New Delhi: Zookeepers in north India are watching mournfully as nearly two dozen lions slowly die off after a breeding program left many cats sick, a wildlife official said Wednesday.
The program, which began in the late 1980s at the Punjab’s Chhatbir Zoo, tried to crossbreed Asiatic and African lions.
It was discontinued in 2002 after many of the nearly 80 lions bred were struck by a mysterious disease aggravated by inbreeding and a weakened gene pool, said Kuldip Kumar, Punjab state's conservator of forests and wildlife.
When the program ended, all the male lions were given vasectomies to prevent further breeding, Kumar said.
It will take about six years for the remaining 22 lions bred through the program to die, he said.
The zoo has recently built an enclosed area for the oldest and most infirm of these lions, so they are not attacked by the more robust cats.
''At any time the zoo has around four to five lions that are too old and weak to compete with the younger more aggressive lions. This enclosure for them separates them from the younger lot,'' Kumar said.
The lions are fed boneless meat and kept away from the zoo's immensely popular lion safari area, which is spread over 37 acres, he said.
Wildlife officials had originally hoped the hybrid cats could be introduced into the wild in an effort to bolster India's endangered wild lion population.
''But we decided to stop breeding them after the lions were struck by a mysterious disease and some 30 of them died in 1999 and 2000,'' Kumar said.
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