Vegetarian Discussion

[Husky]

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A Rajeev Srinivasa(n) tweet at his blog:

rajeev srinivasan @RajeevSrinivasa



Not clear why it is the "Asiatic lion". when i grew up it was called the "Indian lion". Let us not lose our brand twitter.com/anandibenpatel/status/597410695701868544 …

Very right. It is specifically the Indian lion. Even though the BBC tried to dub them "Asian lions" - typical - the specialist they interviewed particularly referred to them as "Indian lions". Which especially holds now that the genetics results were out and the Indian lion was found not to be related directly to the ME/Iranian lions, which is a separate branch out of Africa.



bbc.co.uk/nature/26736688



[quote name='Husky' date='01 June 2014 - 11:42 PM' timestamp='1401645875' post='117244']

2 April 2014 Last updated at 01:22



Modern lions' origin revealed by genetic analysis

By Matt Walker



Editor, BBC Nature



Another detail only revealed by the study of ancient DNA in specimens, is that modern lions began their exodus out of Africa just 21,000 years ago.



At the end of the Pleistocene, lions left North Africa, eventually reaching as far as India.



[Refresher from wackypedia: "The Pleistocene (symbol PS[1]) is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the world's recent period of repeated glaciations."

whereas we're living in the subsequent, current, interglacial period:

"The Holocene /ˈhɒlɵsiːn/ is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene[1] (at 11,700 calendar years BP) [2] and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words ὅλος (holos, whole or entire) and καινός (kainos, new), meaning "entirely recent".[3] It has been identified with the current warm period, known as MIS 1 and based on that past evidence, can be considered an interglacial in the current ice age."]



Much later, just around 5,000 years ago, another group of lions left the continent, reaching what is today Iran, in the Middle East. These lions are now extinct.



(So having wandered all the way to India from Africa, some more wandered all the way to Iran from Africa again thousands of years later.)



These discoveries may have important implications for the conservation of modern lions.



Fewer than 400 Asian lions (P. leo persica) survive, living on the Kathiawar Peninsula of India, with the subspecies listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.



"Lion populations in West Africa and Central Africa, which have drastically declined over the past few decades, are actually more closely related to the Indian lion than to lions in, say, Somalia or Botswana," Dr Barnett told BBC Nature.

[/quote]

Note that although the Indian lion is called P Leo Persica, the lions that used to live in Iran and Middle-East are clearly described as

1. having been a separate and much later migration (5000 years ago) out of Africa

2. having gone extinct

Specifically, the extinct Iranian/ME lions are not related to the migration that produced the Indian lion: Indian lions had already migrated to India from Africa end Pleistocene. <- That is the reason why the news was so interesting in the BBC.





Wackypedia is still spreading the deprecated assumption - from before the genetics study on lion populations, seen in the BBC link above, came out - that the Indian lion is also the same kind that occurred in Iran and Israel etc. But as the genetics study found to its suprise, the Indian lion is distinct from the Iranian/ME lions (which are extinct; there remains only the Indian lion and 2 types of African lions).



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic_lion

The Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), also known as the Indian lion or Persian lion,[3] is a lion subspecies that exists as a single population in India's Gujarat state. It is listed as Endangered by IUCN due its small population size.[1] Since 2010, the lion population in the Gir Forest National Park has steadily increased.[4]



In May 2015, the 14th Asiatic Lion Census was conducted over an area of about 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi); the lion population was estimated at 523 individuals, comprising 109 males, 201 females and 213 cubs.[5][6]

(The Wildest India documentary already mentioned that a Hindoo community of Narasimha worshippers had brought back the Hindoo lions from extinction to 500+)



The Asiatic lion was first described by the Austrian zoologist Johann N. Meyer under the trinomen Felis leo persicus.[7]



The Asiatic lion is one of five big cat species found in India, apart from Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard.[8] It formerly occurred in Persia, Israel, Mesopotamia, Baluchistan, from Sindh in the west to Bengal in the east, and from Rampur and Rohilkund in the north to Nerbudda in the south. It differs from the African lion by less inflated auditory bullae, a larger tail tuft and a less developed mane.[9]

In the following article, aliens hope to use Indian lions to bring back their oryan dreams of the Barbary lion (aliens can't let species that they've extincted remain extinct, but want to create zoos of resurrected animals too)

But even in the following, can see that Indian lions are distinct from Iranian lions. And though Indian lions were closely related to that other kind, the Barbary lions of North Africa, these last are extinct too and are still not the same as either Iranian or Indian lions. (However, scientists wish to "resurrect" the Barbary. Sounds unnatural. Else we should resurrect australopithecus and other early hominids too if we ever can. Same thing.)



techtimes.com/articles/5207/20140404/genetics-unveil-history-of-lions-resurrection-of-extinct-barbary-lion-subspecies-possible-study.htm

"International bodies currently recognize only two lion conservation units: African and Asian lions. The data clearly show that Asian lions are nested within the diversity present in Central, West and North Africa," the study says. "Of particular concern are the central African and western African populations, which may be close to extinction, with estimates of 800 lions in West Africa and 900 lions in Central Africa. The close phylogenetic relationships among Barbary, Iranian, and Indian lion populations are noteworthy given their considerable geographical separation. The restoration of the extinct North African Barbary lion has attracted the attention of conservationists both inside and outside North Africa."

The above still distinguishes between Indian lions from the extinct Iranian lions (besides the also extinct Barbary lions).





A couple of years before the 2014 lions genetics study, the following article came out. It too went with the old defunct assumption that the Indian lion is the one that lived in Iran and ME. Back then, Gujarat refused to resettle some of the lions that Hindoos - and only Hindoos (one community specifically) - had brought back from the brink of extinction, even in Madhya Pradesh where the Hindoo lion was also historically found:



thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/asiatic-lions-rescued-from-near-extinction-now-need-a-new-home



thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/asiatic-lions-rescued-from-near-extinction-now-need-a-new-home

Asiatic lions, rescued from near extinction, now need a new home



Associated Press



July 10, 2012

India



GUJARAT // A peacock shrieks. A monkey scrambles higher into the fire-coloured canopy of a kesudo tree. And an Asiatic lion - one of the last few hundred in the wild - pads across the dusty earth of a West Indian sanctuary that is its only refuge from the modern world.



Within the guarded confines of this dry forest in Gujarat state, the lions have been rescued from near-extinction. A century ago, fewer than 50 remained. Today more than 400 fill the park and sometimes wander into surrounding villages and farmland.



But the lions' precarious return is in jeopardy. Experts warn their growing numbers could be their undoing. Crowded together, they are more vulnerable to disease and natural disaster. There is little new territory for young males to claim, increasing chances for inbreeding, territorial conflict or males killing the young.



Conservationists agree these lions need a second home fast, and far from Gir government-backed experts in the 1990s settled on a rugged and hilly sanctuary called Kuno, where lions historically roamed with tigers in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh. Millions were spent preparing the park. But Gujarat rejected the plan. And no lions were sent.



Now, the uncertain fate of the Asiatic lions - once dominant in forests from Morocco and Greece across the Middle East to eastern India - rests in the hands of bureaucrats, and vthe case has now reached the Supreme Court.



"We are the only ones who have lions. We have managed without interference until now," Gujarat's environment secretary, SK Nanda, said proudly from behind an enormous desk in an office complex decorated with lion posters reading: "Gujarat's pride; World's envy."



"Can we humans be arbiters of where these lions should live? Should we move the mountains and the rivers, too?" Mr Nanda said. "If the lions want to move, let them move on their own."[/color]



The subject of saving lions is an emotional one in India. The lion holds iconic status in religions and cultures. The multi-armed Hindu warrior goddess Durga is traditionally shown with a lion as her mount. Four lions make the national emblem, symbolising power, courage, pride and confidence. Even the common Sikh name "Singh," shared by the current prime minister, means "lion" in several languages.

(Singh/Simha/Sinha was a common Hindoo surname since before Sikhism, and remains so. It still does not imply Sikh.)



The Asiatic lions, a subspecies, are nearly as large as their African cousins, though the males' manes are less fluffy and their tails have larger tufts.



By the 20th century, they had nearly been wiped out by trophy hunters. (The Brits literally called themselves the "great white christian hunters".) The last Asiatic lion outside Gujarat was gunned down in Iran in 1942. Within India, hundreds of thousands of lions, tigers, leopards and wolves were killed over decades of frenzied hunting, encouraged by British colonials. Three years after independence, the country's Asiatic cheetahs were extinct.



But the lions in Gujarat got a reprieve. A princely ruler banned hunting of the few dozen lions left in 1901.

(Note again how it is christoislamics that extinct animals - even coming all the way to India to extinct our Hindoo animals. And how Hindoos alone protect animals and will even sacrifice their conventional way pf life - as the Narasimha bhaktas seen in Wildeset India did for the Hindoo lions - to bring them back from near-extinction.)



The state created Gir Sanctuary over more than 1,400 square kilometres, relocating all but a few hundred buffalo herdsmen who lived peaceably with the predators, mainly by giving them wide berth.



The sanctuary became a model in conservation, with constant patrols against poachers and cultivated grasslands for the lions' prey: spotted deer and blue-hued antelope. A veterinary hospital was built. The lions thrived.



Tourists from India's newly minted middle class now flock to the park. A few dozen trackers keep count of the animals and fill artificial water holes.



"Not everyone gets a job like this," said Raju Vajadiya, idly swinging a stick, the only defence he and his colleagues usually have or need. "It is a godly thing to give a lion water on a hot day."

(There's also a page 2.)



Anyway, resettling some of the Hindoo lions in Madhya Pradesh - historically also their territory - is a good idea. Modi's govt should do it.

But Hindoos should refuse to donate Hindoo lions or their genetic material to resurrect the Barbary (I think they found that they could reconstruct it from the 2 sets of African lions and the Indian lion). But extincting the Barbary is the West and ME's own christoislamic fault. The west is always famous for destroying things - not just that of others, but including their own heathenism - and then poaching on living heathens' stuff.



Also, repeating (because it is true): the Indian lion is the Hindoo lion onlee. And it has been nourished back to life by the determined efforts of HindOOs onlee:



[quote name='Husky' date='06 September 2014 - 06:26 PM' timestamp='1410007699' post='117339']

Recommended viewing:

Wildest India: a documentary series by Animal Planet, of 5 episodes at ~50 min each.

[...]

(Episode) 1. Thar Desert:

[...]

Another notable example is the fact that the region's Indian lion population fell down to 20 (owing to hunting for sport under christoislamic rule), but a Hindoo community that worships Narasimha gave up their usual livelihood to ensure the Indian lions' survival and so now the numbers are up to 500.

[/quote]

Hindoo lion hates christoislamania, who are its enemies. Like Hindoo humans, the Hindoo lions have only suffered from christoislamania and the west aka genocide central.