West African lion

West African lion
Male lion in Pendjari National Park, Benin.
Lioness from Mefou National Park, Cameroon.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species: P. leo
Subspecies: P. l. leo
Trinomial name
Panthera leo leo
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Lions now roam in just 1.1% of their historic range in West Africa.

The West African lion (Panthera leo leo) is a lion population in West Africa that is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. This population is isolated and comprises less than 250 mature individuals.[1] Already in 2004, the lion population in West and Central Africa was fragmented and estimated as comprising at most 1,800 individuals.[2]

It was formerly considered a lion subspecies under the name P. leo senegalensis.[3] In 2017, the lion populations in North, West Africa and Central Africa and Asia were subsumed under P. l. leo.[4]

Taxonomic history

In 1826, Johann Nepomuk Meyer described a lion from Senegal under the scientific name name Felis leo senegalensis. In 1843, John Edward Gray described a specimen from Gambia in the British Museum of Natural History as Leo gambianus. In 1900, Paul Matschie described a specimen from Cameroon as Felis leo kamptzi. Later they were considered synonymous with Panthera leo senegalensis.[5][6]

In a comprehensive study about the evolution of lions, 357 samples of 11 lion populations were examined, including some hybrid lions. The hybrids had descended from lions captured in Angola and Zimbabwe, and apparently Western or Central African lions. Results indicated that four lions from Morocco did not exhibit any unique genetic characteristics and shared mitochondrial haplotypes H5 and H6 with lions from West Africa, and together with them were part of a major mtDNA grouping (lineage III) that also included Asiatic samples. According to the authors, this scenario was in line with their theories on lion evolution. They conclude that lineage III developed in Eastern Africa, and then traveled north and west in the first wave of lion expansions out of the region some 118,000 years ago. It apparently broke up into haplotypes H5 and H6 within Africa, and then into H7 and H8 in Western Asia.[7]

Results of genetic analysis indicate that West-Central African lions form a different clade of lions, and are perhaps more closely related to Asiatic lions than to lions from Southern or Eastern Africa.[8]

In 2017, the lion populations in Northern, Western and Central Africa and Asia were subsumed under P. l. leo.[4]

Characteristics

An illustration to describe the life of animals in general, featuring Leo senegalensis and an ungulate, by Alfred Brehm (1872).

Lions in West Africa are similar in general appearance and size to lions in other African countries.[6] A few lion specimens from West Africa obtained by museums have been described as having shorter manes than lions from other African regions.[9]

Distribution and population status

Range map of the commonly accepted subspecies of the lion in the late 20th century

The West African lion is distributed south of the Sahara from Senegal in the west to Nigeria in the east. The population in Western Africa has lost 99% of its former range.[10] It is possibly extinct in Ghana and Guinea.[1]

A study undertaken between 2006 and 2012 revealed that lions have declined even further in West Africa. Only about 400 lions (range: 250–587), including less than 250 mature lions, remained in the whole area between Senegal and Nigeria.[1] The largest West African lion population is found in the so-called WAP-Complex, a large system of protected areas formed mainly by W, Arli, and Pendjari National Parks in Burkina Faso, Benin, and Niger. The total population in this ecosystem comprises about 350 lions (range: 246–466). The other populations in West Africa consist of only a few individuals, and are probably declining. They are found in Niokolo-Koba National Park in Senegal and in two sites in Nigeria where only two small populations are left, one in Kainji Lake National Park and the other in Yankari Game Reserve. The population at Kainji Lake might be connected to that of the WAP-Complex. There are probably no lions left in Côte d’Ivoire, or Ghana.[11][10]

Range countries Area used in km2 Estimated no. of individuals
Niokolo-Guinea (Senegal, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea Bissau and Mali) 90,384 >50[12]
W-Arly-Pendjari (Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger) 29,403 246–466[10]
Benin (except Pendjari) 3,152/1,742/4,171 3/18/19[12]
Kainji Lake (Nigeria) 4,171 23–63[12]
Yankari (Nigeria) 2,380 2[12]
Total 269–583

Captive population

In 2006, there were 13 captive lion registered under the name P. l. senegalensis.[13]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Henschel, P.; Bauer, H.; Sogbohoussou, E. & Nowell, K. (2015). "Panthera leo (West Africa subpopulation)". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2017-1. International Union for Conservation of Nature.
  2. ↑ Bauer, H.; Van Der Merwe, S. (2004). "Inventory of free-ranging lions Panthera leo in Africa". Oryx. 38 (1): 26–31. doi:10.1017/S0030605304000055.
  3. ↑ Wozencraft, W.C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 542. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  4. 1 2 Kitchener, A.C., Breitenmoser-Würsten, C., Eizirik, E., Gentry, A., Werdelin, L., Wilting, A. and Yamaguchi, N. (2017). "A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group" (PDF). Cat News. Special Issue 11: 76.
  5. ↑ Hemmer, H. (1974). "Untersuchungen zur Stammesgeschichte der Pantherkatzen (Pantherinae) Teil 3. Zur Artgeschichte des Löwen Panthera (Panthera) leo (Linnaeus, 1758)". Veröffentlichungen der Zoologischen Staatssammlung 17: 167–280.
  6. 1 2 Haas, S.K.; Hayssen, V.; Krausman, P.R. (2005). "Panthera leo" (PDF). Mammalian Species. 762: 1–11. doi:10.1644/1545-1410(2005)762[0001:PL]2.0.CO;2.
  7. ↑ Antunes, A.; Troyer, J. L.; Roelke, M. E.; Pecon-Slattery, J.; Packer, C.; Winterbach, C.; Winterbach, H.; Johnson, W. E. (2008). "The Evolutionary Dynamics of the Lion Panthera leo Revealed by Host and Viral Population Genomics". PLoS Genetics. 4 (11): e1000251. PMC 2572142 Freely accessible. PMID 18989457. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000251.
  8. ↑ Bertola, L. D.; Van Hooft, W. F.; Vrieling, K.; Uit De Weerd, D. R.; York, D. S.; Bauer, H.; Prins, H. H. T.; Funston, P. J.; Udo De Haes, H. A.; Leirs, H.; Van Haeringen, W. A.; Sogbohossou, E.; Tumenta, P. N.; De Iongh, H. H. (2011). "Genetic diversity, evolutionary history and implications for conservation of the lion (Panthera leo) in West and Central Africa". Journal of Biogeography. 38 (7): 1356–1367. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02500.x.
  9. ↑ Hemmer, H. (1974). "Untersuchungen zur Stammesgeschichte der Pantherkatzen (Pantherinae) Teil 3. Zur Artgeschichte des Löwen Panthera (Panthera) leo (Linnaeus, 1758)". Veröffentlichungen der Zoologischen Staatssammlung 17: 167–280.
  10. 1 2 3 Henschel, P.; Coad, L.; Burton, C.; Chataigner, B.; Dunn, A.; MacDonald, D.; Saidu, Y.; Hunter, L. T. B. (2014). Hayward, M., ed. "The Lion in West Africa is Critically Endangered". PLoS ONE. 9: e83500. PMC 3885426 Freely accessible. PMID 24421889. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083500.
  11. ↑ Henschel, P., Azani, D., Burton, C., Malanda, G., Saidu, Y., Sam, M., Hunter, L. (2010). "Lion status updates from five range countries in West and Central Africa" (PDF). Cat News 52: 34–39.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Riggio, J., Jacobson, A., Dollar, L., Bauer, H., Becker, M., Dickman, A., Funston, P., Groom, R., Henschel, P., de Iongh, H., Lichtenfeld, L., Pimm, S. (2012). The size of savannah Africa: a lion's (Panthera leo) view. Biodiversity Conservation 22(1): 17–35.
  13. ↑ Barnett, R., N. Yamaguchi, I. Barnes and A. Cooper (2006). The origin, current diversity and future conservation of the modern lion (Panthera leo). Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2006) 273: 2119–2125 doi:10.1098/rspb.2006.3555 PMID 16901830
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