[FEL-L] Hybrid Lions Article

[Lynn Culver]

From: Laura Morin
Subject: RE: [FEL-L] Hybrid Lions Article


Help them die with dignity? They should humanely Euthanize them before there 
is no dignity left!
The whole cross breeding thing.... I read an article about that and how 
disastrous that was.. but isn't that what we did with the Florida Panther? 
They brought in Cougars from Texas to 'strengthen' the population.. So are 
they all now Hybrids or was the Fl Panther ever really a different species??

Laura Morin
lmorin67 at earthlink.net
www.WildAboutCats.org
Exotic Feline Conservation-Education-Rescue




Hasn't anybody ever heard of the term hybrid-vigor?  Used in reference to 
plants all the time. Diversity helps and diverse living organisms are more 
vigorous.

If the African lions were genetically diverse,  and a closely related 
sub-species, their genes should have helped the Asian lions. If the felines 
used to augment the gene pool were themselves carriers of genetic defects, 
they would harm the Asian lions. My question is, with was the  status of the 
African lions they used?

Florida Panthers were greatly improved in just one generation after infusing 
fresh genes of the Texas cougar. Whether they were different sub-species is 
not clear  we have gone from 29 sub-species of cougar to about 9 in the 
latest genetic study, so it depends upon who's definition of sub-species you 
are suing. But Texas cougars were defiantly different from the Florida 
population and the fresh genes of these few cougars saved the native Florida 
panthers from the deleterious effects of years of inbreeding.

Lynn