from the 8 th century BC elapsed in Southeast Europe. In fact, lions mentioned by later Greek authors in Macedonia have also been identified. 12 L. BARTOSIEWICZ Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hugaricae Holocene lions briefly colonized South-East Europe crossing the Bosphorus from Asia Minor during Post- Glacial times. 95 They seem to have reached the Carpathian Basin with a Late Neolithic/Copper Age continental faunal wave, 96 during the Atlantic Period. The north-westernmost sites where lion bones were recovered include Gyöngyöshalász (Latitude 47.7 N; Longitude 19.9 E) and Tiszalúc (Latitude 48.0 N; Longitude 21.0 E) in the Great Hungarian Plain. Early fi nds (even excluding teeth) directly prove that the Copper Age inhabitants of South-East Europe hunted lions for food or to pursue them as pests to their fl ocks. This fi erce animal must have been a relatively common game that interferred with the introduction of established “agrarian” cultures in the area. By the end of European Prehistory, however, important developments took place in the Balkan Peninsula: the Greek alphabet was developed and the fi rst documents of Greek literature were written. The aforementioned earliest written reference by Homer’s 11 th Book of the Iliad is a vivid description of how villagers chase away a lion from their herd with the help of dogs. Expanding human populations were evidently threatened by lions whose habitats they increasingly occupied. Lions were not merely hunted for meat: a marked diachronic trend towards extermination emerged. As has been shown in this paper through the example of modern lion extinctions (admittedly exacerbated by the use of fi rearms), this decline may not have been linear, however. Lion populations seem to have displayed a remarkable flexibility and ability to recover, even under the intensifying pressure of human predation, especially in the Middle East http://www.shca.ed.ac.uk/staff/supporting_files/lbartosi/2009_Lions.pdf |
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| figantee | Nov 14 2013, 07:33 PM Post #29 |
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Heterotrophic Organism
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The lion is bigger than the tiger, but the tiger is heavier, this difference is given by their respective habitats, the lion needs agility to catch his prey in the savannah so it is slimmer, slender (or athletic), tiger lives in the forest, where the prey caught by surprise, no run, live in the coldest place needs layer of fat to protect themselves from the cold. This difference is observed tmb in Oz (closed forest) and leopard (savanna). you guys agree? |
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| Taipan | Nov 29 2013, 02:53 PM Post #30 |
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Becoming King: Why So Few Male Lions Survive to Adulthood By Douglas Main, Staff Writer | November 27, 2013 02:24pm ET ![]() Life is tough for lion cubs, but especially males: Only about 1 in 8 male lions survive to adulthood. OKAVANGO DELTA, BOTSWANA — It ain't easy being king. Take a look at a pride of lions, and it becomes obvious that there are more females than males, usually at a ratio of about 2- or 3-to-1. Considering that male and female lions are born in equal numbers, the question arises: What happens to the missing males? That's the question explored by a new film called "Game of Lions" (premiering Sunday (Dec. 1) at 10 p.m. ET on Nat Geo Wild), filmed here in the Okavango Delta, a lush wetland where the Okavango River collides with the Kalahari Desert. The area is home to a great variety of animals, such as lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and hippopotamuses. It's no easy feat finding lions. But under the guidance of Dereck and Beverly Joubert, filmmakers and National Geographic explorers-in-residence, it's a cinch. On the first afternoon of a three-day safari here, the couple located a group of five lions, including two cubs, as a group of four journalists drove to see them. The first sight of wild lions is stirring, for a number of reasons. The cubs themselves are adorable, but the adults — each of which easily outweighs an offensive linemen and sports paws the size of small dinner plates — elicit a sort of tense wonder consisting of awe, respect for these powerful beasts, and something resembling fear but more like an awareness of one's mortality. They could easily kill us. But there are no words in the moment besides exclamations of disbelief. But none of that matters to the lions, who live on this land and don't seem to pay any attention to visitors, driven about in a couple of Toyota Land Cruisers that are completely open to the air, no windows for separation. The lion cubs seem happy and carefree, but their lives are not easy. Only about 1 in 8 male lions survive to adulthood, Dereck said. Tough childhood All lions face high mortality as cubs, for a variety of reasons, including injuries, lack of food, illness and being killed by adult lions — more on that later. But when male lions begin to reach sexual maturity around age 2, the older males within the pride kick them out, Dereck said. The female lions, which are usually all related to some degree, typically stay behind. For a young male, "the betrayal by his own blood must be confusing to him, but this is an ancient rite — the casting out of young males into a world of unknowns — a world where he will be able make it, or die," said Dereck, 57, who sports a white beard and looks every bit the wilderness gentleman. Dereck and Beverly, 56, seem to belong here in Duba, where they made other films about lions, including "The Last Lions" and "Relentless Enemies." [In Photos: A Lion's Life] ![]() A young cub in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. After being kicked out, the young males roam the countryside solo or in small bands, often with their brothers or cousins, negotiating the no-cat's-land between territories of other lions, said Luke Hunter, the president of the big cat conservation group Panthera, in a phone interview. If they stray into these territories, they are likely to be attacked and/or killed. A majority of male lions die during this time, said Gabriele Cozzi, a researcher at Zurich University who wasn't involved in the film. This odyssey also puts them into contact with humans, due to expansion of rural populations, Cozzi said in an email, increasing the chances they will be killed in a wire snare trap (a non-selective, widespread method of catching African game). If they survive long enough to find a promising new area, the next step is to take over another pride. But of course resident males will have none of that, and so they end up fighting, often to the death, Dereck said. They usually do this as a coalition, often consisting of three or four "big, bruising males," Hunter said. When male lions take over a new territory, they almost always kill the prides' cubs, since they are not biologically related and do not want to spend energy ensuring that other lions' genes will be passed on. "They can't be stepfathers," Hunter told LiveScience. Female lions also will not be receptive to mating while they are nursing, so killing the cubs enables the male lions to procreate, said Beverly. The Jouberts have had their fair share of close calls, and Beverly has saved Dereck's life many times (according to Dereck). They have survived several plane crashes, being charged by a wounded elephant and, most recently, Dereck was bitten by a boomslang, one of the more deadly snakes in Africa. Dereck nonchalantly points to the scar left by the bite, saying that he still lacks feeling in the area. The bite occurred days before a visit from the television program "60 Minutes" — but instead of canceling, Dereck went through with the interview. He eventually sought treatment at a South African hospital, he said. ![]() Filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, in their natural habitat, in Duba Plains camp, Botswana. Lion hunting Only physically strong, intelligent and fit males survive to become adults in charge of a pride, Dereck said. And these Okavango lions are probably the largest lions on the planet. That's because there is an abundance of buffalo and other animals to prey upon, and the fact that the animals often walk through water in the delta's many streams, building up their muscles, he said. But male lions, for all their hardships, are sought after by trophy hunters. "Every now and then, a cub emerges as a battle-scared warrior, and then gets shot for the very qualities that have allowed him to be a survivor," Dereck said. There are only about 20,000 lions left in Africa, Beverly said. Other estimates put the number slightly higher, closer to 30,000. Regardless, their numbers are declining at an alarming rate, experts agree. About 50 years ago, there were 450,000 lions — a decline of more than 95 percent, Beverly added. Trophy hunters, mostly Americans, kill nearly 700 lions per year, typically males, Dereck said. Perhaps an even bigger problem is the use of wire snare traps by expanding rural populations in Africa, Hunter said. These traps catch a variety of animals, which then die, attracting lions, which then fall prey to the traps themselves, he added. Spreading awareness The Jouberts said they hope that the film will help people appreciate how difficult it is for male lions to survive to adulthood, and in turn discourage hunting of these animals. Viewing the animals up close shows just how easy it is to approach them, and makes it clear that lion hunting wouldn't be particularly challenging. The killing of an adult male in a pride can throw the group into chaos, Dereck said. For example, this makes the pride more vulnerable to attack from an outside group of males, leading to upheaval and the almost certain killing of any young cubs, Dereck said. In a typical natural population of lions, about 23 to 30 percent of the animals are males, Hunter said. But hunts geared toward males can skew that balance. In Zambia's Luangwa Valley, for example, hunting recently decreased the portion of males to 8 percent of the population, at least four times lower than it would normally be, he said. Beverly and Derek live among the iconic big cats in Botswana, often spending days out in the bush living in their specially modified Land Cruiser, which can handle deep puddles and rivers. They spent 18 months filming "Game of Lions" — which is less than one hour in length — and another five months editing. After visiting Duba Plains, the Jouberts' dedication to saving lions and capturing them on camera becomes more impressive. Most of the time, lions lie around, acting very much like big cats. In one instance they came right up next to the safari cruiser, in search of shade, within an arm's reach. The lions made one successful kill during the trip, but it was at night in a marsh, just after a terrific thunderstorm and the beginning of the rainy season, Dereck said. In other words, the lions' true nature doesn't necessarily come out upon first glimpse, at least not to the extent that it does in the Jouberts' films. But it's more than enough to respect their massive size, power and grace. And also their vulnerability. "We want this film to be the beginning of the conversation" about lion conservation, Dereck said. Concerning the fate of lions and other wildlife, the biggest problem is a lack of awareness and ignorance. "Once people have good information, they usually make good decisions," he said. http://www.livescience.com/41572-male-lion-survival.html |
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2:05 AM Jul 14