tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/big-cats-8069/articles
Big cats – The Conversation
2023-11-16T17:39:18Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215091
2023-11-16T17:39:18Z
2023-11-16T17:39:18Z
Big cats eat more monkeys in a damaged tropical forest – and this could threaten their survival
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559973/original/file-20231116-22-j4ct25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5993%2C4000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A jaguar in the jungle of southern Mexico.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jaguar-jungle-southern-mexico-2205608235">Mardoz/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Monkeys are not usually a popular menu item for big cats. Primates are, after all, hard to catch: living in the canopies of large trees and rarely coming down to the ground. Jaguar and puma have varied diets and will normally hunt the species that are most common where they live, such as deer, peccary (a type of wild pig) and armadillo.</p>
<p>But jaguar and puma living in southern Mexican forests with a high human footprint (where wood and other resources are regularly harvested and there are large clearings for farms or expanding settlements) seem to be changing their feeding preferences to include more monkeys, according to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/btp.13253">new research</a>.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bart-Harmsen/publication/227643029_The_food_habits_of_jaguars_and_pumas_across_a_gradient_of_human_disturbance/links/5a4b45c2a6fdcce1972198fa/The-food-habits-of-jaguars-and-pumas-across-a-gradient-of-human-disturbance.pdf">studies</a> have already found that when there is less of their usual prey around, big cats turn to alternatives. The changes in jaguar and puma diets that my colleagues and I recorded may indicate that the populations of these normal prey are shrinking, or that something in the environment has changed to make catching and eating primates easier. </p>
<p>This change in the diet of large cats could make the disappearance of primate populations in tropical forests like this one in southern Mexico more likely. This would, in turn, make the disappearance of large cats themselves more likely due to a lack of food, threatening the stability of an entire ecosystem.</p>
<h2>On the trail of big cats</h2>
<p>When forests are cut down or altered by loggers and hunters, primates are particularly affected, as many species depend on tall trees for food, shelter and to chart paths through the forest. Globally, more than 60% of primate species are <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1600946">threatened with extinction</a>.</p>
<p>These changes to forests have also put large predators at risk. Understanding what is happening in these areas can inform more effective conservation measures, which may prevent species from disappearing.</p>
<p>The Uxpanapa valley in southeastern Mexico is one of the last relicts of tall evergreen forest in the country, and is classified as <a href="https://fundacioncarlosslim.org/conoce-trabajo-la-alianza-wwf-fundacion-carlos-slim-en-selva-zoque/">one of the most biodiverse</a> areas in both Mexico and the world. It is home to jaguar, puma and many other species, including two endangered primates: howler and spider monkeys.</p>
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<img alt="A black monkey in a tropical forest canopy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559978/original/file-20231116-29-ab8f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559978/original/file-20231116-29-ab8f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559978/original/file-20231116-29-ab8f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559978/original/file-20231116-29-ab8f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559978/original/file-20231116-29-ab8f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559978/original/file-20231116-29-ab8f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559978/original/file-20231116-29-ab8f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Howler monkeys are native to South and Central American forests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mantled-howler-monkey-alouatta-palliata-beautiful-2301090257">David Havel/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>I led a research team that studied the distribution of primates in the Uxpanapa Valley for the first time. We recorded the number of primates and where they were found, as well as the type of forest they preferred.</p>
<p>Another team looked for large cats with the help of a dog which could detect their faeces, otherwise known as scat. Scat was collected to obtain DNA and determine the species that left it, whether it had any parasites, and what its diet was like. The team found out what prey these large cats were eating by using microscopes to study the hairs left in each scat. Special identification guides can link each kind of animal to its hair – each has a particular colour, pattern and shape.</p>
<p>Large carnivores maintain biodiversity and the functioning of an ecosystem by controlling populations of certain species – for example, herbivores that might otherwise harm trees or prevent forests regrowing. The presence of such predators can indicate an ecosystem’s health. Knowing what top predators are eating can tell us even more about how an ecosystem is functioning.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>When we combined the data and information we collected, we began to understand that something out of the ordinary was happening.</p>
<p>Primates were the most frequent prey found in jaguar and puma scats, making up nearly 35% of the remains. Primate remains were also more likely to be found in scats collected from areas with less forest. Spider monkey remains, for example, were more likely to be found in scats collected in areas with more villages, and in forest that was regrowing after being disturbed.</p>
<p>A possible explanation is that where there are more villages, it is likely that there is more hunting and tree-cutting taking place. Where there is more hunting, the prey that jaguar and puma usually prefer might not be as plentiful. And regrowing forests do not offer primates the same protection as tall, untouched forests. These two factors may explain why large cats are eating spider monkeys more often here.</p>
<p>Jaguar and puma will usually eat the prey that is more abundant. If their preferred prey is scarce, they will hunt the species they encounter most. Similar to what we observed with spider monkeys, in areas where there was less tall forest, howler monkey remains were more likely than non-primate prey to be found in the scats, possibly as big cats found it easier to reach primates.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A pile of logs in a deforested Mexican plain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559982/original/file-20231116-25-9rnkm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559982/original/file-20231116-25-9rnkm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559982/original/file-20231116-25-9rnkm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559982/original/file-20231116-25-9rnkm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559982/original/file-20231116-25-9rnkm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559982/original/file-20231116-25-9rnkm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559982/original/file-20231116-25-9rnkm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Logging robs monkeys of hiding places from predators.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/illegal-logging-indigenous-communities-chiapas-mexico-1710243550">Eduardo Cota/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Less tree cover and overhunting of other prey (combined with general habitat loss) could explain the high rates of primate predation we discovered. Nevertheless, we need to continue monitoring these sites to fully understand these changes in large cat diets.</p>
<p>Our results highlight the importance of maintaining tall forest cover to ensure primates and other forest-dependent species can survive. They also raise the urgent need for conservation, before the negative effects of human activities on both primate and large cat populations become irreversible, and the ecosystems they live in are lost.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aralisa Shedden received funding from the Mexican Council for Research (CONACyT).</span></em></p>
The results could indicate populations of more typical prey in southern Mexico are shrinking.
Aralisa Shedden, Postdoctoral Researcher in Conservation, Bournemouth University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211130
2023-08-09T13:20:50Z
2023-08-09T13:20:50Z
The fast, furious, and brutally short life of an African male lion
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541739/original/file-20230808-30-wgjkzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The death of a lion in Kenya’s picturesque savannas rarely tugs at people’s hearts, even in a country where wildlife tourism is a key pillar of the nation’s economy. But when one of the most tracked male lions in Kenya’s famous Masaai Mara was <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/jesse-king-of-maasai-mara-dies-in-tragic-rivalry-battle--4316734">killed</a> on 24 July 2023 the world took notice. Known as Jesse, he was killed during a fight with a coalition of three male lions from a rival pride, drawing attention to the brutally risky and dangerous lives of male lions.</p>
<p>Lions are organised in family groups known as a pride. Each pride is comprised of several related lionesses. One or more adult male lions will also be present. In the public imagination, male lions are better known by their popularised image as <a href="https://www.ourendangeredworld.com/are-lions-the-king-of-the-jungle/">kings of the jungle</a>. Their bravery, strength, and size (only tigers are larger) fits this profile.</p>
<p>But in reality, male lions live a life far more vulnerable. One in two male lions die in the first year of life. From the moment a male lion is born it faces a gauntlet of challenges – from snakebite and hungry hyenas to infanticide at the hands of other male lions. </p>
<p>If a male lion makes it out of their first year of life, and then to independence at around 3, they leave their pride for a period of nomadism. Nomads lead a dangerous existence, skirting the territories of established male coalitions. Out there on their own, few will make it to the age of 10. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A young male lion rests in the branches of a tree in Uganda’s Ishasha sector. This particular cub was the son of a three male coalition of lions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy: Alexander Richard Braczkowski</span></span>
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<p>At no time, it seems, is the male lion safe. We know from the evidence collected by the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=683919633775825&set=a.642108107956978&type=3&ref=embed_post">Kenya Wildlife Trust</a>, resident guides, and tourists that Jesse administered and received many beatings from other male lions. We also know that Jesse, who lived to the ripe old age of 12, was eventually killed by three younger, stronger lions. Life comes full circle: killers frequently become victims themselves, of younger, brasher lions, or those in larger and thus more powerful coalitions. </p>
<p>We are three researchers with over 50 years of combined experience in big cat <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=hnAe1zYAAAAJ&citation_for_view=hnAe1zYAAAAJ:F2VeH06lQh8C">ecology</a>, <a href="https://www.resilientconservation.org/founder-duan-biggs">conservation</a>, and <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-120920-125536">the complexities of people and wildlife living together</a>. </p>
<p>We base our commentary on the extensive information gathered by conservation organisations, independent scientists and tourism guides working in the Maasai Mara. Information on Jesse has been collected mainly through sightings data compiled by these entities over time. </p>
<p>Often the survival of male lions will be dictated by the size and strength of their coalitions, and the make up of the lion landscape at large. This sometimes has bearing for conservation especially when lions stray out of national parks or <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073808">when male lions are hunted after leaving the safety of a protected area</a>.</p>
<h2>The trials of a young lion</h2>
<p>A young male lion’s biggest threat is his exposure to other male lions that aren’t their father or uncle. A host of <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12594">studies from the Serengeti in Tanzania to Zimbabwe</a> show that the most significant single cause of lion mortality in the first year of a lion’s life is attributed to other <a href="https://userpages.umbc.edu/%7Ehanson/Jane'sLions.pdf">male lions that kill them during infanticide</a>. </p>
<p>This involves incoming males seeking out and killing the cubs of other males or driving young males away, and attempting to take over prides. Killing cubs <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1257226?casa_token=DNGxjnBmO-EAAAAA%3A6peluEktzB8JVLut4SBuIMDVOMsiM_lBAmv-kAQDlDwEllpBWirZ68LnI-c11jzIN5sV3pder_KVf1rO">accelerates the onset of oestrus in pride females</a> and so is likely to increase the reproductive success of incoming males. </p>
<p>Most lions that get <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/oik.01266?casa_token=VqaDeZN7ZI8AAAAA:_vhYFHLGSO1jHTthWAkJaRoitzJrqq_4nMPjeY8xnxJ2yh2qgYfGs1xDOTDJPs8TKcnIFqFLUw-8quTe">pushed out of their pride when very young </a> don’t survive.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-closer-to-a-much-better-count-of-africas-lions-140945">Getting closer to a much better count of Africa's lions</a>
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<p>Cubs that survive to independence – around 3 years of age – must leave their pride for a period of nomadism. During this time, they join up with cousins, brothers, and sometimes unrelated males of similar age to form what biologists term ‘coalitions’. The power of coalitions increases dramatically with the size of the group. This power can be defined by the number of different prides these coalitions are likely to rule, the number of offspring they will sire, and the number of times they will successfully be able to defend their prides from violent incursions from neighbouring male lions and their coalitions. </p>
<p>The tradeoff of larger coalitions is a watering down of a male lion’s reproductive opportunities. </p>
<p>Examples of such powerful coalitions include the six-strong <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapogo_lion_coalition">Mapogo</a>, and <a href="https://secretafrica.com/the-majingilane-lions-of-sabi-sands/">five-strong Majingilane</a> from South Africa. There is also the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg680YugRtc">Lake Quintet coalition from Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania</a>. </p>
<p>Contrastingly, Jesse had only one coalition mate, a lion known as Frank. The two were strong enough to kick out the duo of Dere and Barrikoi from the Offbeat pride in May 2014. After his coalition mate Frank disappeared, Jesse left the Offbeat Pride and led a largely nomadic lifestyle except when he unsuccessfully tried to take over the Rakero pride and even fought with his own son Jesse 2. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Birmingham coalition of five male lions in the Kruger National Park of South Africa. They regularly clashed with other powerful coalitions including the famed Majingilane lion coalition.</span>
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<h2>Three laws of the wild</h2>
<p>Mate, protect, fight. <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9IWaqAOGyt4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=what+is+the+purpose+of+mammal+life+on+earth&ots=1GBV4cKe6D&sig=5LtExzK4__-My_ZA5CkytjjIKRA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=what%20is%20the%20purpose%20of%20mammal%20life%20on%20earth&f=false">These are the three tenets most male animals live and die by in the animal kingdom </a> and this could not be truer for male lions. When male lions are in the prime of their lives somewhere between 5 and 9 years of age they will attempt to have as many cubs as they can. And they will do their best to protect and guard over as many prides as possible.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lions-are-still-being-farmed-in-south-africa-for-hunters-and-tourism-they-shouldnt-be-208584">Lions are still being farmed in South Africa for hunters and tourism – they shouldn't be</a>
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</em>
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<p>But there is a fine line between holding tenure over many different prides, and successfully being able to defend them and their young. When fights do breakout between male lions they are usually over territorial and breeding rights. </p>
<p>At times they are mere squabbles between coalition mates. At other times, the battles are big enough to cause rifts and splits within coalitions. But in most cases fights are between rival coalitions. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om5nM54a1Wo">During these fights lions engage in a suite of bodily and olfactory engagements</a> including posturing, roaring and growling, swatting, and biting, and even urination and territorial demarcation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael, a male lion sits on the Kasenyi Plains with his two sons in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park. Michael killed multiple litters of cubs in this area during his takeover after leaving the south of the park.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>For conservation: look to the lionesses</h2>
<p>When it comes to the conservation of the lion species it is important to look to the lionesses. They are the sentinels of a populations health, specifically the number of animals in a group, and more importantly the ratio of lionesses to lions. Healthy populations can expect ratios of roughly <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2688-8319.12015">2 females for every male, but when under pressure due to poaching, killings by cattle farmers and a loss of prey these ratios invert towards males</a>. </p>
<p>The story of Jesse highlights how, in spite of their status as king of the beasts, lions are vulnerable. While in this instance, the cause of death was another lion, much more commonly, lions die at the hands of humans. This can be through being shot or poisoned to protect livestock, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-019-01866-w">being poached for their body parts</a> or being caught as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320723002483">by-catch in traps and snares set for other animals by bushmeat poachers</a>. </p>
<p>On the plus side, the fascinating pride dynamics and trials and tribulations of individual lions can help capture the public’s imagination and foster a love for the species and other wildlife. Although human pressures are high, Kenya retains a large lion population and a suite of iconic wildlife areas. These assets are a great source of pride for many Kenyans, and rightly so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Richard Braczkowski received funding from Griffith University and the Southern University of Science and Technology when carrying out this study.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Duan Biggs is the Olajos Goslow Chair at Northern Arizona University. Dr Biggs previously received funding from the Australian Research Council and WWF the Luc Hoffmann Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Lindsey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From the moment a male lion is born it faces a gauntlet of challenges, ranging from snakebite to infanticide.
Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University
Duan Biggs, Professor and Chair, Southwestern Environmental Science and Policy, Northern Arizona University
Peter Lindsey, Research associate, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201628
2023-04-03T12:28:42Z
2023-04-03T12:28:42Z
Sabertooth cat skull newly discovered in Iowa reveals details about this Ice Age predator
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518845/original/file-20230401-22-bgasdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=145%2C64%2C5246%2C3306&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Heavier than a modern lion, these big cats were fearsome predators.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/smilodon-sits-on-a-rock-surrounded-by-golden-royalty-free-illustration/168839739">Daniel Eskridge/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253010421/sabertooth/">sabertooth cat is an Ice Age icon</a> and <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11538/smilodon">emblem of strength, tenacity and intelligence</a>. These animals <a href="https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/giant-sloths-and-sabertooth-cats/">shared the North American landscape</a> with other large carnivores, including short-faced bears, dire wolves and the American lion, as well as megaherbivores including mammoths, mastodons, muskoxen and long-horned bison. Then at the end of the Pleistocene, between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2015032117">they all vanished</a>. The only place to see them now is in the fossil record.</p>
<p>Carnivore fossils are extremely rare, though, in comparison to those of their prey. Prey are always more abundant than predators in a healthy ecosystem. So the probability of burial, storage and discovery of carnivore bones and teeth is therefore slim compared to those belonging to herbivores.</p>
<p>Scientists have a relatively small and scattered inventory of sabertooth fossils. The exception comes from Rancho La Brea in downtown Los Angeles, where over <a href="https://archive.org/details/biostor-215051">1,000 individual sabertooths</a> were mired in tar-seep death traps.</p>
<p>That’s why the recent discovery of an exquisite sabertooth cat skull in southwestern Iowa is so exciting. The <em>Smilodon fatalis</em> skull was collected from late Pleistocene sand and gravel exposed along the East Nishnabotna River. My colleague, <a href="https://www.nwmissouri.edu/naturalsciences/directory/easterla.htm">biologist David A. Easterla</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SvSuuIcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108045">studying this specimen to learn more</a> about the life history, prey selection and eventual extinction of this ancient predator. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="side view of a fossil skull with one long tooth on the animal's left" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The recent sabertooth find is a complete cranium, albeit missing one of its namesake sabers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Gannon, ISU News Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Clues from a cranium</h2>
<p>The animal’s common name – sabertooth cat – comes from its highly distinctive, saberlike canine teeth that poke out of the mouth as much as 5 or 6 inches (13 to 15 centimeters).</p>
<p>Sabertooths are sexually dimorphic, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048352">males generally larger than females</a>. The Iowa skull is larger than those of many adult males from Rancho La Brea. Several bones of the skull have not sealed together and the teeth are basically unworn, leading us to believe this individual was almost certainly a young male between 2 and 3 years old that was still growing.</p>
<p>We estimate he weighed 550 pounds (250 kilograms). That’s upwards of 110 pounds (50 kilograms) greater than the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1980.tb01433.x">average adult male African lion</a>. Given a few years to mature and fill up loose skin, he might have tipped the scale at 650 pounds (300 kilograms).</p>
<p>Observations of the life cycles of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo42069173.html">modern lions</a> <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo3635439.html">and tigers</a> suggest this sabertooth was newly independent or on the cusp of independent living.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="four lions attacking an African buffalo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sabertooths might have lived and hunted together in groups like modern lions – but all other modern cats live more solitary lifestyles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/the-chase-royalty-free-image/534361693">jez_bennett/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, whether sabertooths stuck together in groups or were loners is hotly debated. Disagreement revolves around just how much of a size difference there is between males and females. In many living animals, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1997.tb02932.x">males are typically larger than females</a> in male-dominated harems, as in modern lions. In the case of sabertooths, some scholars identify this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048352">pronounced sexual dimophisim between the sexes</a> and contend these ancient cats lived in groups, akin to today’s lions. Other researchers see only minimal size differences and view sabertooth cats <a href="https://doi.org/10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022%5B0164:SDSBAI%5D2.0.CO;2">generally as solitary predators</a>, perhaps more like tigers and all other felines.</p>
<p>Whatever the case, at 2 or 3 years old the cat obviously possessed the weaponry – jaws and paws – and heft to take down large prey alone. He likely garnered experience hunting by first watching his mother locate, stalk, ambush and kill prey and defend the carcasses, then perhaps with her help, and finally, alone. His learning curve was probably a lot like lions and tigers as they mature physically and behaviorally. </p>
<p>Hunting for survival is high stakes. Repeated failure means death from starvation. And attacking large prey equipped with defensive gear like horns, antlers, hooves and trunks is always dangerous and sometimes lethal. For instance, a recent study of 166 modern lion skulls from Zambia revealed that 68 had healed or partially healed injuries associated with taking down prey. Put another way, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11313">40% had survived major head trauma</a> to hunt another day.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="anterior view of sabertooth cat cranium, with only one long tooth on the right" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of this cat’s distinctive sabers was broken off before it died.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Gannon, ISU News Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One saber in the Iowa skull is broken off where the canine tooth emerges from the roof of the mouth. Morphological details of the fracture edges indicate the damage happened around this animal’s time of death. It’s possible the break may relate to a defense wound thanks to a prey animal’s well-placed hoof, antler, horn or swat. Since the stub is not worn, the encounter may have even caused the cat’s death. </p>
<h2>Additional technical analysis yields more info</h2>
<p>A technique called <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-use-of-stable-isotopes-in-the-96648168/">stable isotope analysis</a> allows researchers to figure out what an animal ate and even where it lived based on ratios of isotopes in its teeth or bones. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oJ4ztXAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Andrew Somerville</a>, a specialist in isotopic biogeochemistry, is leading this effort with the Iowa sabertooth. Our team suspects that sabertooth cats in this area would have focused their hunting on the <a href="https://iceage.museum.state.il.us/mammals/jefferson%E2%80%99s-ground-sloth">Jefferson’s ground sloth</a>, a massive, lumbering and solitary browser. With adults weighing around a ton, its size was probably a major deterrent to other predators – but not necessarily to sabertooths. Sharp sabers to the neck could have killed the sloth, size be damned.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I are also developing what natural science researchers call diet-breadth mixing models. Using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen preserved in Ice Age carnivore, herbivore and omnivore bones from southwest Iowa, our models should tell us if sabertooths, short-faced bears and dire wolves competed for the same prey, the habitats they searched for prey and, possibly, how these food-web connections collapsed at the end of the Ice Age.</p>
<p><iframe id="yB8BX" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/yB8BX/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/carbon-14-dating">Radiocarbon dating</a> indicates this Iowa sabertooth lived between 13,605 and 13,455 years ago, making it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108045">among the last of its kind</a> to walk the Western Hemisphere. Slightly younger dates – but not by much – come from Rancho La Brea, eastern Brazil and far southern Chile.</p>
<p>These dates mean sabertooths and the first people to infiltrate these places – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2021.153">Clovis foragers in North America</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.80.2.376">Fishtail foragers in South America</a> – shared the landscape for a short period of time. People probably chanced upon sabertooth tracks, scat and kills now and again. Maybe a few lucky people observed the magnificent animal going about its life. But neither knew what the future had in store. </p>
<p>The big cat vanished from both continents shortly after people arrived. The ultimate cause of the die-off is difficult to pinpoint, and multiple factors were certainly at play. However, at least with sabertooths, we can say extinction was a hemisphere-wide synchronous event that transpired in a geological instant, perhaps over just 1,000 or 2,000 years, which makes it difficult to directly or indirectly tie people to the die-off.</p>
<p>The Iowa skull, combined with other fossil evidence from the region and observations of modern large carnivores, has cast new light on the life history and behavior of sabertooth cats. Ongoing research promises to provide additional clues about the diet and ecology of this iconic predator.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew G. Hill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Researchers are analyzing the fossil cranium of a Smilodon fatalis that lived more than 13,000 years ago to learn more about the lifestyle of this iconic big cat.
Matthew G. Hill, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Iowa State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/179542
2022-03-30T12:06:41Z
2022-03-30T12:06:41Z
How the first cat-like sabre-tooth predator was discovered – and why it differs from modern cats
<p>Although they are currently the greatest predators on land, it’s likely that modern-day cats wouldn’t have been a match for the newly discovered <em>Diegoaelurus vanvalkenburghae</em>. At around 42 million years old, it’s thought to be one of the first sabre-tooth cat-like predators to have roamed the planet – and a formidable hunter capable of killing prey much larger than itself.</p>
<p>None of our existing top predators possess a sabre-tooth. But throughout much of the history of wild cats, there have been sabre-toothed forms.</p>
<p>Indeed, from 2.5 million years ago, until as recently as 10,000 years ago, the iconic <em>Smilodon fatalis</em> – commonly known as the sabre-tooth tiger – was <a href="http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history/2015/06/27/when-saber-toothed-cats-mammoths-and-dire-wolves-roamed-the-south-bay/">on the prowl</a> in California and other parts of North and South America. Although its main focus were the large, thick-skinned mammoths and woolly rhinos, early humans might well have been at risk, too.</p>
<p>Though this newly described animal was smaller than <em>Smilodon</em>, the sabre-tooth adaptation means it was probably one of the first ever mammalian hypercarnivores, surviving almost exclusively on a diet of meat – a lifestyle followed by modern cats today. </p>
<h2>The sabre-tooth discovery</h2>
<p>In the <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/13032/">new PeerJ study</a> scientists from the University of Arizona and San Diego Natural History Museum describe the new predator, which they named <em>Diegoaelurus vanvalkenburghae</em> after San Diego county, in southern California, where the fossil was found, and <a href="https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/blaire-van-valkenburgh/">Professor Van Valkenburgh</a>, the doyenne of carnivore evolution. </p>
<p>The beautiful piece of lower jaw had sat unappreciated in the drawers of the San Diego museum since 1988 – until Curator Ashley Poust found it and recognised what it was. And although it doesn’t sound like much to go on, we can actually learn a huge amount about this ancient creature from the <a href="https://3dfiles.sdnhm.org/api/?specimen=38343&name=38343_Dentary_RT&extension=ctm">fossilised jaw and teeth</a> alone.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Skull cast of a Smilodon next to the Diegoaelurus fossil, which is much smaller with a more pronounced chin bone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455007/original/file-20220329-27-o4lyhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455007/original/file-20220329-27-o4lyhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455007/original/file-20220329-27-o4lyhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455007/original/file-20220329-27-o4lyhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455007/original/file-20220329-27-o4lyhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455007/original/file-20220329-27-o4lyhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455007/original/file-20220329-27-o4lyhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When compared with a skull cast of a <em>Smilodon</em>, the <em>Diegoaelurus</em> fossil is much smaller with a more pronounced chin bone (lower-right edge). CC by 4.0.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cypress Hansen, San Diego Natural History Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the back of the newly discovered jaw there are slicing scissor teeth, called carnassials – the equivalent of molars and premolars – shaped like flesh-cutting blades with multiple points. Going forward in the jaw, there is a long gap, and then the key tooth, the canine sabre-tooth, elongated and curved. Below that, is an expanded and deepened portion at the front of the jawbone that partly accommodates the deeply rooted canine tooth, and also provides added strength for the jawbone when it bites with force. </p>
<p>The unpreserved upper jawbone would have featured an equivalent canine sabre tooth, which would have cut down outside the jaw as the animal seized its prey.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="The jawbone fossil of the newly described sabre-tooth cat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455006/original/file-20220329-15-16wr2f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455006/original/file-20220329-15-16wr2f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455006/original/file-20220329-15-16wr2f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455006/original/file-20220329-15-16wr2f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455006/original/file-20220329-15-16wr2f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455006/original/file-20220329-15-16wr2f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455006/original/file-20220329-15-16wr2f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We can learn so much about the size and diet of Diegoaelurus from this 42-million-year-old jawbone fossil. CC BY 4.0.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cypress Hansen, San Diego Natural History Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fossil also allowed the study authors to identify that <em>Diegoaelurus</em> is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machaeroides">machaeroidine</a>, a sub-family of extinct mammals from North America and Asia. But our new knowledge doesn’t end there. From <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/paleontologists-uncover-the-oldest-sabertoothed-predator-180979725/">long-term studies</a> of the rocks and fossils of California, scientists can form a picture of the newly discovered animal’s habitat and lifestyle.</p>
<p>California in the middle Eocene – the time 42 million years ago when <em>Diegoaelurus</em> lived – was a land of rich tropical forests through which the bobcat-sized <em>Diegoaelurus</em> slipped silently in search of prey. The <a href="https://archives.datapages.com/data/pac_sepm/086/086001/pdfs/161.htm">forests teemed</a> with rodents and early primates in the trees, as well as larger herbivorous mammals, such as even-toed oreodonts (most closely related to camels and pigs), early hoofed tapiroids, multi-toed horses, and the small rhinocerous <em>Menoceras</em>, on the ground. </p>
<p>Perhaps this first sabre-tooth concentrated on hunting these thick-skinned ungulates, leaping from the trees onto their backs and biting suddenly and deeply. </p>
<h2>Could the sabre-tooth return?</h2>
<p>Although <em>Diegoaelurus</em> looked similar to cats, they are, in fact, unrelated. But the sabre-toothed adaptation to hypercarnivory arose independently several times among cats in other extinct sub-families, such as the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/nimravid.htm">nimravids</a>, the “sabre-tooth false cats” in North America and Eurasia – and even in the marsupial <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacosmilidae">thylacosmilids</a> of South America. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-two-ecosystems-collided-ichthyosaurs-re-evolved-the-ability-to-consume-large-prey-173491">When two ecosystems collided, ichthyosaurs re-evolved the ability to consume large prey</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But when <em>Smilodon</em> – the last known survivor of the most recent sub-family, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machairodontinae">Machairodontinae</a> – became extinct, probably due to loss of prey or hunting by early humans, the sabre-tooth disappeared.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Roaring tiger sitting on a rock during the day" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455211/original/file-20220330-19-12yicmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455211/original/file-20220330-19-12yicmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455211/original/file-20220330-19-12yicmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455211/original/file-20220330-19-12yicmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455211/original/file-20220330-19-12yicmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455211/original/file-20220330-19-12yicmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455211/original/file-20220330-19-12yicmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tigers are fearsome predators but struggle to bring down prey much bigger than themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-white-and-yellow-tiger-sitting-on-a-beige-sand-during-daytime-47312/">Photo by Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most cats today operate as solitary hunters, and so generally tackle prey that is of a similar size to themselves, or smaller, in contrast to the sabre-tooths who were able to take on much larger prey. </p>
<p>The modern <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/felidae">family Felidae</a> – which includes all modern cats – has 41 species, including the pantherines, such as lions, tigers and leopards, and the felines, such as cheetahs, pumas and caracal. Some of the larger cats – tigers and lions, for example – are hypercarnivores who live only on the flesh of other large animals. Smaller cats are carnivores, of course, but with broader diets which can include rodents, birds, lizards and even invertebrates such as bugs and beetles. </p>
<p>It could be suggested that sabre teeth are an adaptation that is urgently required by many modern large cats. Lions and tigers do have large canine teeth that are used to pierce and kill – but they could certainly benefit from canines that are longer and stronger. </p>
<p>When a lion tries to bring down a Cape buffalo or a juvenile elephant, it <a href="https://a-z-animals.com/blog/top-8-deadliest-cats/#:%7E:text=Puma%20Success%20Rate%3A%2020%25%20A%20Puma%20is%20an,still%20one%20of%20the%20deadliest%20cats%20out%20there">struggles to</a> make a killing bite. Even Chilean pumas struggle to bite through the hide of a guanaco (a native of South America and close relative of the llama) and only succeed in killing their prey in one hunt out of ten. And with their thicker skin, pachyderms like buffalo, hippos, rhinos and elephants are more or less immune from attack.</p>
<p>Indeed, sabre-teeth could save the lives of many modern large hunting cats by making the hunt safer. So will one of the modern cat species evolve them? Well, it seems like leopards might already be moving <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jmor.10468">in that direction</a>, so only time will tell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179542/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. Benton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The first sabre-toothed cat-like predator was not much larger than a bobcat, but it had long teeth and a strong jaw to cut through thick skin.
Michael J. Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173549
2021-12-16T15:06:55Z
2021-12-16T15:06:55Z
Hydroelectric dams take toll on endangered big cats, study shows
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438036/original/file-20211216-25-cs8qnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5007%2C3335&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/amur-tiger-walking-water-dangerous-animal-694592521">Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big cats are among the most widespread top predators on Earth. Lions stalk zebra in the African savanna, tigers ambush antelope in the forests of Asia and jaguars hunt deer in the jungles of South America. They play an important role in ecosystems by regulating the numbers of these herbivores, in turn, reducing the deterioration of vegetated habitats and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1064397">maintaining species diversity</a>.</p>
<p>Tigers, lions and jaguars must cover large areas to find food, so they need a lot of energy. As with many large carnivores, big cats are under threat from habitat loss, which leaves them with less to eat. Their spread-out populations and slow reproductive rates make them particularly vulnerable. While the habitats in which big cats live range from boreal forests at high latitudes to tropical rainforests at the equator, the causes of habitat loss are largely the same: logging for wood and fuel, plantations, farming and urbanisation.</p>
<p>Aside from depriving wildlife of a home, forest loss also <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-tackling-deforestation-is-so-important-for-slowing-climate-change-170287">contributes to climate change</a>. It’s ironic then that hydroelectricity, which is being developed worldwide (<a href="https://www.hydropower.org/status-report">especially in South American and Asian countries</a>) as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels, is a big cause of deforestation.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-54980-8">Building hydroelectric dams</a> has caused extinctions and spread diseases in rivers globally, but the threat to ecosystems on land has largely been overlooked. In <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02878-5">a recent study</a>, researchers from China and Portugal investigated how existing and planned hydroelectric dams might affect two carnivores: the near-threatened jaguar (with an estimated global population of 173,000) and the endangered tiger (thought to number between 3,200 and 3,500 worldwide). </p>
<p>The distribution of jaguars and tigers has shrunk 50% and 93% respectively, but the researchers found that hydroelectric plants pose a substantial risk of further declines. They found 164 dams that already intersect the jaguar range and 421 dams that do the same for tigers. This equates to one in five tigers that are likely to be affected by dams, compared with one in 200 jaguars. Since tiger numbers are already so low, this could have a considerable influence on the population’s capacity to recover and may even result in local extinctions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large concrete dam surrounded by tropical forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A dam on the Narmada River in India, where the endangered Bengal tiger is native.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dam-on-holy-narmada-river-sardar-1773340118">Ankit K Sinha/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Damning developments for big cats</h2>
<p>Large expanses of land are flooded to create reservoirs when building hydroelectric plants in low-lying, relatively flat areas. Although tigers and jaguars can and do swim, they mainly hunt species such as deer that live on land. Sites chosen for dams typically incorporate floodplains and areas along rivers that are important for both species, since they tend to contain lots of prey. </p>
<p>The flooded area will force both predators and prey into surrounding areas. If the vegetation here can support the influx of herbivores, tigers and jaguars will probably persist. But if it cannot, the predators may be forced further afield in search of food, potentially drawing them into conflict with people who may kill them. </p>
<p>Relatively pristine habitats are under threat. The number of hydroelectric dams is set to quadruple across the jaguar’s range with a further 429 planned, while 41 are expected where tigers roam. Aside from the direct loss of habitat, these new constructions can increase the presence of people in remote areas. Roads built to access new dam sites consequently open up areas that were previously impenetrable. Roads can be a barrier to some species and kill those that try to cross. Roads can also encourage new towns and villages, which divide the habitat further.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A yellow road sign depicting a jaguar next to a road surrounded by tropical forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A road in Brazil which drives deep into jaguar habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/animal-road-sign-jaguar-itatiaia-national-1476185558">Ricardo de O. Lemos/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mitigating the damage</h2>
<p>Where dams exist, the researchers suggest habitat loss could be limited by incorporating the surroundings into a protected area with suitable enforcement. Any new dams, though, especially in conservation areas or areas where top predators prowl, should be avoided. Sadly, most of the dams planned in Asia overlap with significant portions of the tiger’s range. </p>
<p>One way to mitigate the damage from building new hydroelectric plants may be to do it on slopes outside of areas that are crucial for conserving tigers and jaguars. The amount of flooded area needed to produce electricity from these plants when they’re on a slope is smaller compared to those built on lower ground, reducing the overall damage to the surrounding habitat. But impact assessments would need to confirm the plant wasn’t simply creating new issues elsewhere. </p>
<p>Alternative sources of energy are important for a sustainable future, but their benefits should not come at a substantial cost to species already under threat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tara Pirie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One in 200 jaguars are likely to be affected by dams, versus one in five tigers.
Tara Pirie, Postdoctoral Researcher, People and Wildlife Research Group, University of Reading
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155664
2021-02-26T17:38:13Z
2021-02-26T17:38:13Z
Artificial insemination in captive lions is bad news for conservation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386687/original/file-20210226-17-g07z94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=628%2C310%2C3477%2C2249&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/regallooking-lion-standing-on-small-hill-547175677">Shutterstock/2021Photography</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is tempting to believe that technology will save the day when it comes to environmental and wildlife conservation crises. The recent success story of a lion cub, Simba, born <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55837829">at Singapore zoo</a> as a result of artificial insemination, is a case in point. </p>
<p>It was widely reported as a success for wildlife conservation. But presenting accounts of technological success against the backdrop of <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15951/115130419">rapidly diminishing</a> wildlife loss could do more harm than good. </p>
<p>The psychologist Robert Gifford called this “technosalvation” in his 2008 study <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254734365_The_Dragons_of_Inaction_Psychological_Barriers_That_Limit_Climate_Change_Mitigation_and_Adaptation">of psychological barriers</a>. Gifford outlines the psychological and cognitive barriers (what he calls “Dragons of Inaction”) that impede human behaviour in response to challenges like climate change.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dm8NhKqMaxo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The argument is simple. While technology has improved our standards of living, overconfidence in its ability to solve complex environmental problems becomes a psychological barrier for human behaviour change. The philosophy that “we don’t need to do anything to save the planet because technology will do it for us” is attractive because it absolves us of responsibility. In other words, it’s a quick fix. </p>
<p>Gifford was writing about human inaction with respect to climate change but I believe technosalvation is also having an effect on conservation.</p>
<p>When Simba the lion cub was born in October 2020 – as a result of artificial insemination – his 20-year-old father, Mufasa, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55837829">didn’t survive</a> the electro-ejaculation procedure required to extract his semen. </p>
<p>Simba wasn’t the first lion cub bred this way. The world first occurred in September 2018, at Ukutula Conservation Center, in South Africa, with the arrival of Victor and Isabel to similar worldwide <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6226411/Worlds-test-tube-lion-cubs-healthy-normal.html">press fanfare</a>.</p>
<p>There are scientific and moral arguments for and against this procedure in lions. Lions breed easily <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-truth-about-lions-11558237/">in the wild</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/captive-lion-breeding-in-south-africa-the-case-for-a-total-ban-121131">captivity</a>, when given the opportunity. So why do we need more of them? </p>
<p>Willi Jacobs, owner of Ukutula, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dmxk9r_bto&t=48s">responded</a> to a “misunderstanding” on the part of the public about the value of such technological advances. He claimed that their aim was not to increase lion numbers, but to offer a conservational tool to increase numbers of other more endangered cat populations, such as the <a href="https://www.scottishwildcataction.org/about-wildcats/">Scottish wildcat</a>, the <a href="https://wildcatconservation.org/wild-cats/asia/asiatic-golden-cat/">Asiatic golden cat</a> and the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/petite-cat-worlds-deadliest-killing-more-prey-single-night-leopard-does-six-months-180970695/">black-footed cat</a>.</p>
<p>It is difficult to argue against the usefulness of having this particular tool in the conservation toolbox. But what is concerning is that these stories of technological wizardry are reported, or inferred, as success stories for wildlife conservation. And wildlife conservation is oversimplified as a problem of numbers.</p>
<p>Both the Singapore and the Ukutula cases have been framed as such. The events were reported against a backdrop of rapidly diminishing wild lion numbers. And it’s true that according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/african-lion-populations-drop-42-percent-in-past-21-years/">more than 40%</a> of the wild lion population has disappeared in the last 20 years. Current estimates show wild lion numbers stand between <a href="https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/lion-cub-simba-born-singapore-artificial-insemination">23,000 and 30,000</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Male and female lions with three cubs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A family of lions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/family-lions-resting-sun-looking-alert-731828410">Shutterstock/Teresa Moore</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Against this gloomy backdrop, it is tempting to infer that the silver technological bullet in the conservation toolbox will save the day and if numbers get too low of a threatened animal species, science can make more of them. Problem solved.</p>
<h2>Dragons and shortcuts</h2>
<p>But this is the the kind of thinking that feeds the “Dragons of Inaction” Gifford warned of. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0010028573900339">Psychological research</a> has shown how humans use cognitive shortcuts to simplify their interaction with the world. For example, the frequency, importance and likelihood of events are judged on the basis of how easily they can be brought to mind. </p>
<p>So humans are selective. We respond to immediate, highly visible and personal dangers while discounting long term and less visible risks. Humans are essentially short term reactors, rather than long term planners. Consequently, the slow creep of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss was not on our radar. We didn’t notice it quickly enough. </p>
<p>Technology won’t fix the quirks in human behaviour responsible for the drop in wild lion numbers. Quirks including, loss of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-012-0381-4?hc_location=ufi/&error=cookies_not_supported&code=b7e0e3c4-90a6-4e95-999a-5a41c0d06668">habitat</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282151189_The_Influence_of_Prey_Pastoralism_and_Poaching_on_the_Hierarchical_Use_of_Habitat_by_an_Apex_Predator">loss of prey</a> due to increased competition for space and food with humans, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989414000122?via%3Dihub">desertification</a>, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/5/1464.full.pdf">disease</a> and <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073808">hunting</a>. All these issues require a change in human behaviour. </p>
<p>Changing the way humans think and behave is fundamental to protecting and restoring wild lion populations. Anything else is a diversion of attention and resources. </p>
<p>So it’s fine to applaud technological advances, such as artificial insemination in lions. But it needs to be seen in context and it needs to be recognised that it is not a success stories for wildlife conservation. The complexity of biodiversity loss – and our collective responsibility for it – needs to be addressed because technosalvation won’t save the day. Changing the way we think and behave, will.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackie Abell received funding from Coventry University (2016) for research work on human-wildlife conflict (lions) in Zimbabwe.
I am a member of the African Lion Working Group. I'm also a member of the IUCN Conservation Planning Specialist Group. </span></em></p>
Presenting accounts of technological success in captive lion breeding against the backdrop of rapidly diminishing wildlife loss lets humans off the hook too easily.
Jackie Abell, Reader/Associate Professor in Psychology, Coventry University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152301
2020-12-18T15:26:28Z
2020-12-18T15:26:28Z
Not so fast: why India’s plan to reintroduce cheetahs may run into problems
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375893/original/file-20201218-13-a8h8uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C407%2C5515%2C2924&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">slowmotiongli / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A nature reserve in India could soon be the only location in the world to host wild populations of four major big cat species – tiger, lion, leopard and cheetah. Kuno-Palpur, in central state of Madhya Pradesh, may not be one of India’s best-known sanctuaries but it is certainly becoming one of its most controversial. In early 2020, the country’s supreme court agreed that wildlife authorities there could <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/supreme-court-allows-introduction-of-african-cheetah-in-india/story-MTyJF0GdfibIp63A7hNKml.html">reintroduce the cheetah</a> to India, 70 years after its local extinction. </p>
<p>Cheetahs once roamed across much of India and the Middle East, but today the entire Asian cheetah population is confined to just a few dozen animals in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/23/asiatic-cheetahs-iran-conservationists">remote regions of Iran</a>. The reluctance of the Iranian authorities to part with any of these rare creatures has led India farther afield in its attempts to secure a founder population. Currently, the favoured option is African cheetahs available from Namibia, which has the world’s largest population. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Africa and Asia showing cheetahs former and current range." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world’s 10,000 or so cheetahs live in a tiny portion of their former range.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333398548_Cheetahs_Race_for_Survival_Ecology_and_Conservation">Laurie L Marker / Cheetah Conservation Fund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kuno-Palpur was identified as the preferred location for India’s relocation programme as it has large grasslands, ideally suited to the cheetah’s need to build up speed without worrying about trees or other obstacles. These grasslands were formed, in large part, through the removal of villages and rewilding of agricultural land to make way for the relocation of the Asiatic lion.</p>
<p>The Asiatic lion is itself an endangered species. Like the Asian cheetah it was once common right across India and the Middle East, but it now only survives as a single population of <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/science/lions-roar-in-gujarats-gir-population-of-asiatic-lions-up-by-29/1987582/">almost 700</a> in Gir Forest, a national park in the state of Gujarat, western India. Fears that a single disruption event – such as a disease outbreak or poaching epidemic – may be sufficient to consign the entire species to extinction, prompted the search for a second home for these big cats. This search ended in the identification of Kuno-Palpur, <a href="https://qz.com/india/1757900/kuno-will-soon-be-indias-next-lion-sanctuary-after-gujarats-gir/">almost 30 years ago</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A lion sits and faces camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asiatic lions are smaller than their African cousins, have smaller and darker manes, and all live in one forest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew M. Allport / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2016 India’s supreme court, citing unacceptable delays, ordered the lion relocation process to be completed <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/supreme-court-gir-asiatic-lions-5387343/">within six months</a>. At the same time, the court dismissed a parallel application for the reintroduction of cheetahs, reasoning that it would be paradoxical to elevate the claims of an exotic subspecies (African cheetahs) over those of an endemic (Asiatic lions).</p>
<p>Today there are still no lions in Kuno-Palpur, although it does retain a stable leopard population. This non-compliance has been widely attributed to parochial politics, wrapped up in what has been described as <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3ega9/narendra-modis-home-states-pride-may-be-putting-the-last-wild-prides-of-asiatic-lions-at-risk">Gujarati pride</a>. Despite the fact that all wildlife is deemed a national resource under the Indian constitution, Gujarat appears determined to hold on to its <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat-govt-not-in-favour-of-translocating-lions-to-mp-6553895">state monopoly on the creatures</a>. </p>
<p>Then, in early 2020, the court made an unexpected U-turn and gave the green light for cheetah reintroduction to begin. Some experts questioned the science behind the decision. For example they point out that the cheetah is a wide-ranging species, known to travel across areas <a href="https://round.glass/sustain/conservation/return-cheetah-will-roam/">up to 1,000 sq km</a> in a single year. Indian parks tend to be much smaller than those in Africa, offering less chance for such free movement. And, while the habitat is currently suited to cheetahs – and lions – some fear that it may ultimately evolve into dry, scrubby forest more suited to tigers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cheetah chases after a small antelope." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Springbok hunting in Namibia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elana Erasmus / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/6-rajasthan-tigers-in-kuno-mp-afraid-of-losing-lions/articleshow/47350151.cms">credible evidence</a> that tigers are already dispersing to Kuno-Palpur as animals from a reserve in neighbouring Rajasthan seek to escape territorial over-crowding. This suggests there is a functioning wildlife corridor between the two reserves, a stated priority for Indian conservation.</p>
<p>This is not a simple issue to resolve. As the supreme court is increasingly called upon to adjudicate between the various factions, so these conundrums are likely to intensify in the future. There is no science available currently to suggest that cheetahs, lions, tigers and leopards can coexist comfortably in the same habitat. It has never occurred anywhere else before, so there is no real-life experience to draw upon. </p>
<p>In my research for a forthcoming book on tigers I found India’s wildlife is becoming <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304002831_Commercialization_of_Nature_Can_Market-Based_Mechanisms_Deliver_Positive_Conservation_and_Development_Outcomes">increasingly commercialised</a> and much of what we accept as rational conservation can just as easily be viewed through an economic lens – one that reflects the benefits of tourism. On the surface, the cheetah scheme feels more like a vanity project than a conservation imperative; no doubt a boon for wildlife tourism but maybe also presenting a threat of intra-species and human-wildlife conflict.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
India’s last cheetah was killed 70 years ago. Should the country import a different subspecies from Namibia?
Simon Evans, Principal Lecturer in Ecotourism, Anglia Ruskin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/145223
2020-11-23T13:19:25Z
2020-11-23T13:19:25Z
Why do tigers have stripes?
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Why do tigers have stripes? – Vidit M., age 8, New Delhi, India</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>When tigers stalk their prey, usually in the murky light of dusk or dawn, they are nearly invisible. Whether they live in grasslands, forests or jungles, wild tigers have deep orange coats with dark stripes. So how does such a brightly colored animal stay concealed well enough to hunt successfully? </p>
<p>The answer: camouflage! </p>
<h2>Green tigers?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UlHC7aIAAAAJ&hl=en">my work</a> as a zoological veterinarian, I’ve seen up close how various animals’ coats, feathers, colors, spots and stripes have evolved to either help them attract a mate or disguise them. <a href="https://www.plt.org/educator-tips/camouflage-nature-examples">Camouflage</a> – or “cryptic coloration” – allows them to hide, undetected. </p>
<p>Since tigers are <a href="https://sciencing.com/role-tigers-ecosystem-7638501.html">apex predators</a> at the top of the food chain, they don’t need to hide from animals that might eat them. They are carnivores – they eat meat – and they rely on stealth to hunt successfully. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368672/original/file-20201110-15-u0lvtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="photo of tiger showing how a human would see it and how a deer would see it" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368672/original/file-20201110-15-u0lvtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368672/original/file-20201110-15-u0lvtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=197&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368672/original/file-20201110-15-u0lvtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368672/original/file-20201110-15-u0lvtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=197&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368672/original/file-20201110-15-u0lvtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368672/original/file-20201110-15-u0lvtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368672/original/file-20201110-15-u0lvtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The human eye can process red, green and blue, so to us, a tiger looks orange (right). Deer can process only green and blue, which makes them colorblind (left).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2019.0183">J. G. Fennell et al, Journal of The Royal Society Interface</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They’re helped by the limited vision of their preferred prey. Deer and other hoofed animals <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-do-other-animals-see-the-world.html">can’t see the full range of colors</a>, much like a colorblind human. </p>
<p>It helps them see better in dim light, but it also makes them vulnerable. To their eyes, the tiger’s fur isn’t bright orange: it looks green and matches the background.</p>
<h2>Hidden in plain sight</h2>
<p>The tiger’s markings also play an important role. Their vertical stripes, which range from brown to black, are an example of what biologists call disruptive coloration. They help break up the cat’s shape and size so it blends in with trees and tall grasses. </p>
<p>That’s important because these predators don’t hunt in groups, like a lion, or have the speed of a cheetah. Tigers are solitary cats that rely on stealth and camouflage to survive. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368690/original/file-20201110-21-11jcsb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368690/original/file-20201110-21-11jcsb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368690/original/file-20201110-21-11jcsb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368690/original/file-20201110-21-11jcsb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368690/original/file-20201110-21-11jcsb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368690/original/file-20201110-21-11jcsb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368690/original/file-20201110-21-11jcsb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368690/original/file-20201110-21-11jcsb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Bengal tiger camouflaged among trees and foliage in India’s Kanha National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=50&offset=0&profile=default&search=tiger+camouflage&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Tiger-India.jpg">Kailash Kumbhkar/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stripes even vary among the six tiger subspecies. The Sumatran tiger subspecies has much narrower stripes than the others and has more of them. This helps it stay hidden in its dense jungle home. </p>
<h2>Unique as a fingerprint</h2>
<p>When you look at different tigers up close, as I do in my work, you’ll see that each of their stripe patterns is unique, just like a zebra’s. No two are the same. They’re as distinct as human fingerprints.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369711/original/file-20201117-23-1t628a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369711/original/file-20201117-23-1t628a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369711/original/file-20201117-23-1t628a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369711/original/file-20201117-23-1t628a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369711/original/file-20201117-23-1t628a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369711/original/file-20201117-23-1t628a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369711/original/file-20201117-23-1t628a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Every tiger has its own unique stripe pattern – and they aren’t the same on both sides!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiger_Stripes_(29808869755).jpg">Mathias Appel/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This allows researchers who study them in the wild to identify and count individual tigers. They use remote cameras to take pictures of the animals when they walk by. Using this method, tiger experts estimate that only about 3,400 wild tigers remain across their Asian homeland. </p>
<p>It’s not just their fur that’s inked with black stripes. When we have to sedate a tiger to treat an injury or do dental work, we shave their fur. It’s always surprising to see that their skin almost looks like it’s been tattooed: It has the same striped pattern as its fur! </p>
<h2>White tigers</h2>
<p>So if stripes camouflage tigers from potential prey, why are some of them white? Don’t they stand out in the jungle, even with their stripes? </p>
<p>Yes, they do! Because we’ve seen them on TV or in wildlife tourist attractions, we may think they’re common, but they’re not. A genetic mutation in Bengal tigers gives them their milky white fur. Both parents must carry the same very rare gene to produce white cubs. White tigers are bred to relatives in captivity to attract tourists – and inbreeding produces unhealthy offspring.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368931/original/file-20201111-19-ni96bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368931/original/file-20201111-19-ni96bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368931/original/file-20201111-19-ni96bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368931/original/file-20201111-19-ni96bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368931/original/file-20201111-19-ni96bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368931/original/file-20201111-19-ni96bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368931/original/file-20201111-19-ni96bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368931/original/file-20201111-19-ni96bi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The white tiger’s snowy coat is caused by a rare genetic mutation. No white tigers remain in the wild: In captivity, roadside zoos breed related tigers, producing these beautiful but sickly animals to attract tourists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=white+tiger&title=Special:Search&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1&searchToken=5pfeoj2liliglbbehtzhn7ca6#%2Fmedia%2FFile%3AStanding_white_tiger.jpg">Basile Morin/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There were never more than a few white tigers in the wild. The last one was spotted more than 60 years ago. That makes sense in terms of evolution. A white and black tiger is easier to spot than an orange tiger, so it would have a harder time catching its dinner. </p>
<p>Tigers’ distinctive striped coats help them hunt successfully, but it’s also one reason why they’re endangered. <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Poaching">People kill them</a> for their beautiful pelts, which command high prices in the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/save-tiger-poaching-facts-9630722.html">illegal international wildlife trade</a>, mostly in Asia. Park guards and conservation groups are working to protect this iconic animal, the largest of all the big cats. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Cushing does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
How do tigers – a top predator – successfully hunt their prey when they have bright orange fur? The secret’s in their stripes!
Andrew Cushing, Assistant Professor in Zoological Medicine, University of Tennessee
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/121055
2019-07-29T07:01:40Z
2019-07-29T07:01:40Z
Some good conservation news: India’s tiger numbers are going up
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285814/original/file-20190726-43118-1jybvof.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spotting tigers in the wild is a difficult task.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indian tiger numbers are up, according to one of the most detailed wildlife surveys ever conducted. Tiger populations have risen by 6%, to roughly 3,000 animals. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://projecttiger.nic.in/News/20_Newsdetails.aspx">massive survey</a> may set a new world standard in counting large carnivores. The encouraging results validate India’s impressive investments in tiger conservation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tigers-confirmed-as-six-subspecies-and-that-is-a-big-deal-for-conservation-105592">Tigers confirmed as six subspecies, and that is a big deal for conservation</a>
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<h2>A mammoth effort</h2>
<p>Large, solitary predators hate being seen. They owe their entire existence to being able to avoid detection by prey and sneak close before attacking.</p>
<p>Hence, when we want to count tigers, the tigers don’t help. But accurate population numbers are fundamental to good conservation. Every four years since 2006, the Indian government conducts a <a href="https://projecttiger.nic.in/Index.aspx">national census</a> of tigers and other wildlife.</p>
<p>The efforts the project team undertakes to derive the tiger population estimate are nothing short of phenomenal: 44,000 field staff conducted almost 318,000 habitat surveys across 20 tiger-occupied states of India. Some 381,400 km² was checked for tigers and their prey.</p>
<p>(There is an application in with the Guinness Book of World Records to see if this is the largest wildlife survey ever conducted anywhere in the world.) </p>
<p>The team placed paired camera traps at 26,760 locations across 139 study sites and these collected almost 35 million photos (including 76,523 tiger and 51,337 leopard photos). These camera traps covered 86% of the entire tiger distribution in India. Where it was too dangerous to work in the field (14% of the tigers’ distribution) because of <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/india/myanmar-army-to-continue-crackdown-on-indian-insurgents-2169501.html">political conflict</a>, robust models estimated population numbers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285965/original/file-20190729-43114-1cu60fn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285965/original/file-20190729-43114-1cu60fn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285965/original/file-20190729-43114-1cu60fn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285965/original/file-20190729-43114-1cu60fn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285965/original/file-20190729-43114-1cu60fn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285965/original/file-20190729-43114-1cu60fn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285965/original/file-20190729-43114-1cu60fn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285965/original/file-20190729-43114-1cu60fn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Millions of photos were analysed to create an accurate count of India’s tiger population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Count the tigers</h2>
<p>Collecting this volume of data would be an utter waste of time if it were poorly analysed. The teams took advice from some of the world’s foremost experts to sort the photos: pattern matching experts who could identify whether a photo of a tiger taken in the monsoon matched that of a tiger taken in the dry season while walking at a different angle, machine learning experts to speed up species identification, and spatial analysis experts to estimate the populations of tigers and their prey. </p>
<p>The research team took this advice and coupled it with their own knowledge of tiger ecology to develop a census that is unique among large carnivore studies.</p>
<p>We were fortunate enough to be among the non-Indian scientists invited to review this process. Peer review is a crucial part of any scientific endeavour, and especially important as early Indian tiger surveys were notoriously unreliable. </p>
<h2>Actual numbers</h2>
<p>So how did they do? A total of 2,461 individual tigers older than one year of age were photo-captured. The overall tiger population in India was estimated at 2,967 individuals (with an error range of roughly 12%). </p>
<p>Out of this, 83.4% were estimated from camera-trap photos, and the rest estimated from robust modelling. Tiger numbers have increased by 6% per year, continuing the rate of increase from the 2014 census. This is a wonderful success for Indian conservation efforts.</p>
<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/XZfxPpDs3WTfnvrR5K" width="100%" height="270" frameborder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/XZfxPpDs3WTfnvrR5K"></a></p>
<p>However not all is rosy. There has been a 20% decline in areas occupied by tigers in 2014 to today, although tigers have moved into some new areas (some 8% of their Indian range is new). The coordinators of the tiger survey – Yadvendradev Jhala and Qamar Qureshi – conclude that while established and secure tiger populations in some parts of India have increased, small, isolated populations and those along corridors between established populations have gone extinct.</p>
<p>This highlights the need for conservation efforts to focus on improving connectivity between isolated populations, while incentivising the relocation of people out of core tiger areas, reducing poaching and improving habitat to increase prey resources. </p>
<p>This will be no easy task with India’s burgeoning population, but investment from private sector tourist corporations in land acquisition along corridors and the creation of community conservancies could supplement government funding for expanding protected corridors.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-tigers-have-whiskers-110791">Curious Kids: why do tigers have whiskers?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The success of India’s census has led the governments of Nepal and Bangladesh to employ the same project team to help estimate their own tiger populations. These methods can – and should – be employed for other iconic, charismatic species that can be individually identified, such as jaguars in South and Central America; leopards, cheetahs, and hyenas in Africa, and possibly even quolls in Australia.</p>
<p><br></p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by Chris Carbone, Senior Research Fellow at the Zoological Society of London.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Hayward, Chris Carbone and Joseph Bump were invited by the Indian National Tiger Conservation Authority travel to India to review the methods and results of the 2018 tiger census. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph K. Bump does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
An exhaustive search involving 44,000 field staff, 318,000 habitat surveys and nearly 35 million photos has revealed India’s tiger population is on the rise.
Matt Hayward, Associate professor, University of Newcastle
Joseph K. Bump, Associate Professor, Gordon W. Gullion Endowed Chair in Forest Wildlife Research and Education, University of Minnesota
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/116701
2019-05-16T15:04:20Z
2019-05-16T15:04:20Z
Tragic tale of a ‘man-eating’ tigress tells us so much about the climate crisis
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274609/original/file-20190515-60560-joaupr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A tigress in the Indian state of Maharashtra, where Avni also lived and died.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tigress-crossing-near-sign-board-tadoba-1369811783?src=XccrcTvMUOIEe8_OI1GP5A-2-5">RealityImages/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The way that we live on Earth is causing <a href="https://www.apnews.com/aaf1091c5aae40b0a110daaf04950672">an unprecedented acceleration</a> in species extinction. Now, more than half a million species “<a href="https://www.apnews.com/aaf1091c5aae40b0a110daaf04950672">have insufficient habitat for long-term survival</a>” and are likely to go extinct unless their natural environments are restored. But we are already seeing major problems from this intrusion, not least through an <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/wildlife-and-climate-change">increase in human-animal conflict</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/biodiversity-collapse-the-wild-relatives-of-livestock-and-crops-are-disappearing-116759">Biodiversity collapse: the wild relatives of livestock and crops are disappearing</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A case in evidence is that of Avni, a “man-eating” Indian tigress who achieved something close to global recognition at the end of 2018. Man-eating leopards, lions and tigers aren’t uncommon in India – several are killed or captured annually. But Avni achieved fame when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/09/calvin-klein-fragrance-could-be-used-lure-man-eating-tiger">a designer cologne</a> was used in an attempt to lure her into a trap. Sadly, the bait failed and she was ultimately hunted down and killed.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XkjdQNZ1frg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>This tragic tale of a tigress gone rogue unleashed a range of debates on the <a href="https://www.scoopwhoop.com/twitter-avni-the-tigress/#.55bifqm68">ethics</a> of hunting, the <a href="https://thewire.in/environment/to-save-tigers-in-the-wild-losing-a-few-individual-animals-cant-be-avoided">pragmatics</a> of capture, and the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/science-nomad/avni-is-not-a-national-crisis-but-saveavni-brigade-is/">elitism</a> of urban conservationists who were furious at her killing. What was somewhat missing from the discussion was the question of what made Avni the tigress into a man-eater in the first place. </p>
<p>The reasons why big cats turn on humans are complex and can be specific to individuals. But they can no longer be explained outside the context of climate change. Biodiversity depletion, habitat loss, extreme weather events, and a greater struggle over natural resources are affecting how animals live across the entire Indian subcontinent, and indeed the world. We should look to the case of Avni not for the peculiar baiting method, but rather for what her life and death tells us about the climate crisis. </p>
<h2>Human land and tiger land</h2>
<p>Commonsensically, we assume a distinction between “human land” and “animal land”, or spaces that are human-dominated and those that are reserved for animals. There are, of course, landscapes that are more amenable to the habitation of big cats. Leopards are temperamentally comfortable in scrub forests, for example, and tigers were thought to prefer dense forests. But this distinction between spaces is becoming increasingly artificial, especially in densely populated countries like India.</p>
<p>We are now finding increasing evidence of <a href="https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2016/08/02/first-urban-leopards-now-india-urban-tigers/">tigers</a> and leopards in human dominated landscapes all over India. Avni was, it is widely agreed, not born in a tiger reserve. She was born in what is called a non-tiger zone or, sometimes, human-land. But she was described as venturing onto human land – farms, village outskirts, even the villages themselves – and preying on humans and their livestock. There is an incredulity to such appearances, which are described as the tiger or leopard “straying”, “escaping”, or “intruding”. </p>
<p>But the fact of the matter is that sightings of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0057872">big cats in urban backyards</a> are no longer aberrations in India, and they are only set to grow. There is increasing evidence of tigers and leopards in <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/maha-tigress-raising-5-cubs-in-a-non-tiger-zone/articleshow/66269171.cms?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=TOIDesktop">human dominated landscapes</a> all over India. As urban areas expand out, afforestation continues apace, and with some minor successes <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/india-has-potential-to-be-the-global-leader-in-tiger-conservation-expert/article24542655.ece">in tiger and leopard conservation</a>, humans will need to be prepared to more openly share land with big cats. </p>
<h2>India’s beef ban</h2>
<p>Another thing that Avni’s story makes clear is the role of human policies in exacerbating, if not actually creating, human-animal conflict. There is a very high probability that a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-31712369">controversial ban</a> on slaughtering cattle in the state of Maharashtra, where Avni lived, had a big role to play in the creation of this so-called man-eater. </p>
<p>Perhaps Avni was attracted to villages for the potential prey of defenceless humans, which are becoming more and more attractive in the context of animal extinction and a rapidly depleting prey base. But as several <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/india/how-maharashtras-beef-ban-triggered-tiger-human-conflict-and-avnis-killing-was-its-outcome-1939501.html">news outlets</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/asia/india-tiger-hunt.html">have noted</a>, what is much more likely is that she was attracted to human settlements to hunt the plentiful cattle available. A direct effect of the beef ban, then, is the horrifying fact that humans have became the <a href="https://culanth.org/fieldsights/predation">prey of a predator</a> in lieu of cows. </p>
<p>It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to deny or look away from the effects of climate change. The climate is changing, bringing with it not just dry river beds or extreme weather events but big cats into cities, too. When leopards walk <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/leopard-enters-greater-noida-village-injures-boy/story-ZwAAxIwITOQS4Thvq2z3tI.html">almost to the gates of New Delhi</a>, or lounge on golf courses in <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/gurugram/camera-traps-set-up-at-dlf-golf-course-in-gurugram-after-leopard-sighting/story-UIwwBmh7vMLGTvjZhDq7zH.html">Gurgaon</a>, this isn’t an animal that is merely lost or straying.</p>
<p>When a tigress keeps hanging around people and, unfortunately, develops a taste for human flesh, this isn’t just one aberrant big cat. Avni and other big cats are symptomatic of what climate change is doing to our present. Categories and distinctions that we took for granted – such as tiger land versus human land – no longer apply, if they ever really did.</p>
<p>Another way to understand the climate breakdown, through the life of Avni and other big cats with similar fates in India, is as an irretrievable collapse of the commonsensical. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1116701">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nayanika Mathur does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Sightings of big cats in India’s backyards are only set to grow as climate change breaks down the boundaries between humans and animals.
Nayanika Mathur, Associate Professor in the Anthropology of South Asia, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107371
2018-11-23T10:24:09Z
2018-11-23T10:24:09Z
Captive breeding has a dark side – as disturbing Czech discovery of trafficked tiger body parts highlights
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246828/original/file-20181122-182037-g6tveo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout Czech Customs Authority</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/19/gruesome-discovery-of-czech-tiger-farm-exposes-illegal-trade-in-heart-of-europe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Othe">rotting remains</a> of a number of tigers, lions and cougars were recently discovered in a raid on a house in Prague. This disturbing find was the culmination of a five-year investigation that revealed an illegal trade in exotic wildlife blooming in the heart of Europe.</p>
<p>Czech authorities managed to identify the main figures behind an international crime ring who had been processing and selling wild cat parts as traditional Chinese medicine. Claws, teeth, bones, skin and extracts from their bodies known as “tiger wine” or “broth” were smuggled to Asia or used to supply the domestic demand in tiger products. The slaughtered tigers came from the country’s largest private breeding facility for lions and tigers – where, officially, these protected wildcats are bred for circuses, roadside attractions and petting zoos.</p>
<p>This story provides a stark reminder of the cruelty engendered by captive breeding. Even zoos heralded as the beacons of endangered species conservation play a controversial part in this story. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246829/original/file-20181122-182037-pykxvu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246829/original/file-20181122-182037-pykxvu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246829/original/file-20181122-182037-pykxvu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246829/original/file-20181122-182037-pykxvu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246829/original/file-20181122-182037-pykxvu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246829/original/file-20181122-182037-pykxvu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246829/original/file-20181122-182037-pykxvu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A bath in the house raided by Czech authorities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout Czech Customs Authority</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Captive tigers</h2>
<p>With only <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/world/asia/wild-tiger-numbers-are-rising-wildlife-groups-say.html">3,900</a> left in the wild, the tiger family (<em>Panthera tigris</em>) is the only big cat listed as <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/conservation-tools/iucn-red-list-threatened-species">endangered</a>, with two subspecies critically endangered. The captive population, meanwhile, is abundant. </p>
<p>In 2014, the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/more-tigers-in-american-backyards-than-in-the-wild">WWF</a> alerted us to the alarming news that there are “more tigers living in American backyards than in the wild”. The organisation called on the US government to introduce a ban on private ownership of big cats. No such federal bill has been passed since, but <a href="https://bigcatrescue.org/state-laws-exotic-cats/">21 states</a> ban all dangerous exotic pets, while the rest allow certain species or require permits. Out of 5,000 captive tigers in the US alone, only 350 are held in zoos and other facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The <a href="http://www.stolenwildlife.org/druhy.html">estimated</a> number of tigers in the Czech Republic, meanwhile, is 390, only 39 of which are kept in zoos. </p>
<p>A growing number of cities around the world close their gates for <a href="https://bigcatrescue.org/big-cat-bans-enacted/">circuses</a> that use wild animals. According to <a href="http://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/wp-content/uploads/Eurogroup-for-Animals-Exotic-Pet-Report-FINAL.pdf">Czech law</a>, captive breeding of big cats requires special permits, while the environmental inspectorate records each tiger’s birth, sale or death. Following the discovery of the tiger slaughterhouse in Prague, the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums issued a <a href="https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/EAZA-Documents-Other/2018-EAZA-Position-Statement-on-tiger-trade.pdf">statement</a> urging authorities to take immediate action in ensuring that all captive tigers serve noncommercial purposes such as research, education and conservation breeding.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246830/original/file-20181122-182071-vlbfr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246830/original/file-20181122-182071-vlbfr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246830/original/file-20181122-182071-vlbfr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246830/original/file-20181122-182071-vlbfr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246830/original/file-20181122-182071-vlbfr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246830/original/file-20181122-182071-vlbfr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246830/original/file-20181122-182071-vlbfr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bones discovered by Czech authorities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout Czech Customs Authority</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Regal wildcats</h2>
<p>The idea of protecting endangered species through captive breeding in zoos is relatively new, but has a much longer and darker history. </p>
<p>Exotic animals first entered private collections in Europe as diplomatic gifts. Tigers were particularly highly priced in royal and aristocratic menageries as dangerous predators were seen to embody the political and physical prowess of their owners. Wild cats were also exhibited for popular audiences in circuses and other travelling shows. The intensive traffic in wildlife was largely facilitated by colonial expansion. That is why European port cities, as the centres for colonial commerce, were the first to open public zoos.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of decolonisation and the introduction of the <a href="https://www.cites.org/">Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species</a> in 1973, the lucrative business of capturing and trading exotic animals came to an end. Faced with the termination of a supply of specimens caught in the wild, zoological parks resorted to captive breeding. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246843/original/file-20181122-182065-c1rpfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246843/original/file-20181122-182065-c1rpfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246843/original/file-20181122-182065-c1rpfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246843/original/file-20181122-182065-c1rpfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246843/original/file-20181122-182065-c1rpfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246843/original/file-20181122-182065-c1rpfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246843/original/file-20181122-182065-c1rpfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hunting for tigers, Thomas Williamson & Samuel Howitt, 1808.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_hunting#/media/File:ElephantbackTigerHunt.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They did so, on the one hand to ensure they retained rare species in their collections and, on the other hand, to redirect their mission: from entertainment towards conservation. Devising so-called “Species Survival Plans”, accredited zoos have collaborated since 1981 to breed endangered species and manage all captive individuals of every species as one population to ensure genetic diversity. </p>
<p>But even after this period, research, education and conservation did not always drive captive breeding in zoos. Even non-commercial breeding does not always prioritise animal welfare. </p>
<h2>White tigers</h2>
<p>Many zoos, for example, are still devoted to breeding white tigers. Only two years ago the Czech <a href="https://www.zooliberec.cz/tygr-indicky-bila-forma.html">Liberec Zoo</a> celebrated the birth of two white cubs, that were transferred to Pont-Scorff Zoo in France in July this year. This rare variation of the Bengal tiger has distinctive white fur colouring with pale chocolate stripes and mesmerising blue eyes. The extraordinary coating results from a genetic mutation, which as a recessive trait is expressed only if both parents carry the mutation.</p>
<p>This inclined the zoos to practice inbreeding, often pairing off siblings in hope for a white-furred offspring. All 250 white tigers in captivity today <a href="https://zoostoriesblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/the-dynasty-of-enchanters-white-tigers-in-captivity/">are related</a>, having a common ancestor captured in 1951 – the wild-caught cub named Mohan that was the pride of Maharaja of Rewa, an Indian royalty who was determined to breed these rare wild cats. After several failed attempts, in 1957 the first white cubs were born in India from the union of Mohan and his daughter Radha. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246842/original/file-20181122-182047-1kgqd2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246842/original/file-20181122-182047-1kgqd2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246842/original/file-20181122-182047-1kgqd2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246842/original/file-20181122-182047-1kgqd2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246842/original/file-20181122-182047-1kgqd2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246842/original/file-20181122-182047-1kgqd2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246842/original/file-20181122-182047-1kgqd2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Captive tigers in the Czech Republic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout Czech Customs Authority</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1960, the <a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/where-have-all-white-tigers-gone">Smithsonian Institution</a> procured one of the female cubs for $10,000. Today she would be worth eight times more. While the royal ancestry of this exotic feline vividly stimulated the imagination of American zoogoers, her main task at the National Zoo was to produce more offspring of her kind. The demand for these extremely rare animals often justifies pairing off closely related tigers, even though inbred animals are prone to acquiring crippling defects including shortened legs, kidney problems and crossed eyes, as well as psychological issues. </p>
<h2>Tinder tigers</h2>
<p>The tigers slaughtered in the Czech Republic were not bred in zoos but in a private facility, yet their story should put captive breeding in general into question. </p>
<p>Today, tigers are bred outside of their natural habitats for a variety of reasons: for zoos, exhibitions, circuses performances or as pets. Tiger cubs are often displayed in petting zoos and subjected to the cruel practice of declawing. Adult tigers are drugged to pose in photos. People still see these extremely dangerous carnivores as proxies for luxury and sexiness.</p>
<p>But hopefully attitudes are changing. In 2017, <a href="https://blog.gotinder.com/take-down-the-tiger-selfies/">Tinder</a> launched a campaign to encourage its users to stop posting “tiger selfies”. And most recently, due to public pressure, China was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-46190599">forced to reinstate</a> a <a href="http://english.gov.cn/policies/latest_releases/2018/10/29/content_281476367121088.htm">newly lifted ban</a> on using tiger bone and rhino horn in medicine.</p>
<p>Of course we need to pay attention to the conservation of today’s wild tigers threatened by habitat loss due to human activity, poaching, loss of prey and the swelling human-wildlife conflicts. But more attention should be paid to the plight of the enormous captive population of tigers across the world.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on November 26 to correct the stated number of captive tigers in the US.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marianna Szczygielska does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The slaughtered tigers were not bred in zoos, yet their story should put captive breeding in general into question.
Marianna Szczygielska, Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107116
2018-11-22T11:05:27Z
2018-11-22T11:05:27Z
Dynasties: Lions may disappear without urgent funding for conservation
<p>In part three of the BBC’s new nature series <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06mvr1c">Dynasties</a>, the protagonists, Charm and Sienna, show us how hard it is to be a successful lioness in a land filled with enemies. </p>
<p>Under constant threat of marauding hyenas and cub-killing male lions, the two mothers have to fight for their lives to ensure their offspring have a chance of making it to adulthood. But the episode also shows us that the biggest enemy of lions isn’t other wild predators – it’s humans.</p>
<p>Down from as many as 200,000 lions a century ago, some experts believe that we could now have as few as <a href="https://www.panthera.org/cat/lion">20,000 individuals remaining in the wild</a> – and that number is likely to be falling by the day. Worryingly, the general public are <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003997#sec004">mostly unaware</a> of their precarious conservation status. We have done a bad job of showing the perilous state of these big cats.</p>
<h2>The lion’s kingdom under siege</h2>
<p>Lions face attack by humans on many fronts. <a href="https://www.panthera.org/cms/sites/default/files/Panthera_FactSheets_Lion.pdf">Panthera</a>, a wild cat conservation organisation, believes the most serious causes for their decline include habitat loss, humans killing them to protect their livestock, wild prey depletion, accidental snaring, poorly managed trophy hunting and the illegal wildlife trade.</p>
<p>Since their threats are so varied, there is no single solution for protecting lions and overcoming these threats will be no mean feat. It will require locally-tailored solutions that fit each specific context. For instance, for lions that reside alongside people in areas outside national parks, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0170796">research has shown</a> that it is absolutely vital to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/cost-of-carnivore-coexistence-on-communal-and-resettled-land-in-namibia/142960101075A81193D3EEBA8E0E6229">reduce the perceived costs of lions</a> to local people, like livestock depredation, while <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10871209.2013.819537">increasing their benefits</a>, such as income from photographic tourism or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-killing-lions-like-cecil-may-actually-be-good-for-conservation-45400">trophy hunting</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246708/original/file-20181121-161618-twp5cb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246708/original/file-20181121-161618-twp5cb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246708/original/file-20181121-161618-twp5cb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246708/original/file-20181121-161618-twp5cb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246708/original/file-20181121-161618-twp5cb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246708/original/file-20181121-161618-twp5cb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246708/original/file-20181121-161618-twp5cb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246708/original/file-20181121-161618-twp5cb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tourists gather to spot lions on safari in the Maasai Mara park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari#/media/File:Safari-jam-in-Maasai-Mara.JPG">Wikimedia Commons/Bjørn Christian Tørrissen.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For lions inside protected areas, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/112/48/14894?ijkey=bee9613a3da86a750add773cd2bf64a4f97b89ed&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha">some experts argue</a> that we must <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ele.12091">fence lions</a> in to stop them causing problems with people. However, this has earned <a href="https://scholarworks.montana.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1/9575/Creel_EcologyLetters_07_2013_A1b.pdf?sequence=1">criticism from others</a>, who believe that fences incur significant ecological and economic costs by disrupting the migration of herbivores. The issue over “to fence or not to fence” has turned into a bit of cat fight and shows the political nuances and ecological complexities of conserving such a charismatic species.</p>
<p>In a bold attempt to reunite conservationists, <a href="http://pridelionalliance.org/who-we-are/">Pride, the Lion Conservation Alliance</a>, has brought together five lion NGOs to pool their efforts and share funding. It may come as no surprise that, like the species they’re fighting to conserve, they have realised the benefits of coming together and working as a team rather than competing. </p>
<h2>A lion always pays his debts</h2>
<p>Focusing on lion populations in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, their community conservation efforts empower locals to be stewards of wildlife. By turning lion poachers into guardians, their initiatives have <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c556/e609ed44ca8462525309f34e63f3ab57c384.pdf">reduced lion killing</a> by up to 99% in some of the areas in which they work. </p>
<p>By building on the cultural significance of lion hunts, young warriors that would usually show their bravery by killing lions are now employed to track lions and monitor their activities. They also inform their community if lions are approaching so that farmers can guard their livestock.</p>
<p>While TV shows such as Dynasties are helping to raise the profile of this threatened carnivore, what the lion needs now more than anything is funding. Conserving lions is an expensive business: <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/115/45/E10788">one recent paper</a> showed that to effectively manage the protected areas where lions currently reside would require a whopping US$0.9 billion to US$2.1 billion in additional income per year – on top of the money that is already raised. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246832/original/file-20181122-182053-1k6r2tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246832/original/file-20181122-182053-1k6r2tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246832/original/file-20181122-182053-1k6r2tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246832/original/file-20181122-182053-1k6r2tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246832/original/file-20181122-182053-1k6r2tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246832/original/file-20181122-182053-1k6r2tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246832/original/file-20181122-182053-1k6r2tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The areas where lions are known to have lived in the past (red) versus where they survive today (blue).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion#/media/File:Lion_distribution.png">Wikimedia Commons/Tommyknocker.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Where this cash comes from remains a bit of a mystery. We have to go beyond financing conservation from the meagre income of photographic tourism in national parks. Solutions could involve more <a href="https://www.iucn.org/regions/asia/about/leveraging-partnerships/partners">corporate partnerships</a> and financially linking lion lovers in the West to Africans living with lions. </p>
<p>An idea from <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/advertisers-using-animals-should-pay-for-conservation-david-attenborough-says-5xzjdwsfq">Sir David Attenborough</a> himself argues that companies that use lions in their marketing should pay for lion conservation. What is abundantly clear is that if we want lions to have a future, we must start stumping up the cash for their conservation.</p>
<p>Many commentators have suggested BBC’s Dynasties takes on the gripping, conflict-ridden format of storytelling that Game of Thrones perfected. If this is the case, humans would surely play the vicious and selfish <a href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Joffrey_Baratheon">King Joffrey</a>. It is us, after all, who terrorise lions the most. But it is us, too, who have the power to guarantee their survival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niki Rust does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The life-or-death drama of the lion pride will captivate viewers, but the show may not go on without funding to conserve these species.
Niki Rust, Postdoctoral Researcher, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/98320
2018-06-26T13:36:21Z
2018-06-26T13:36:21Z
Leopards get stressed. Here’s how we know – and why it matters
<p>Leopards are versatile predators. These elusive cats can successfully occupy any habitat that supports sufficient numbers of prey species and which provides adequate cover for their ambush-style of hunting. </p>
<p>Leopards also adapt well to settled environments near human activity. But this often brings them into conflict with humans. In South Africa it’s been clear <a href="http://www.carnivoreconservation.org/files/thesis/swanepoel_2008_msc.pdf">since the late 1980s</a> that although protected areas play an important role in leopard conservation, most of the country’s suitable leopard habitat lies outside the boundaries of protected areas, often on private or community-owned land.</p>
<p>This means that leopards must navigate their way across land dedicated to human development, agriculture or mining practices. As a result, they are exposed to an array of physiological, environmental and psycho-social factors that could cause stress. </p>
<p>Acute stress is essential for vertebrate survival. For example, hunting an impala may be stressful in the short term, but a successful kill equates to survival. In contrast, successive or simultaneous stressors experienced over prolonged periods of time, such as constantly having to avoid human interaction, can result in chronic stress. This, in combination with other factors could affect this <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/15954/0">already vulnerable</a> species’ long-term health and survival.</p>
<p>But how do you measure the stress levels within a leopard population without causing further distress? I set out to develop a method that would allow us to make a non-invasive assessment of stress levels in free-ranging leopards. It proved to be a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15627020.2018.1467280">useful approach</a>. </p>
<p>My results indicate that although animals were relatively habituated at both sites, those living on the housing estate were more stressed than those in the game reserve. Pregnant females or those rearing cubs had the highest (617% higher) stress hormone levels of all the cats monitored. Overall, we found that wild male leopards showed less variation in their stress levels than females, regardless of whether they were in a protected area or not.</p>
<p>This method offers a new way for leopard biologists to monitor this elusive and iconic species. It can also inform the development of strategies to protect and conserve them. </p>
<h2>Stress hormones</h2>
<p>When we – leopards or humans – perceive a stressor, the central nervous system activates the release of hormones which act on the brain. Almost immediately, the pituitary gland releases hormones into the bloodstream and causes an almost instantaneous secretion of adrenalin. This mobilises energy which increases the heart rate and blood flow to the muscles so we have the physical means to confront the threat – or run away. </p>
<p>Over the next few hours, the adrenal glands release glucocorticoids – a type of steroid hormone – into the blood. These glucocorticoids (cortisol or corticosterone, depending on the species) are metabolised in the liver. After metabolism, they are then excreted via the bile into the gut and out of the body in the faeces. They can also travel via the kidneys to the bladder, to be excreted in the urine. </p>
<p>Previous studies <a href="http://behavioralendocrinology.wp.txstate.edu/files/2013/05/Sheriff-2011-1.pdf">have found</a> that glucocorticoid concentrations are reliable indicators of disturbance experienced by an individual. That makes glucocorticoid metabolites very useful physiological indicators to measure stress. In this study we used scat to monitor the stress levels of free-ranging leopards.</p>
<p>We monitored two leopard populations. One consisted of seven known individuals living on a housing estate in Hoedspruit, a town located to the west of the Kruger National Park, South Africa’s largest wildlife reserve. The other consisted of about 27 leopards living in a protected area adjoining the park.</p>
<h2>Applying the science</h2>
<p>We began the study by gathering faecal samples and observational data from leopards in two captive facilities. We used the faecal material to evaluate which of five chosen enzymeimmunoassays were best suited to pick up changes in the glucocorticoid concentrations in the faeces. Enzymeimmunoassays are widely accepted analytical tools for detecting particular antigens or antibodies in biological samples. </p>
<p>The captive leopards were monitored to determine how long food took to move through their systems, so we knew how long we needed to wait before getting a sample. It also enabled us to determine how long after defecation the hormones remained stable enough for measuring. We then used this information to compare the glucocorticoid concentrations in the faeces of our two groups of wild leopards. </p>
<p>Now that the method has been validated, we hope to use it to further examine how pregnancy, persecution outside of protected areas, levels of tourist activity and environmental factors contribute to the stress levels of this iconic African species.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Webster received funding from The South African Veterinary Foundation and Dallas Safari Club. </span></em></p>
A new way for leopard biologists to monitor this elusive and iconic species has been developed.
Andrea Webster, PhD Candidate Mammal Research Institute Dept. Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96377
2018-05-11T11:09:54Z
2018-05-11T11:09:54Z
A brief history of lion taming
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218303/original/file-20180509-34024-khyag9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Lion_tamer_%28LOC_pga.03749%29.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Britain’s last lion tamer, Thomas Chipperfield, was recently <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43545030">refused a licence</a> to continue performing with his two lions and one tiger. The decision – which Chipperfield intends to appeal – marks the end of a long tradition of lion taming in Britain. It reflects a gradual shift in public attitudes towards circuses and a growing sense that making wild animals perform unnatural tricks is both dangerous and cruel. </p>
<p>While it has taken nearly 200 years for such views to result in a formal ban, these sentiments have been around for a long time. From its origin in the early 19th century, lion taming has elicited both awe and horror. It has also attracted a socially diverse range of tamers, whose performances have been both praised and condemned.</p>
<h2>The lion of his day</h2>
<p>The first lion tamer to make it big in the UK was Isaac Van Amburgh. Born in Fishkill, New York State, Van Amburgh toured Europe between 1838 and 1845 and achieved notoriety for his performances with big cats. His act included introducing a lamb into the lions’ cage and inserting his head into the mouth of his largest lion. Queen Victoria, a big fan of Van Amburgh’s, commissioned a famous portrait of the lion tamer by the artist Edwin Landseer. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218298/original/file-20180509-184630-1461acp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218298/original/file-20180509-184630-1461acp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218298/original/file-20180509-184630-1461acp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218298/original/file-20180509-184630-1461acp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218298/original/file-20180509-184630-1461acp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218298/original/file-20180509-184630-1461acp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218298/original/file-20180509-184630-1461acp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edwin Landseer, Isaac Van Amburgh and his Animals, 1839.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Landseer.amburgh.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though many were impressed by Van Amburgh’s bravery, his performances also elicited criticism. When the American floated the idea of taking his largest lion up in a hot air balloon, the authorities banned the venture, persuaded that “if loss of life” were to occur without “even the shadow of a scientific pretext, it will certainly entail responsibility of a heavy kind upon all the parties concerned in so absurd an exhibition” (Morning Chronicle, September 24 1838). </p>
<p>Reviewing one of the lion tamer’s performances in 1838, meanwhile, a journalist for The Examiner objected to “the thrusting of his head within the lion’s jaws”, which was “at once a piece of gratuitous impertinence towards the animal, a very disagreeable exhibition for the spectators, and above all a highly hazardous proceeding for the exhibitor”. Some level of peril was acceptable, and gave lion taming its thrill value, but excessive risk drew public condemnation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218312/original/file-20180509-34009-1k7ufaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218312/original/file-20180509-34009-1k7ufaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218312/original/file-20180509-34009-1k7ufaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218312/original/file-20180509-34009-1k7ufaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218312/original/file-20180509-34009-1k7ufaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218312/original/file-20180509-34009-1k7ufaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218312/original/file-20180509-34009-1k7ufaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not a beast to mess with.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/roaringyawing-lion-696622699?src=0ijbxoyaUjXaGeUaD_1V-A-1-7">By Redmich/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lion queens</h2>
<p>Soon a new trend swept the menagerie business: the phenomenon of the female lion tamer. Eager to ratchet up the tension of the lion-taming spectacle, menagerists searched for innovations in personnel and homed in on the idea of a “lion queen”. The first lion queen, a Miss Hilton, had entered the lions’ den at Stepney Fair in 1839, and was soon followed by others. By the late 1840s, having a female tamer on the staff was virtually a necessity for any self-respecting menagerist.</p>
<p>Needless to say, not everyone was comfortable with the idea of letting a woman perform with wild animals, and the lion queen craze subsided in 1850 when tamer Ellen Bright was killed by a tiger in Kent. According to witnesses, the accident happened when Bright, who was only 17, was coming to the end of her final performance of the evening. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218430/original/file-20180510-34009-x0jka3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218430/original/file-20180510-34009-x0jka3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218430/original/file-20180510-34009-x0jka3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218430/original/file-20180510-34009-x0jka3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218430/original/file-20180510-34009-x0jka3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218430/original/file-20180510-34009-x0jka3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1271&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218430/original/file-20180510-34009-x0jka3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1271&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218430/original/file-20180510-34009-x0jka3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1271&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Lion 'Queen’, Staffordshire figure, c.1850.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Photo by Helen Cowie</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Daily News reported that wanting to perform a trick with the lion, she pushed the tiger out of her way, striking it “slightly with a small whip that she carried in her hand”. The animal “growled, as if in anger”, and immediately tripped the girl with its paw, “seizing her furiously by the neck, inserting the teeth of the upper jaw in her chin, and in closing its mouth, inflicting frightful injury in the throat”.</p>
<p>This shocking incident precipitated a flurry of impassioned protests against lion queens. One commentator, a journalist from the Stamford Mercury, eulogised “the graceful attractions of Miss Bright” and deplored “the folly of allowing so perfect a form to be thus exposed to ruthless hazard” through her “ill-advised tampering” with “caged monsters”. Another, writing in The Morning Chronicle, denounced lion taming as a futile and brutalising spectacle that “degrades both the exhibitor and the spectator and hardens the nature while steeling it to fear and to pity”. Once again, the motives of both performers and spectators were under scrutiny, triggering a bout of national soul searching.</p>
<h2>Cruelty to animals</h2>
<p>Another common critique of lion taming – even in the 19th century – was the cruelty it inflicted on animals. Van Amburgh used violence against his big cats, hitting them with a crowbar to make them submissive. Rumours also circulated that he declawed his lions and had their teeth filed. Writing in 1881, the <a href="https://www.rspca.org.uk/whatwedo/whoweare/history">RSPCA</a> denounced all lion taming performances as “an exhibition of successful cruelty” in which “big animals are punished into sulky obedience or are made to howl with anger”. </p>
<p>One particularly shocking case of animal cruelty occurred in Leeds in 1874, when, as the Leeds Mercury reported, keeper Frederick Hewitt forced a group of hyenas to jump through a fiery hoop “saturated with naptha and then lighted”. Many of the animals were “severely burned”. Others exhibited “raw wounds … from which blood oozed”. The RSPCA prosecuted Hewitt for the abuse, calling for an end to such performances. Though the case was dismissed on a legal technicality it paved the way for other successful prosecutions involving circus animals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218431/original/file-20180510-34038-8al9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218431/original/file-20180510-34038-8al9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218431/original/file-20180510-34038-8al9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218431/original/file-20180510-34038-8al9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218431/original/file-20180510-34038-8al9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218431/original/file-20180510-34038-8al9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218431/original/file-20180510-34038-8al9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Hyena’, Illustrated London News, November 21 1868.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustrated London News</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Going too far</h2>
<p>Nor was it just animals that showmen were accused of exploiting. In addition to women, non-European, underage and disabled people also acted as tamers, drawing criticism from contemporaries. In 1866 magistrates in Nottingham denounced the performances of a five-year-old boy, Daniel Day, who entered the lion’s den in his father’s menagerie. And in 1870 concern was expressed for “a dwarf named Tommy Dodd”, who performed with lions in Aberdeen. Then in 1872, outrage ensued when one-armed tamer Thomas McCarty was killed by lions in a menagerie at Bolton. </p>
<p>While the chance to perform with lions may, in some respects, have been a liberating (and financially rewarding) experience for socially disadvantaged tamers, many saw the practice as voyeuristic and exploitative and called for its end. But despite surges of anger following serious accidents and deaths, the lion taming act survived public opposition, attracting large audiences well into the 20th century. It has only been in recent decades that its popularity has faded, thanks, in large part, to a rise in animal welfare activism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96377/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Cowie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From its origin in the early 19th century, lion taming has elicited both awe and horror.
Helen Cowie, Lecturer in Early Modern History, University of York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86656
2017-11-01T15:18:29Z
2017-11-01T15:18:29Z
Big cats in Britain: urban myth or scientific fact?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192832/original/file-20171101-19876-1hctdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spotted en route to Tesco?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=eWAlr5gVWpYxRh1i6YDwZA-1-9">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The escape of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lynx-escapes-welsh-zoo-big-cats-lilith-borth-wild-animal-kingdom-ceredigion-wales-a8026736.html">Lilith the Lynx</a> from a zoo in Wales has focused attention once again on the question of what exotic beasts might be roaming the British countryside. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"924929154180702208"}"></div></p>
<p>Sightings of “big cats” in the UK are more frequent than a naturalist might expect. Since the 1760s, when <a href="https://archive.org/stream/ruralrides01cobb#page/286/mode/2up/search/lucifee">William Cobbett</a>, then a small boy, saw a large cat at Waverley Abbey near Farnborough, for reporting which he was soundly beaten, instances of people spotting apparently alien cats have been well documented. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192833/original/file-20171101-19845-1o3lfo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192833/original/file-20171101-19845-1o3lfo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192833/original/file-20171101-19845-1o3lfo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192833/original/file-20171101-19845-1o3lfo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192833/original/file-20171101-19845-1o3lfo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192833/original/file-20171101-19845-1o3lfo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192833/original/file-20171101-19845-1o3lfo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tiger on the loose or lazy moggy?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=eWAlr5gVWpYxRh1i6YDwZA-1-9">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps the most famous alleged big cat was the <a href="http://scotcats.online.fr/ncj/yoff.html">Beast of Bodmin Moor</a>, which was the subject of a scientific investigation in 1995 – after 20 years or so of sightings, alleged livestock killings and tracks found by the public. The scientists who carried out a very limited investigation into the subject found no evidence that the beast existed, but locals remain convinced that there is a thriving population of large predatory felines living on the Cornish moor.</p>
<h2>A nationwide phenomenon</h2>
<p>According to media reports, mysterious big cats have been seen all over Britain, including in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/articles/2008/10/04/moorlands_big_cat_feature.shtml">Staffordshire</a>, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4819114/Big-cat-spotted-UK-fifth-time-summer.html">Lincolnshire, Devon, Fife and Hertfordshire</a>. However, many of the sightings over the years have been exposed as hoaxes or mistakes. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/22/white-tiger-toy-alert-police-southampton">Hampshire Tiger</a> caused a major scare in 2011 – the police force was scrambled and experts were on hand with tranquilliser darts. It turned out to be a life-sized, stuffed toy. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vQYrszfSbUE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Curiously enough, the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/9066173/Black-leopard-caught-on-film-in-Stroud.html">video footage</a>, such as this “leopard” near Stroud captured by members of the public, is always very blurred and usually taken from a long distance away. But some experts have been convinced by this.</p>
<p>Occasionally, the animals have been killed – such as the cat, recently identified as a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2013.785541">Canadian Lynx</a>, that was shot in Newton Abbot, Devon around 1903. That particular animal had apparently been living in the area for some time, to judge from the isotope evidence extracted from its stuffed carcass by modern investigators, but there is no way to tell how long it had been living wild.</p>
<h2>Sound evidence</h2>
<p>Scientists have made considerable efforts to get to the bottom of some of the sightings – and forensic techniques, such as <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440306002718">tooth pit analysis</a>, has identified a large cat as being the perpetrator of livestock deaths in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161208-many-people-are-convinced-that-big-cats-roam-the-uk">West Wales</a>. The analysis looks at the remains of prey animals to find clues to the identity of the predators, in marks they make while feeding. In this case, the researchers found tooth marks that suggested that a medium sized cat, considerably larger than a domestic cat, had attacked sheep and a foal. This is among the most conclusive evidence so far that such animals are at large in the UK.</p>
<p>One of the reasons that “big cat” stories are so fascinating is the feeling of mystery that attaches to them. How did the creatures arrive in Britain? Have they been here all along, sharing the country with us since the collapse of the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15101#f1">land-bridge with Europe</a> thousands of years ago? </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"797773115455520770"}"></div></p>
<p>The reality is likely to be much more mundane. Prior to the implementation of the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/38">Dangerous and Wild Animals Act 1976</a> many people of all walks of life kept exotic animals in their homes. With the advent of the Act it became apparent that owners would need to be licensed and comply with strict welfare and safety rules, so some people probably decided to release their big cats rather than have the trouble and expense of obeying the law. </p>
<p>It is unlikely that many such beasts would survive in the wild, but it would only take one pregnant female – or a mated pair – to establish a population. It was alleged that Mary Chipperfield of the famous Chipperfield Circus <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/21/beast-of-bodmin-mystery-solved-as-dartmoor-zoo-released-pumas-in/">released three pumas</a>, including a breeding pair, onto Dartmoor when her zoo was closed down in 1978 – though the family strenuously deny that.</p>
<p>Whatever your particular stance on the subject of Britain’s hidden big cat population, it is unlikely that the subject is going to go away. With more than 250 years of alleged sightings it is one of the more persistent urban myths, if indeed it is a myth – and somehow I like the idea that there are families of big feline predators living out there in the wild places of the UK, just minding their own business and getting on with life the best way they can.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Hoole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The recent escape of Lilith the Lynx has got people wondering – and the truth is out there.
Jan Hoole, Lecturer in Biology, Keele University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/80216
2017-07-03T10:45:38Z
2017-07-03T10:45:38Z
Do cats purr when humans aren’t around?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176426/original/file-20170630-23414-fufmih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-kitten-likes-being-stroked-by-507456550?src=TYXiUj_9AxXcJbcbp8sb2Q-1-15">PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why do cats purr? Humans tend to think that purring is a sign of happiness in a cat – and indeed it can be – but there are other reasons why our feline friends produce this particular vocalisation. </p>
<p>Purring is a habit that develops very early in a cat’s life, while suckling from its mother, so clearly it is not a sound that is directed solely at humans. Cat owners will be well aware that a cat can produce more than one kind of purr, just as they have a whole repertoire of meows, chirps, growls, spits and other sounds.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xUf5WHqezSw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The purr that is produced during suckling, is quite different in quality to the purr that you will hear when your cat is sprawling across your lap being stroked. <a href="http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0960982209011683/1-s2.0-S0960982209011683-main.pdf?_tid=ca2feb88-5bde-11e7-a4e7-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1498639989_de63d91cbfcdfca568260fc9abd07b74">Analysis of the sound</a> has shown when a cat is asking for food, whether from its mother or a human – the purr contains a high-pitched note that is similar in frequency to a cry (though not as loud). It may have something of the effect of the cry of a newborn, which affects the hormonal state of female mammals and <a href="http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0166432807000897/1-s2.0-S0166432807000897-main.pdf?_tid=e02955ac-5d08-11e7-b2f7-00000aab0f01&acdnat=1498768017_ddab9098f69493f99acf804e0fd07bc3">elicits a care-giving response</a>.</p>
<p>When a cat is being petted or is snuggled up to its owner on the sofa, the purr it produces is much more soporific and generally soothing, and acoustic analysis shows that <a href="http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0960982209011683/1-s2.0-S0960982209011683-main.pdf?_tid=ca2feb88-5bde-11e7-a4e7-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1498639989_de63d91cbfcdfca568260fc9abd07b74">the “cry” component is missing</a>. </p>
<p>Adult cats will often purr when they are close to or in <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2003.09.013">physical contact</a> with another cat, engaging in grooming for example. They will also do it when they play with an inanimate object, or while eating, which can be at a time when they are alone. However, the most usual time for purring is in company, and it can be the care soliciting sound, asking to be fed or stroked, or an indication of social pleasure. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176421/original/file-20170630-8225-c6s6ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176421/original/file-20170630-8225-c6s6ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176421/original/file-20170630-8225-c6s6ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176421/original/file-20170630-8225-c6s6ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176421/original/file-20170630-8225-c6s6ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176421/original/file-20170630-8225-c6s6ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176421/original/file-20170630-8225-c6s6ug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cats often purr whilst grooming one another.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/one-cat-grooming-another-105962432?src=RTOsf0lp6aBkWKFLT8JjRg-1-44">karamysh/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The darker side</h2>
<p>Strangely, vets also report that cats will purr when they are in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GgUwg6gU7n4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA67&dq=purring+in+solitary+felines&ots=V-aN4Ee6c9&sig=UqH6gx1KDoto8wtzJjgn7tS3g8M#v=onepage&q=purring%2520in%2520solitary%2520felines&f=false">great pain</a> or just before death. This seems to be illogical if it is a sound relating to pleasure, but in fact, it could be that the cat is asking for help. </p>
<p>It could also be a way of masking the fact that the cat is injured and vulnerable. If you are a small animal, even a carnivore, it is not good to show weakness as this could encourage larger predators to come along and eat you. The purr may be the cat equivalent of “everything’s fine, I’m on top of the world. Nothing to see here, move along please”.</p>
<h2>Can big cats purr too?</h2>
<p>There has long been a debate about whether the “big cats” can purr – and the belief has been that cats that roar, such as lions and tigers, cannot purr. Although there is no conclusive evidence on this subject, it seems that even cats that roar <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2907.2002.00113.x/full">purr as cubs</a> while suckling. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176406/original/file-20170630-8242-n663ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176406/original/file-20170630-8242-n663ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176406/original/file-20170630-8242-n663ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176406/original/file-20170630-8242-n663ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176406/original/file-20170630-8242-n663ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176406/original/file-20170630-8242-n663ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176406/original/file-20170630-8242-n663ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176406/original/file-20170630-8242-n663ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It is suggested that cheetahs may purr too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dianasch/15650436564/">Diana Robinson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All mammals have a bone or series of bones in the throat called the hyoid apparatus, which supports the larynx and tongue. In cat species that roar the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1469-7580.2002.00088.x/full">hyoid apparatus is not entirely made of bone</a> but retains some parts as cartilage, while cat species that purr have a hyoid that is completely bony. This modification may permit roaring, but does not necessarily mean that purring is impossible. It is believed that cheetah, ocelot, margay, serval, and lynx, among other species, can purr, and it is suggested that <a href="http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Zeitschrift-Saeugetierkunde_59_0087-0104.pdf">jaguar, leopard, lion and tiger</a> cannot – or if they can they’ve kept it secret all these years.</p>
<h2>Process behind the purr</h2>
<p>The actual process of <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0034568772900643">producing the purring sound</a> is complicated, and is still not completely understood, but it involves the muscles of the larynx and the diaphragm being activated by bursts of nerve activity that originate in the brain and occur 20 to 30 times every second. This happens on both in and out breaths, which accounts for the continuous sound of the purr. </p>
<p>The fact that a cat can do all this and simultaneously eat, knead the cushions, rip the chair leg to pieces or weave complicated patterns through your legs without getting stepped on makes one wonder what they would have achieved with opposable thumbs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80216/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Hoole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Humans tend to associate cats purring with happiness, but in turns out they also purr when in pain, hungry and alone.
Jan Hoole, Lecturer in Biology, Keele University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/75308
2017-05-02T20:06:39Z
2017-05-02T20:06:39Z
Curious Kids: Why don’t cats wear shoes?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167308/original/file-20170501-12974-1j3iuk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Did Puss in Boots have it all wrong?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/11250735@N07/10008347535/in/photolist-gfpp38-9ecPtP-s75ivp-4aGQi9-eirn6e-wRGt3-9B1ZBf-6iDRfQ-bt9VY-5Yie5k-dgHJZi-SKJdNf-9cUhCU-dKpXV9-j67D1G-eixcQ3-A5zqy-nYkhJh-eixcoq-gfp9Uh-cr8bYw-6kr3BF-gfpFyW-eirp1B-bpYaL-9zhcZW-34q88y-ocs2Je-4QkF4R-68pV79-roqg4m-mdsid-89kfSf-qm7nHj-4T99DE-ra18i-9epFcJ-impKiW-AJYuP-387B7L-dKL834-etWeMr-SeKjEd-dWbHrA-6kPcyC-dvfh6X-6fCYp2-85ut25-cBF7G5-gcEDB">Flickr/zaimoku_woodpile</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is an article from <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a>, a new series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky!</em> </p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p>Why don’t cats wear shoes? <strong>– Molly, 3, Melbourne.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cats don’t need shoes because since the dawn of time they have evolved to walk, run and jump on their hands and feet. Their hands and feet have evolved for the life of a carnivore (a meat-eater). They are well-designed killing machines, which is why we should try to keep pet cats inside.</p>
<p>Cats evolved in hot desert regions, where there were lots of small animals they could eat – mainly rodents like mice and rats. Hunters such as cats need to travel very fast, for short distances, to pounce on their prey, and to be able to climb so they can catch things that climb trees.</p>
<p>So they evolved to have retractable claws. That means cats can push them out and pull them in, just like Wolverine. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EJoSn7x2vzY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This slow-motion video shows how cats extend and retract their claws.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When they are resting, cats have their claws pulled in. These retractable claws help them grab and hold prey. They also help with climbing. They have a “thumb” on their front paws, which they use to scratch enemies in a fight, and to grip their prey so that cannot escape. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Fs8xOHU0s4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">All members of the cat family – from little house cats to big panthers – have retractable claws.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cats do not have “thumbs” on their hindlimbs (the back legs). The claws on a cat’s back legs are used mainly in climbing, and are not honed as much as those on the front legs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167302/original/file-20170501-12979-1sdhgzl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167302/original/file-20170501-12979-1sdhgzl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167302/original/file-20170501-12979-1sdhgzl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167302/original/file-20170501-12979-1sdhgzl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167302/original/file-20170501-12979-1sdhgzl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167302/original/file-20170501-12979-1sdhgzl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167302/original/file-20170501-12979-1sdhgzl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167302/original/file-20170501-12979-1sdhgzl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This is our cat Obi’s paw from underneath. In this picture, we have made the claws pop out by gently pulling Obi’s paw. Claws are made of layers of keratin and sharpened to a knife’s edge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cats’ needle-sharp claws grow out of bones in their paws, just like our nails grow out of our finger bones. And cats use wooden objects in nature to sharpen their claws on their front paws. It’s instinctive – that means they can’t help wanting to do it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167303/original/file-20170501-12974-196o9wl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167303/original/file-20170501-12974-196o9wl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167303/original/file-20170501-12974-196o9wl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167303/original/file-20170501-12974-196o9wl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167303/original/file-20170501-12974-196o9wl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167303/original/file-20170501-12974-196o9wl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167303/original/file-20170501-12974-196o9wl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167303/original/file-20170501-12974-196o9wl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Obi’s paw from underneath. The dark, black ‘stopper pad’ is in the middle and there are smaller ‘digital pads’ up on his ‘toes’. These are the shock absorbers, and the skin there is thicker and tougher than the rest of the cat’s skin. The cat is relaxed and so the claws are retracted (pulled in).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some people like to ask their vet to remove the claws, but fortunately this cruel practice is banned in most places (including Australia). That’s because it hurts cats, messes with their fine balance, and affects their behaviour. </p>
<p>Another thing people sometimes do is use plastic protective caps to cover the claws. These are applied using superglue, to “save the furniture”. But an indoor “cat tree”, like a scratching post, works even better, and is less inconvenient for the cat.</p>
<p>The pads on their paws are shock absorbers, which helps explain why cats are so good at landing when they jump from a great height.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-xN12kR4TLc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Parts of a cat’s paws are padded, and act as shock absorbers when they jump from great heights.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some parts of the pads on the cat’s paws get their toughness through thickness and that protects them from rough surfaces. They also have special cushioning to protect against deformation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167306/original/file-20170501-13007-l3j4ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167306/original/file-20170501-13007-l3j4ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167306/original/file-20170501-13007-l3j4ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167306/original/file-20170501-13007-l3j4ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167306/original/file-20170501-13007-l3j4ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167306/original/file-20170501-13007-l3j4ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167306/original/file-20170501-13007-l3j4ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167306/original/file-20170501-13007-l3j4ir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Big cats like tigers also have well-designed paws that help them hunt, climb and jump.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/15971449167/in/photolist-qkkRpe-qnH35v-8oU7n7-74AmDv-eWqh2k-4DetX3-6z7APi-8g2TtS-iS573m-kbuug5-eZsFhd-bm7NQy-fHubzL-nA1CUY-fkExiU-aRBXDi-qRAXsE-buKcxH-cZgts5-qTmT1i-btBwP2-c9GX1N-dq7kuX-aoEQKo-bFUtN4-drAFpV-cYdBYu-dfYKD3-cY1qwb-nTmYdw-awBQxH-5gJN2K-aHqiPr-6zbEUL-cWaWFG-T1J4d-FGBkGB-drYnUc-6QNew2-7BTCYo-ds26cQ-a7LmzR-ds9YNB-kecVeX-p7YLUG-8ygk2n-dL7R9q-c5RgLG-aJwY4B-czAv9E">Flickr/Tambako The Jaguar</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If cats wore shoes, none of this – the climbing, grasping, catching and all the other things cats evolved to do to survive – would be possible. It would be like Wolverine wearing boxing gloves. It just wouldn’t work.</p>
<p>On the other hand, because they do not wear gloves and boots, cats can get infections from germs that live in the soil. This doesn’t happen often.</p>
<p>Of the animals we are most familiar with, only people and horses often wear shoes. Some people think it is silly for humans to be wearing shoes. It’s just an un-natural adaption to recent things like living in cities and walking on concrete.</p>
<p>So perhaps the answer to Molly’s question is: “Why do humans wear shoes?”</p>
<hr>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Cats evolved in hot desert regions where there were lots of small animals to eat. So they evolved feet that are perfect for pouncing on prey, climbing, scratching and jumping from great heights.
Richard Malik, Veterinary Internist (Specialist), University of Sydney
Andrea Harvey, Veterinary Specialist, PhD scholar, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/34255
2014-11-14T16:13:57Z
2014-11-14T16:13:57Z
Domestic cat or lost lynx? On the trail of the ‘Paris tiger’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64581/original/chqdb6qg-1415965767.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A cat, but not a lynx.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/alastc/14985000300">Alastair Campbell</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A big cat is apparently lurking in the countryside near Disneyland, Paris. After reports of a tiger on the loose, 200 police and military officers backed up by a helicopter, and a special “wolfcatcher”, were called in to look for the animal. Local authorities have now confirmed the mystery creature is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/14/paris-tiger-big-cat-france-police-search">not actually a tiger</a>.</p>
<p>The tiger story was always unlikely. Local zoos and a passing circus have denied knowledge of any animal escapes and the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/13/paris-tiger-search-teams-follow-paw-prints-into-a-wood">photograph</a> of the “tiger” was unconvincing, typical of such sightings: low light level, on the brow of a hill and no scalable objects within view. </p>
<p>The animal does appear to be a cat, but the person who reported it did not report a tiger but a lynx. Could this be a case of media exaggeration? After all lynx are native to France and not a threat to humans, whereas tigers… If it is a lynx and a wild one then this in itself is newsworthy as this species is only, normally, to be found a few hundred kilometres from Paris.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64583/original/jtccjyz8-1415966133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64583/original/jtccjyz8-1415966133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64583/original/jtccjyz8-1415966133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64583/original/jtccjyz8-1415966133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64583/original/jtccjyz8-1415966133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64583/original/jtccjyz8-1415966133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64583/original/jtccjyz8-1415966133.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">I wish I were orange.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dynamosquito/4411541366/in/photolist-7HQiy3-e7e8wq-a6xnbf-fedR9N-7C5heL-fo15gA-nHV1G8-hW6VEE-ojLxZS-4a6HEH-6btSUW-j993WN-nqDEZg-hq6CnG-8ak2zG-fxzg8i-ehpdff-4s4hWY-8ak7NQ-5zJSx1-fjGsz6-9FTtsw-gH2bt2-oTGFx3-dqW84M-dPxXRy-gcV1X-4y5Pt9-dqW88g-dqWhkh-dqWhoA-h6Djfk-fpm5Ny-j5hpsL-8agRee-fE43xS-dJRGyX-fhZfwa-8fKsRC-6RbyaZ-9FfNHp-dJxsHz-onrG9i-dWcXQs-dWpNW2-7WP66N-awefEu-6GNeTf-4gYgvW-2S6CSA">dynamosquito</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If it proves to be a more exotic big cat then its origins are of great interest. It could be a “pet” from a private collection. Although, I suspect just as in the UK few people in France are able to meet the legal requirements for maintaining such animals in captivity. In the UK up until 1976 it was possible to keep animals such as tigers in your back garden, but the Dangerous Wild Animals Act put a stop to this.</p>
<h2>Elusive escapees?</h2>
<p>Since the 1950s there have been reports of big cats on the loose in the UK, a country where badgers count as big and scary. In the 1990s the fabled “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/on-the-trail-of-the-beast-of-bodmin-moor-1574378.html">Beast of Bodmin Moor</a>” regularly made headlines. And over the years a number of cats such as pumas and lynx have been captured in the UK. </p>
<p>But these animals usually show signs that they were escapees from captivity. Scientific evidence supporting big cats living wild in the UK has not really been forthcoming. Most evidence is photographic and suffers from the same problems as the “Paris tiger” image. </p>
<p>Big cats can leave footprints, pugmarks, but they are most likely to be left when the ground is soft, after rain, and this can distort their size as the cat sinks into the mud. One of the problems with big cats in the UK is that it tends to be investigated by amateurs who want to find a big cat and so their objectivity can be questioned. </p>
<p>A supposed <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/paris-tiger-recap-updates-police-4620644">photograph</a> of the Paris tiger’s pugmark is clearly that of a dog: you can see the claws at the end of the toes. All cats aside from cheetahs retract their claws when walking – something dogs cannot do.</p>
<h2>Escapes are rare</h2>
<p>I worked at the Edinburgh Zoo for four years back in the mid 1990s and we never had an animal escape of any significance. By this I mean nothing dangerous. We did have a few animals go over the wall for a few minutes, but they always returned of their own accord. </p>
<p>The most memorable incident involved a group of cotton-top tamarins. These tiny monkeys could go where they wished within the zoo and one day they decided to visit a neighbouring hospital. We know this because the hospital rang the zoo saying that one of their patients, who was taking strong pain killing medication, complained that he had seen gremlins at his bedroom window.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64580/original/gmzv9swj-1415964654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64580/original/gmzv9swj-1415964654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64580/original/gmzv9swj-1415964654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64580/original/gmzv9swj-1415964654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64580/original/gmzv9swj-1415964654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64580/original/gmzv9swj-1415964654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64580/original/gmzv9swj-1415964654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64580/original/gmzv9swj-1415964654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gremlin alert!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cottontop_Tamarin_12.jpg">Ltshears</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Zoo animal escapes are rarer than we think. We need to remember that there are around 10,000 zoos in the world housing about 4m animals and crucially the escape of a zoo animal is big news, especially if it is dangerous. We live in a world of near misses. Think about crossing the road: everyday cars miss us by seconds but when one hits someone it becomes news. It is thus that we perceive roads as dangerous and clearly if we crossed them without due care and attention they are dangerous. Zoos build their animal enclosures with care and attention to avoid animal escapes.</p>
<p>Of course there have been cases where zoo animals have escaped and injured or killed people such as in the San Francisco Zoo where a tiger killed a visitor and attacked two others in 2007. An investigation into the case implicated those attacked in <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2011/02/tiger-maul-teens-san-francisco-zoo-provoked-report.html">provoking the escape</a>. There has even been a case where a wild tiger entered Nandankana zoo in India to mate with the resident tigress. Thus, we cannot assume animals escape because they don’t like their home. </p>
<p>At the Belo Horizonte Zoo in Brazil a female tamandua, a tree-living anteater, used to escape her enclosure into the surrounding wild habitat to find a mate and get pregnant. Then she would return to the zoo to have her baby with all of the creature comforts that a zoo provides. She did this several times.</p>
<p>I for one will be surprised if the cat near Paris turns out to be a tiger: as a conservation biologist I will be delighted if it proves to be a wild lynx but unsurprised if it turns out to be a domestic cat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert John Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A big cat is apparently lurking in the countryside near Disneyland, Paris. After reports of a tiger on the loose, 200 police and military officers backed up by a helicopter, and a special “wolfcatcher…
Robert John Young, Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of Salford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/33161
2014-11-12T15:17:21Z
2014-11-12T15:17:21Z
Evolutionary evidence shows it’s time to revise how we classify life on earth
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64364/original/gcymyk26-1415784509.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When is a cat not a cat?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/">Biodiversity Heritage Library (adapted)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A cat is, of course, a cat. Lions are cats too, as are leopards, lynxes and so on – the “Felidae” family contains 41 species in total. But what about other closely related species such as hyenas or mongooses? These animals are not in the cat family: they are cat-like “Feliformia”, but are in their own separate families.</p>
<p>So why are some species grouped together in the same families and others separated into different families? It might surprise you to learn that there is no general answer to this question, despite the fact that we now know a lot about evolutionary relationships for groups like mammals. Science has moved on and so should the way we classify life on earth.</p>
<p>The science of “taxonomy” categorises species (such as <em>Homo sapiens</em>, in the case of humans) into broader groups such as orders (for example primates) or kingdoms (for example Animalia). Current approaches date back to 18th century Swedish biologist <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/linnaeus.html">Carl Linnaeus</a>. Linnaeus saw all living things as creations of god and sorted them into hierarchical groups according to how similar or different he perceived them to be.</p>
<p>Evolution hadn’t even been theorised in Linnaeus’s lifetime. These days, we have a huge amount of DNA and fossil data to map out how, and when, one species branched out from another. Modern taxonomists therefore aim to base their decisions on evolutionary relationships, but the process remains subjective and there has been no attempt to standardise practises across all species on earth.</p>
<p>Taxonomic groups such as birds and mammals represent “classes” under current classification systems, which are then subdivided into orders, families and genera. <a href="http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/content/63/6/1010">Our research</a> uses the latest evolutionary trees for birds and mammals to demonstrate that current taxonomic classifications are highly inconsistent.</p>
<p>[</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64298/original/gdynpdmp-1415724252.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64298/original/gdynpdmp-1415724252.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64298/original/gdynpdmp-1415724252.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64298/original/gdynpdmp-1415724252.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64298/original/gdynpdmp-1415724252.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64298/original/gdynpdmp-1415724252.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64298/original/gdynpdmp-1415724252.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An evolutionary tree or phylogeny. Click for an animation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.onezoom.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>](http://www.onezoom.org/tetrapods.htm?view=1&signs=1&common=1&polytomy=3&ltype=2&hltype=2&font=helvetica&colour=1&init=1&taxa=Felidae&url=https://theconversation.com/evolutionary-evidence-shows-its-time-to-revise-how-we-classify-life-on-earth-33161&name=The%20Conversation&logo=http://emilynicholson.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/conversation-full-logo-cbaac7752ab98f2473e3fd769fa885a6.png&text=link%20to%20The%20Conversation)</p>
<p>To resolve this issue, we can use evolutionary trees directly in order to consistently create taxonomic ranks. We applied a technique known as “temporal banding” to the bird and mammal trees, producing new classifications that reduce amount of evolutionary divergence within groups to a minimum. Under these new schemes, 70% of bird groups and 61% of mammal groups need to be revised.</p>
<h2>Devil in the detail</h2>
<p>Biologists have generally determined the major taxonomic orders fairly consistently – we found that the big groups, such as parrots, hummingbirds & swifts, rabbits & hares, opossums and so on, have been made in a fairly constant manner. But classification can zoom in much further than this – there are 372 species of parrot, for instance, grouped into 86 genera. These more specific groupings are sometimes not much better than if they had been defined at random.</p>
<p>Our study considered relationships within taxonomic groups that scientists use on a daily basis. This isn’t just a debate for scientists though, as these classifications have an important impact on what species we choose to study and how we communicate our observations of the natural world. </p>
<p>The New Zealand rockwren (<em>Xenicus gilviventris</em>) provides an excellent example of this. These are fairly unique species, not closely related to other species of wren, and are of <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22698585/0">conservation concern</a>. When we classified bird species in a consistent manner, New Zealand rockwrens became their own taxonomic order, highlighting their evolutionary uniqueness to everyone.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64289/original/mhwd3c28-1415722363.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64289/original/mhwd3c28-1415722363.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64289/original/mhwd3c28-1415722363.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64289/original/mhwd3c28-1415722363.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64289/original/mhwd3c28-1415722363.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64289/original/mhwd3c28-1415722363.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64289/original/mhwd3c28-1415722363.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The New Zealand rockwren: not actually a wren.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">©JamesReardon.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In another example, the dog family (Canidae) and the cat family (Felidae) currently have similar numbers of species but, under our standardised system, the cat family is expanded to include civets, hyenas, mongooses, fossas, and other relatives. As a result the new cat family contains four times more species than the dog family, which remained unchanged. </p>
<p>Since these new families are defined on a consistent basis, they tell us something about the evolution of these groups: cats have diversified far more than dogs over a similar time period.</p>
<p>An example from the birds sees the owls, which are currently in the order Strigiformes, split in to two new orders: barn owls and true owls. These two groups are too distantly related to be lumped together.</p>
<p>Such grouping by evolutionary divergence is controversial and many taxonomists will still feel that classifications should be focused on physical characteristics – what we call morphological similarity. However, this focus on what animals look like just adds inconsistency.</p>
<p>A classification system based on morphology makes sense in theory, but in practise it leads to a high level of subjectivity. It is hard to imagine an objective approach based on morphology that could be applied across the entirety of life on earth. How could someone evaluate the physical difference between a bacterium and an animal?</p>
<p>We are currently undergoing a revolution in DNA technology and our understanding of the tree of life is improving quickly. Our study demonstrates an approach that can consistently incorporate this information into the way we classify and view the natural world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Holt receives funding from the Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and Environment Initiative, www3.imperial.ac.uk/ecosystemsandenvironment/grandchallenges.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Knud Andreas Jønsson receives funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement n° PIEF-GA-2011-300924. Knud Andreas Jønsson is affiliated with Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park campus, Ascot SL5 7PY, U.K; and Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK
.</span></em></p>
A cat is, of course, a cat. Lions are cats too, as are leopards, lynxes and so on – the “Felidae” family contains 41 species in total. But what about other closely related species such as hyenas or mongooses…
Ben Holt, Research Associate in Life Sciences, Imperial College London
Knud Andreas Jønsson, Research Associate in Life Sciences, Imperial College London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/20398
2013-11-22T06:13:36Z
2013-11-22T06:13:36Z
Prehistoric world’s missing big cats revealed in fossil finds
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35817/original/gf4xc5vb-1385072624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C229%2C2048%2C1569&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">I've put on a bit of weight in the last 4 million years, obviously.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mr Mo-Fo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The fossil record of early humans is punctuated by gaps, voids in our understanding of all the transitions from the common ancestor of humans and other apes to modern day <em>Homo sapiens</em>. While working in the Tibetian Plateau of central Asia, we made an important discovery to fill in a similar void – but one that shed light on the evolution of cats.</p>
<p>The fossils, dating from the late Miocene and early Pliocene epochs, 4-6m years ago, represent at least three individuals of a previously unknown cat species. In our study <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1774/20132686">published</a> in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, this species has now been identified as the oldest known member of the “big cats”, whose living relatives include lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards. The new fossil species is named <em>Panthera blytheae</em> or <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1774/20132686.abstract">Blythe’s Panther</a>.</p>
<p>This discovery of a nearly complete skull of the new fossilised big cat came as a surprise. Our team of Chinese and American paleontologists has been exploring the western reaches of the Tibetan Plateau since 2006. We’d already made several important discoveries in the region known as Zanda Basin, including a skull of the <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6047/1285.abstract">earliest woolly rhino</a>, and a partial skeleton of an <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/19/7374.full.pdf">extinct three-toed horse</a> that provided an important indicator that modern day open plains are an ancient landscape that already rolled beneath the Himalayan foothills millions of years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A reconstruction of the skull of <em>Panthera blytheae</em>, the oldest known fossil big cat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mauricio Antón</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In August 2010, we arrived in the Zanda Basin ready for another season of prospecting and survey of unexplored cliffs and valleys. Even before lunch on the first day, palaeontology PhD student (and my wife) <a href="http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/faculty/?Page=7663">Juan Liu</a> had discovered a hillside strewn with fossil fragments. Under the experienced supervision of Gary Takeuchi from <a href="http://www.tarpits.org/our-story/staff">Rancho La Brea Tar Pits</a>, we excavated the crushed but relatively complete skull of this new fossil cat. Our fossil collection mostly comprised limb bones and horn cores of extinct antelopes, horses and rhinos, so the discovery of a carnivore’s skull was a pleasant surprise that boosted our confidence. There was obviously more scientific potential still buried in the barren lands of the Tibetan Plateau.</p>
<p>This finding is important because the relatively ancient geologic age of the fossils fill the gap in the existing fossil record of big cats, which is extremely fragmentary. Examining the family tree of living big cats and several extinct species indicates that <em>Panthera blytheae</em> is a sister to the snow leopard, two species that constitute a lineage of high altitude big cats that survived in the Himalayas for millions of years. Based on anatomical information, DNA samples and geographical distribution of big cat species, we found evidence that supported the idea that big cats originated in Asia.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gary Takeuchi (in blue) works carefully to extract the rock containing the fossil cat skull from the ground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jack Tseng</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the existing species of big cats, we know relatively little about their early evolutionary history. And they are not the only species that present a scientific conundrum due to missing fossils. Other mammals such as <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/eutheria/chirofr.html">bats</a> and lineages of certain apes (including <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/326.abstract">anatomically modern humans</a>) also have significant gaps in the fossil record that prevent a fuller understanding of exactly how they evolved.</p>
<p>One carnivore family dear to my heart, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmUmvjqnafg">the hyenas</a>, also presents some special issues for understanding living species. Three of the four living hyena species are specialised bone crushers, but the fourth species, aardwolf (<em>Proteles cristata</em>), is a specialised termite feeder with no functioning teeth for bone crushing or for pretty much any kind of chewing. The fossil record of aardwolves <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16503281">is essentially nonexistent</a>, so there is much debate as to when and how these peculiar hyenas evolved.</p>
<p>Big cats receive extra attention partly because several living species are seriously endangered, and all are on the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red List</a> of threatened species. They are also the earliest-branching lineage among all living cats. Unlike the evolutionary dead-ends elsewhere in the cat family, for example the sabre-toothed cats that roamed the world until the Ice Age brought their demise, feline and pantherine cats diversified sometime in the later Miocene epoch, and successfully dispersed throughout the world into modern times. A more complete understanding of how all living cats came to be so diverse, widespread, and intertwined with human civilisation will come from understanding how the various species first diversified.</p>
<p>Big cats fit in that early place in the evolution of living cats, and continued fossil discoveries will no doubt enlighten us to the history of the earliest of feline predators. As for our research team, we intend to return to the Zanda Basin to continue our search for fossil clues on the “Roof of the World” – the Tibetan Plateau, which rose to its present height within the evolutionary time frame of many living mammals – hopefully to reveal not only more about these early big cats, but also the connection between environmental change over time and its effects on the extinct ecosystems found there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Z. Jack Tseng receives funding from the National Science Foundation (U.S.) and American Museum of Natural History. </span></em></p>
The fossil record of early humans is punctuated by gaps, voids in our understanding of all the transitions from the common ancestor of humans and other apes to modern day Homo sapiens. While working in…
Z Jack Tseng, Postdoctoral Fellow in Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.