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

[Ngala]

Gabon is an extremely important place, with an extremely interesting fauna and ecosystem. A few days ago, the discovery of a hyena (see Animal News (Except Bigcats)). Now, the identity of the famous lion caught with camera trap in Batéké Plateau National Park, has been revealed.

Photo and information credits: Philipp Henschel 
"The genetic origin of our lone Gabon male lion is finally revealed. He is part of the ancestral Bateke population of Gabon/Congo, and possibly its last survivor. The detailed findings here in our new paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-017-1039-2"

*This image is copyright of its original author

No longer locally extinct? Tracing the origins of a lion (Panthera leo) living in Gabon Barnett et al., 2018

*This image is copyright of its original author

Fig. 3
Phylogenetic tree of cytochrome b for lions showing in detail the position of the lions from Plateaux Batéké, Odzala-Kokoua, and Franceville identified by stars. Other populations coloured in accordance with Fig. 1. Central lineage = Red; Western lineage = Orange; Northern lineage = blue; Eastern lineage = yellow. 

Abstract:
"Lions (Panthera leo) are of particular conservation concern due to evidence of recent, widespread population declines in what has hitherto been seen as a common species, robust to anthropogenic disturbance. Here we use non-invasive methods to recover complete mitochondrial genomes from single hair samples collected in the field in order to explore the identity of the Gabonese Plateaux Batéké lion. Comparison of the mitogenomes against a comprehensive dataset of African lion sequences that includes relevant geographically proximate lion populations from both contemporary and ancient sources, enabled us to identify the Plateaux Batéké lion as a close maternal relative to now extirpated populations found in Gabon and nearby Congo during the twentieth century, and to extant populations of Southern Africa. Our study demonstrates the relevance of ancient DNA methods to field conservation work, and the ability of trace field samples to provide copious genetic information about free-ranging animals." Reply