Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos

[KRA123]

(10-12-2020, 11:42 AM)Ashutosh Wrote: @KRA123, exactly what @Rishi said. Plus, there isn’t actually a viable habitat where lions could be reintroduced. Kuno has at least 6 tigers and has a corridor to Ranthambore. They won’t reintroduce lions even if they detect a slight presence of tigers in the area.

   I agree Kuno doesn't really seem like the best place to me, but I know they have been considering it so I mentioned MP. I was thinking of places in the grasslands of northwestern India. Ironically, most of these places are also in Gujarat, raising the additional question of should the Gujarat government have put plans in place to move some Gir lions to a grassland area.
 
Also, introducing lions/cheetahs should definitely be among the last steps taken when rewilding an area; in fact, if the goal is to have both species in an area then cheetahs should probably be introduced first since lions competitively kill them. Only after the populations of prey species as well as mesopredators like cheetah and wolves had increased would it be safe to reintroduce the lions. Nevertheless, if the captive lion population is bred with the intent of eventual reintroduction, then at some point when there are enough of them it probably is best to attempt a trade with Iran. If the Asiatic cheetah is to have a future then I suspect that India must be involved. The Iranian populations remind my of those populations of Javan rhinos which lived in Indochina until recently, in that the conservation projects they are under now might amount to slow, drawn out extinction because the areas where they are being conserved can't  sustain a healthy population in the first place, at least not with the present level of anthropogenic pressure. Actually I think it might not possible to have a healthy wild lion population in modern Iran (though I don't know enough to say confidently), but as long as the Iranian government wants lions then there is leverage which India can use to obtain some cheetahs. And yes, the cheetah population in Iran also should be increased in the mean time; hopefully that can happen due to the recent moves that they have made over there. Reply