Rare Asian Lions Being Rescued From the Brink

Willie and Asoka lounge on the lawn, the sun shining down on their heavy-lidded eyes. They are the last purebred Asian lions in captivity in North America.

Willie is 14, sterile and carries an immune deficiency virus, though he doesn’t suffer from it. Asoka is 8 and healthy.

They are contented 350-pound neighbors separated by a chain-link fence at the Knoxville Zoo. Willie’s sisters, Princess and Sister, once lived at the zoo too. Sister died more than a year ago; Princess was put to sleep in March.

“The world population of Asian lions right now consists of these two males, two young pairs in London, one young pair in Switzerland. And the rest of them are in Malaysian or Indian zoos,” curator Mike Fouraker said.

The total captive population is 135. An additional 284 run wild in India’s ever-more-crowded Gir Forest--a preserve roughly the size of Houston.

Fouraker coordinates a species survival program to increase the Asian lion’s numbers both in captivity and in the wild. The program is sponsored by the American Assn. of Zoological Parks and Aquariums.

The National Zoological Park in Washington is developing artificial insemination techniques to propagate the Asian lion and broaden its limited gene pool.

“This is a really good problem for studying what happens when man doesn’t pay attention and lets the population crash to the brink of extinction, and then we try to bring the population back,” said David Wildt, head of the reproductive physiology program at the National Zoo’s Noah Center.

Asian lions--which have shorter, scruffier manes than their African cousins, a belly fold of skin and flatter skulls--were such popular targets of British sportsmen that barely two dozen remained by the 1930s.

Inbreeding among such a small group has produced animals that in many respects are genetic clones. Whether this will affect their ability to reproduce is unclear.

The late Guy Smith III, a longtime Knoxville Zoo director, led the first species survival program for the Asian cats. It was considered a great success. The captive population of Asian lions in the United States grew to 185 animals.

Then a geneticist with the National Institutes of Health discovered in 1985 that all but five of the animals were hybrids containing strains of African stock--traced to a pair of lions from Calcutta.

Money and time were lost, but at least “it demonstrated the value of some of this new biotechnology,” Wildt said. Sharing that technology now may be the key to opening doors in India.

Fouraker and Wildt were part of a team that traveled to India in February as part of zoological shuttle diplomacy aimed at bringing more pure Asian lions out of the country.

Originally the team hoped to export 20 lions. Now it is bargaining with the Sakkarbaug Zoo in India for three females.

The Americans also are negotiating to import sperm from India.