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- The Barbary lion, the fabled beast of ancient Rome's
Colosseum, could again roam the plains of Africa, if a study by British
scientists proves successful.
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- The researchers are planning to excavate lion bones from
under the Colosseum in order to find a genetic fingerprint of a true Barbary
lion and then begin a selective breeding program to revive the animal.
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- Once indigenous to Northern Africa, the last wild Barbary
lion was thought to have been shot by a hunter in the Atlas Mountain region
of Morocco in the 1920s.
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- "However, there is evidence that this animal is
clinging to existence, in captivity and in isolated pockets around the
world," says Kay Hill, the founder of the conservation charity Wildlink
International, the force behind the project.
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- Historical records suggest that Barbary lions from the
Atlas Mountains were imported into the Roman Empire, where they were used
in gladiatorial contests in the Colosseum and fed with Christian martyrs.
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- "This research may also help to confirm historical
facts," says Hill. "We will be able to establish if the Barbary
lion was one of many included in the games of the Colosseum or perhaps
the only one."
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- The remains found in Rome, along with bone samples from
Italian, French and Belgian museums, will be sent to scientists at Oxford
University for DNA testing.
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- Until now, Barbary lions have been recognized by their
long, black manes. But scientists warn that it would be misleading to use
this feature as a basis for identification.
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- Only the discovery of molecular markers in the DNA unique
to the Barbary lion will allow comparative genetic tests on candidate animals
from all over the world.
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- "There is a possibility that some of the lions in
the project are pure Barbary," says Hill. "If not, a selective
breeding program will begin with those animals which carry Barbary genes."
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- Over the next 10 to 15 years, Hill hopes to release these
specially bred Barbary lions on a 148,200-acre site in the Atlas Mountains
in Morocco.
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- "This research has a lot of chances to be very successful,
because it is the only Barbary project which takes science seriously,"
says Nobuyuki Yamaguchi of Oxford University, an expert on Barbary lions
and DNA testing.
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- But he adds that extracting suitable DNA for positively
identifying a Barbary lion, while not impossible, "is not as simple
as it may sound."
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- By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Brief
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