Lion takes pride of place in zoo

TWO young lionesses can be seen at the new ‘Asian Forests’ facility in Dublin Zoo.

They arrived recently from Mulhouse in France. Like their counterparts in the wild, zoo animals are not really owned by anybody; international travellers, they spend periods of their lives at different locations. No money changes hands for transfers; the receiving institution just pays the travel bill.

In the zoo world, pedigree is everything. A ‘stud-book’, the animal equivalent of Burke’s Peerage, is kept for each species. Its holder decides which individuals should breed and with whom. Those whose genes become too prominent in a population are discouraged in favour of under-represented ones. The aim is build up as diverse a gene-pool as possible, especially for globally threatened species. Dublin’s new youngsters are Asiatic lions, aristocrats of the feline world. Only the best-equipped zoos are allowed to host such critically endangered animals.