Lions help in hunt to find why wildlife can lose diversity
HUMANS ARE not always to blame for genetic diversity loss in wildlife, scientists say.
They warn that conservationists should be wary of assuming people are behind the loss, suggesting that differences in African lions are more likely to have been caused by ecological factors. Genetic variation between animals ensures the population stays healthy. Researchers analysed the genetic diversity of 149 African lions in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) in Botswana.
Published in Animal Conservation, the study found that while human impacts are the leading cause of genetic diversity loss in many cases, the loss across the population was caused by the lions’ need to adapt to various habitats. Scientists from the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Institute of Zoology and Imperial College London identified two genetically different populations of lions. Each had adapted to living in a habitat type, with the wetland lions in the wetland habitat in the Okavango Delta, and dryland lions living in the semi-arid Kalahari Desert.
Dr Simon Dures, lead author and ZSL researcher, said: “The distinct wetland lion populations living in the Okavango are incredibly well adapted to their environment. They’re strong swimmers and seem to thrive in water chasing buffalo down for a kill - which is the opposite for other lions in Africa, which would not typically hunt in water. Moving these animals into a semi-arid environment could be detrimental to their survival.”