Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project

[GuateGojira]

Some time ago, a poster ask me where will be good places to relocate Asian lions. I made a little analysis and at the end, Greece was not an appropriated place right now.

The reasons were that there is not too much space (lions need large territories), there is no large prey and if they are, there is in very small densities. Finally, the economic situation of Greece is very bad and I doubt that many people will be happy with wild lions over there. Western people think that they love wild animals, but when those animals are they neighbors, there is another story (check the people in USA when they knew that grey wolves will be introduced in Yellowstone, it was a mess).

Maybe, if Greece would have large wild areas with relative high large-prey levels, then it will be a good option, but for the moment, I doubt that.

Middle east is out of the question, that place is a time bomb and the last thing they need is a large predator trying to survive in such a hostile place.

The only other place, with relative good options is the Barbary region, from Morocco to Algeria, where there are still areas for the reintroduction, but many of those places only reproduce the same case of Greece. Morocco seems to be the only plausible area, and taking in count that the "Indian" lions are the only "true" Barbary lions still alive, this choise is a hundred times better than those Zoo lions that are half Barbary and half any other lion (including the Rabat Zoo [img]images/smilies/dodgy.gif[/img]).

I will love to see lions in Greece again, just to watch such a magnificent animal that give origin to many legends, like the sphinx and the lion of Nemea, for example. Lions are/were an important part of Greece, but humans rip apart from it, very very sad. [img]images/smilies/sad.gif[/img]
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