ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - B - THE LION (Panthera leo)

[TheHyenid76]

Diseases in Lions and the role of diseases in the life of lions

Diseases play a pivotal role in the lives of all living organisms. Lions are no exception. In this post, we shall discuss scientific literature on how diseases affect lion populations and the implications for lion conservation. Lions suffer from a variety of diseases and such diseases are a major cause of mortality among wild lions. If a wild male lion lives to old age, especially over 12+ years, it is an exception and a rare one for that.

Information from 'The Serengeti Lion A Study of Predator-Prey Relations' of Dr George B. Schaller.

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Diseases are among the major killers of wild lions and they can happen due to various causes.

"Most lions died from disease, starvation, abandonment, old age, or as a result of violent contacts with their own or other species. These categories were not mutually exclusive; a sick animal sometimes died of starvation because it could not hunt."

From page 184 to 187 he discusses diseases in lions in a much more greater detail.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Treatment of a sick lion by wildlife veterinarians of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. LINK

Date of clinical intervention: 21/11/2018

History: An adult lion in Solio Wildlife Conservancy was sighted emaciated, weak and could not hunt and feed itself. It was heavily infested with ticks on the abdomen, shoulder and neck regions. The general observation revealed the lion was in poor body condition and had no visible traumatic injury or wound on its body being weak and emaciated. It preferred lying down most of the time.

Immobilization, examination & treatment: The lion was anaesthetized using a combination of 300mgs of Ketamine Hcl and 4mgs of Medetomidine Hcl in a 3ml dart. Darting was done from a vehicle using a Dan inject® dart rifle. Anaesthesia took effect after about 10 minutes and the lion became recumbent.

The lion had lots of ticks all over the body which was sprayed adequately using Frontline® to eradicate any ectoparasites, engorged ticks were physically removed by hands. It was treated using Procaine penicillin administered intramuscularly followed by multivitamins intramuscularly.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Kevin Richardson in this video, gives insight into diseases that affect both wild and captive lions.

From these information, it can be derived that diseases are a major cause of lion mortality and entire populations can be annihilated due to diseases like Canine distemper if genetic diversity is low. Diseases can destroy the lion's ability to hunt which ultimately leads to its death. Reply