Hybrid lion welfare at Tirupati Zoo

[Guest guest]

Dear colleagues,

I bring to your notice a news item about

hybrid lions at Tirupati Zoo that appeared in yesterday's Telegraph

newspaper(7th June, 2008)(attached). Speaking on the welfare of the hybrid

lions, the article states: ' " These animals are not wildlife; so no

particular effort is made to promote their well-being, " said the chief

conservator of forests, S.K. Das.' The article also mentions : " According to

wildlife experts, hybrid animals tend to have genetic anomalies and if

allowed to breed, weaken the gene pool of the species. "

Coming in the aftermath of the comment of the Central Zoo Authority Member

Secretary disowning responsibility for the death of a Giraffe in captivity

citing foreign origin as a cause, the theme of this article gathers added

interest. I submit the following:

1) Scientists and conservation biologists the world over are still unsure as

to how beneficial or harmful hybridisation is for a particular gene pool.

There is a very potent scientific view that far from weakening a gene pool,

hybridisation may actually invigorate the gene pool of a particular species.

Noted proponents of hybridisation include tiger experts Michael Bleyman and

Billy Arjan Singh.

2) The hybrid animals were brought into this world by the whims of human

beings, they did not choose their hybrid status. To deny them all round

animal welfare measures to promote their well being is thus just plain

wrong.

3) It is by now an accepted fact that the overwhelming majority of the

human species is of hybrid origin, ie., a mix of races. If hybridisation in

animals is to be shunned and hybrid animals discriminated against, how

should we treat ourselves?

An animal's genetic status should not determine how well it should be

treated for it has the same right to life as pure breed creatures. I request

you all to write to the Central Zoo Authority at cza asking them to

request the Tirupati Zoo authorities to take proper measures for the welfare

of the hybrid rescued circus lions.

It is unfortunate that the international zoo community treats hybrid

animals as beings of lesser importance than pure breed animals. Such an

undertaking defies logic since captive pure breed animals are unlikely to be

released in the wild anyway and also because no average zoo visitor would

know the difference between a hybrid and a pure breed animal.

Warm regards,

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080607/jsp/nation/story_9377597.jsp

Saturday , June 7 , 2008

 

* Rescued from circus whip, left to die in neglect

G.S. RADHAKRISHNA *

 

*Hyderabad, June 6:* The lions at Tirupati's Sri Venkateswara Zoo live under

a caste system.

 

Some are pampered, allowed as much sex as they want, and are hailed as the

finest of the Asian breed. The other set survives in jam-packed same-sex

cages, fed but not cared for, denied copulation rights, objects of pity that

is mixed with contempt.

 

These 70 were " rescued " from circuses across India seven years ago after the

Supreme Court banned circuses from training or exhibiting bears, monkeys,

tigers, panthers and lions.

 

At their new home, the ringmaster's whip no longer cuts into their skin, but

they live under concentration-camp conditions. The 14 females are kept apart

from the 56 males because India's wildlife laws do not allow sex between

hybrid animals — or between hybrid and " pure " breeds.

 

" We were instructed by the central zoo authority that we must not encourage

regeneration of these hybrid animals, " said A.V. Joseph, the state's

principal conservator of forests (wildlife).

 

" We keep these animals tranquillised most of the time so they don't get

violent for lack of sex, " zoo warden Raghupati said.

 

Sources explained that circus lions tend to be hybrids of the Asiatic and

African varieties, probably because the owners buy animals from both groups

and interbreed them. According to wildlife experts, hybrid animals tend to

have genetic anomalies and if allowed to breed, weaken the gene pool of the

species.

 

*At the zoo, styled a wildlife park, they are seen as impostors. " These

animals are not wildlife; so no particular effort is made to promote their

well-being, " said the chief conservator of forests, S.K. Das.*

 

* " But we don't starve them of food or medicare although these circus animals

eat more than those captured from the wild — about 8kg of meat every day, "

warden Raghupati said.*

 

*So the zoo is feeding them and waiting for them to die. " The zoo

authorities in Delhi said these animals must be allowed to live as long as

they can. That's all, " a forest official said.*

 

The females are aged between 8 and 14 years but most of the males are over

15. " The average life span of wild lions is less than 15 but those in

captivity live for 20-25 years, " said Praveen Bhargav, a trustee of NGO

Wildlife First.

 

There is a campaign afoot for mercy killing of the over-20s who cannot move

well any more.

 

Besides, there's the fear of poachers. Memories of Sakhi, an eight-year-old

tiger that was killed and skinned in the Hyderabad zoo, is fresh in

everyone's mind.

 

" Instead of letting them rot and die at Tirupati, the animals might as well

be distributed among the country's smaller zoos so that, at least, children

can learn about wildlife, " said Imran Siddiqui, founder of the Tiger

Conservation Society in Hyderabad.

 

Some of the lions ferried to the zoo — from circuses such as Rambo (Surat),

Grand National (Mumbai), Venus (Bihar), Apollo (Varanasi) and Royal (Kerala)

— have already died.

 

A few tigers were also brought there but only one survives. When there were

more, they were denied sex, too.