From Peter Jackson, IUCN Cat Specialist Group
All of us involved with lions are delighted at the publicity given to the report
about their dwindling number of lions in west and central Africa—but deeply
saddened by the situation
(3 November, p 7).
The published report states that you need populations of between 500 and 1000
lions, with 100 breeding pairs, to avoid inbreeding and its possible damaging
genetic effects. However, many carnivore populations consist of far fewer
individuals, notably the tiger, with most subpopulations having less than 100.
There are many examples of species recovering from very small numbers. A
century ago, overhunting reduced the numbers of the Asiatic lion, found only in
the Gir forest of western India, to fewer than 100—local officials even
said to a dozen. Today, numbers have risen to around 300.
In Russia, the Amur or Siberian tiger was put at 30 to 40 in the 1940s, but a
mid-90s population survey estimated 350 adults plus 100 sub-adults and cubs.
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While lion populations of 500 plus are desirable, the fact that many are in
low numbers is not necessarily disastrous. If it were, then we might as well
give up on tigers. Recovery has been shown to be possible, given three firm
actions—protection of the species, protection of its prey and protection
of its habitat.
Bougy, Switzerland
