Does anybody know if there are any plan to bring back Asian Lions to the states? Also, does anybody know what zoo last exhibit pure Asian Lions in the states?
As far as I have heard, there are no plans to phase in Asian Lions. Knoxville Zoo was the last zoo, I believe, to have the asian lions.
It's a shame that big name zoos like SD zoo and park, cincinnati and Bronx zoo won't try to bring back Asian Lions to the states.
Its actually rather responsible of zoos in the US not to phase in another big cat species...there is only so much space available and every species that have common management and design compete for this space. The more space for a species, the larger the captive population and the higher chance for better genetic diversity. Though it would be nice to see an Asian Lion without having to cross an ocean.
I saw a sign for Asian Lions at Animal Haven Zoo. I could not find the lions in the exhibit, though. I have no idea if their Asian Lions are pure or not, but I know this zoo has several animals that were rescued from being illegal pets.
I also could not find them in those little pens they had. I would guess they are not actually Asian Lions, but instead a generic cross between the two or African. I think most zoos put up Asian Lion signs in the states, but don't actually have them.
Fair enough. I feel like I've seen them a couple of places, but I couldn't tell you where off the top of my head and didn't make a note of it.
Not sure if they still have them, but I saw signs in Philadelphia and Gulf Breeze at one time, but that was back in the 1990's.
I was thinking I saw signs for them at an AZA zoo as well. One of the small ones, like Lake Superior. But can't remember where for sure. I only remember that it caught me by surprise as I doubted they had Asiatic Lions.
There should be no pure-bred Asian lions on the North American continent for a few decades now. So, everything advertised as such is - I am afraid - not the real thing.
When I lived in Los Angeles and starting photographing the zoo (1989 or so) they had a sign stating their lions were Asian lions. It was later discovered that all so-called Asian lions in the USA (including these) were Asian-African crossbreeds. The AZA decided to phase out all lions in their collection and start with a new founder population imported from South Africa. In his book on zoos, Jeffrey Bonner (director of St Louis Zoo I think) wrote about the decision and said he disagreed and felt they should have imported Asian lions for the SSP instead.
I DO think / feel both AZA and EAZA can and should both have complimentary intensive conservation breeding programs for the Asiatic and some pure-bred African lion subspecies. Which makes conservation and education sense.
I agree. As an aside, I remember seeing signage in the Minnesota Zoo stating that their lions were Asian lions. They had a pretty good sized pride in a forested enclosure. This was in 1990.
I remember the Asian Lions at the Minnesota Zoo as well. I wonder if they were pure Asian or also part of the later discovered cross Asian/African population. (Side note: MN Zoo had a lot of exhibits that are really missed. Lions, Belugas, Dolphins to name a few.)
All of the USA "Asian" lions, including those formerly at Minnesota, were part of the Asian/African hybrids I mentioned in post 12.
Assiniboine Park and Zoo in Winnipeg had a pair of Asiatic brothers for several years. They were imported from Europe and both have since returned to Europe to breed. They left about a year or two ago.
