"In India, civic pride and conservation effort clash in bid to protect lions" by Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post | June 6, 2010
More than 400 Asiatic lions live in the Gir forest. Residents oppose an effort to move some lions to prevent inbreeding. (Rama Lakshmi/Washington Post)
GIR, India — The sprawling, deciduous Gir forest is the only habitat in the world for the free-ranging Asiatic lions, a species similar to its well-known African cousin. At one time, the Asiatic lions spread from the Tigris River valley to the Indian subcontinent, but now they are found in the wild only in Gir, in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
That fact is a point of immense pride in Gujarat, where the lions were once close to extinction and today number more than 400. But this rare big-cat conservation success has turned into a political hot potato, with the fate of the lions — featured standing back to back in India’s national emblem — caught up in ethnic pride and arguments over how best to protect them....
Many analysts say that Gir’s big cats descend from a handful of lions and make up a limited genetic pool. Iran, the only other country with a captive breeding population of Asiatic lions, refused to help India introduce much-needed genetic diversity....
Yeah, EVER NOTICE EVERYTHING is ALWAYS IRAN'S FAULT in the jewspaper?!!!
Yup, IRAN'S FAULT the LIONS are DYING?
What, THEY KILL 'EM ALL?
--more--"
I use the other lyin' to describe my MSM.
