the problem with lion subspecies is that genetic analysis has only been carried out to determine subspecie in the last few years. Until relatively recently it was assumed all lions were either african, barbary or asian. Mitochondrial analysis since 2007 has shown about 4 african subspecies. Over the next couple of years we'll prob have more DNA testing of the captive lions to determine their exact lineage, like has already happened with tigers. And whereas there are collections like WHF, IOW and port lympne housing hybrid tigers, soon i suspect there will also be collections housing solely non-breeding hybrid lions. I wonder if longleat kept records as to where exactly their african lions originated form in the 60's - there is potential that there may be some purebred stock somewhere in the country or indeed at longleat.
I would doubt it very much. Given their close connections with the Circus World, particularly in the early days, its likely a number of their earliest Lions were ex Circus stock, a source very unlikely to keep records of the ancestry of their stock. Others may have well have come from zoos (I think some did) but again in the 1960's even many Zoos did not keep very good records regarding animal sources.
Weren't some of the original Longleat lions purchased by Jimmy Chipperfield after being used in the film Born Free?. I recall reading in his biography "My Wild Life" that lions could be purchased relatively cheap, however, when word got around that Chipperfield was looking for a large number of lions for Longleat, the price suddenly increased.
Presumably if some did come from Africa they would have been mixed(sooner or later) in with other captive-bred generic Lions from other sources, so that any purity would have been lost later on.
And exactly that should preferably not happen. Know yr lineages, yr bloodlines and in the end it damn well matters what ssp. we are seeing or talking about.
They also brought in purebred Grant's Zebra from Uganda, long since subsumed into the general European morass of plains zebras. To be fair, how many places in the 1970s WERE taking subspecies conservation seriously? London had breeding Chinese Leopards in the late 1960s, but by the time the Lion Terraces opened in 1976 they only had generic animals.
I have found one of my old Longleat guide books from the early days , I think 1968 , which confirms something I remembered about their original lions - ' a group of light-coloured lions which came from the Imperial collection of lions in Ethiopia ' . There is a photo of 'The Ethiopian Pride' in the book .
Since we are on the topic of Longleat's original lions, i'd like to share a link to a blog that I came across a couple of days ago. It contains quite a bit of info on the British zoo and safari park lions. I'm not sure if the blogger is a Zoochat member, but he is definitely interested in British lions, and does a lot of research on them. He also volunteers at Linton Zoo according to his blog. I appreciate his efforts in researching and providing all that info on the lions in the UK. The link will take you directly to the page that has info on the original "Chipperfield lions" that were imported from Africa for Longleat, Woburn, and other safari parks. It seems like Chipperfield's lions are all over the UK, and were imported from Uganda. Apparently Jimmy Chipperfield imported them because he wasn't satisfied with the existing stock of lions in the UK at the time, and found them to be inbred. Check out the other links on the blog for info on other British lions (Linton Zoo, Paradise Wildlife Park, etc). There's lots of pictures too - old and new. I love seeing old pictures of the safari parks Here's the link: Just Lions: Woburn - The Founder Pride I'm currently in Canada, so the domain is automatically set to ".ca" when I access this blog, just thought i'd let you'll know in case the link doesn't work for any of you who are in different countries. I hope you'll find this blog helpful. Cheers
he is a Zoochatter (only to be expected really with that level of zoo nerdiness ). I'll leave him to decide if he wants to reveal himself.
Presumbly these Lions would have eventually become subsumed into the general UK Lion population and their purity consequently lost? What a pity someone doesn't discover that there is a pure line of these Lions somewhere in the UK.
I don't know about a pure line of Ethiopian lions in the UK, but there appears to be a pure line in Ethiopia itself........at the Addis Ababa Zoo, also known as The Lion Zoo I believe, since it has more lions than other animals It is believed that this group of captive lions are genetically different from other African lions, and are directly descended from Emperor Haile Selassie's lions. I believe there are plans to build another zoo and move them there, since the Addis Ababa Zoo is ancient and the lions are living in small cages where they're taunted by the public and keepers (the keepers taunt them to make them roar so that visitors can get good pictures). Here are some links to a few articles that I discovered about these rare lions (all the articles are about the same topic, but from different sources): DNA Reveals the Last 20 Ethiopian Lions Are Genetically Distinct | Extinction Countdown, Scientific American Blog Network DNA confirms Ethiopian lions are genetically distinct group - Science - News - The Independent The Descendants Of Haile Selassie's Lions In Ethiopia Are Genetically Distinct, Researchers Find DNA confirms genetically distinct lion population for Ethiopia And here's another link to a slightly different topic, about an Ethiopian girl who was abducted by men and saved by three wild lions: Girl reportedly guarded by lions - World news - Africa | NBC News
It is indeed myself! I did not realise it was being discussed on here, until I got a private message about it! If anyone has any questions feel free to ask, but my research is ongoing and the blog is always regularly updated. Cheers James
