Assiniboine Park Zoo Asian lions coming to Assiniboine

kiang

kiang

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
The Asiatic lion enclosure has started construction and is scheduled to be finished by November 2009.

The lions that are due to come to the zoo, where are they being sourced from?
Will this mean the start of an SSP for Asian lion?, and other collections, will they be bringing in lions too?

Zoological Society of Manitoba,
 
From ISIS it seems that Canada is currently free of Asiatic Lions so I understand that my Canadian friends may be disappointed about Winnipeg getting African Lions instead.

The British may not understand their disappointment though. Having observed the British zoo scene for almost one decade (from a distance, mind you that I'm not British) I recall discussions about departure of African Lions and arrival of Asiatic Lions in zoos all over Britain. It seemed as if the Asiatic Lions had almost become a fungai on the British zoo scene, so many zoos saw nothing but conservation. Such was my impression from a distance and I apologise if I have offended any British Asiatic Lion fan. Personally I will take African Lions over Asiatic ones any day, guess size of the males does something for me.

But how do you think Asiatic Lions would have done in Winnipeg's harsh winter? I have never been there, but I know from a guidebook the zoo sent me in the mid-1990s on my request (to the young and bold zoo memorabilia collector I was at the time ;) that their animal were almost entirely those adaptable to harsh conditions. As to cats, I think they only had the likes of Puma, Siberian Tiger and one of the Northern leopard species at the time.
 
There are currently no Asiatic Lions in the USA or Canada. If they had managed to convince the Indian government to part with a couple more then it would of been hugely significant.
 
You're not wrong, Baldur, Asian Lions have for some time been the standard lions for the major mainstream British zoos - Chester, London, Paignton, Dudley, Edinburgh, Bristol, Cotswold, Chessington and until very recently Twycross all have Asian Lions.

African Lions tend to be found at the Safari Parks and smaller collections (Newquay, Isle of Wight, Linton, Africa Alive) - though Colchester has had them for some time (though not currently following them dying out) and both Blackpool and Whipsnade have brought Africans in recently.
 
Baldur said:
But how do you think Asiatic Lions would have done in Winnipeg's harsh winter? I have never been there, but I know from a guidebook the zoo sent me in the mid-1990s on my request (to the young and bold zoo memorabilia collector I was at the time ;) that their animal were almost entirely those adaptable to harsh conditions. As to cats, I think they only had the likes of Puma, Siberian Tiger and one of the Northern leopard species at the time.
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We were told that one of the main reasons we were going for Asiatic lions, in addition to conservation efforts, was that they would be better suited for our climate than the Africans. That said, there is a large indoor set up in place for them to hopefully keep them comfortable on colder days.

Presently the large cats include 1.0 Amur leopard, 1.1 Snow leopard, 1.1 Siberian Tiger, and 1.0 Puma. Recently though there have also been African lions, White Tigers, & Cheetahs who've visited here while waiting for their future homes to be completed at other facilities.
 
kiang said:
2.0 Asian lions have arrived at the zoo from Magdeburg in Germany, these are the only Asian lions in North America.

Asiatic lion cubs arrive at zoo - Winnipeg Free Press
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Suprise move (to say the least!) but hopefully a very positive one with regards to starting a new line of Asian Lions for America/Canada... All Winnipeg need now are a couple of decent females from one of the collections in India (or even from Singapore if India won't budge) and we could see them gradually start to seem them re-appear across the pond.....
 
Whereas I applaud a new holder for the Asiatic lions in captivity outside the current range countries', I wonder where Winnipeg Zoo will source females from. It has been suggested by posters that lions direct from India are being considered. Anything for definite or possible in the medium term there? :confused:
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Whereas I applaud a new holder for the Asiatic lions in captivity outside the current range countries', I wonder where Winnipeg Zoo will source females from. It has been suggested by posters that lions direct from India are being considered. Anything for definite or possible in the medium term there? :confused:
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They really have three choices regarding females...
A) Most likely scenario, they import from Europe again. Any females they do get will be related to the males in one way or another, but it's the easy option and the chances are they'd end up being paired with the same females they would of if they hadn't been sent to Canada

B) They can attempt to source females from Singapore who do have unrelated females avaliable, However this is only a short term solution though because all of Singapore's cubs are the offspring of one pair. Hence once they managed to get them to breed, there would be no unrelated mates avaliable for the cubs once they grew up

C) Option three is for them to try and import unrelated stock from India. (preferably the best solution all round) This is not impossible (Dvur managed to do it via an animal exchange program) Sadly though the Indian goverment isn't famous for co-operating with breeding programs like this. The EEP has been trying to source new stock from Indian zoos for the European side of the program for a very long time and so far it hasn't happend (the Dvur imports are not part of the EEP) hence the EEP side of the program is now reaching a point where some tough choices are going to have to be made if no new imports come through in the next couple of years....
 
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