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August 16, 2005

Lions, Ligers & Bears - Oh My!

Whether it's cloning exotic animals, cross-breeding lions and tigers, or living amongst a dangerous species like the grizzly, a lot of people seem to be messing with nature in a quite startling variety of ways.

Lion + Tiger = Liger?
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At first I thought this was a hoax, but I guess you really can cross a lion and a tiger and come up with a hybrid called a liger. The result, when successful, is an interesting cat species mix. I wonder how well they would really manage with some very conflicting natural habitats (wet swampy jungle for tigers and the African savannah for the lions) not to mention the distinct social differences - tigers are loners and lions are social creatures living in prides. For now, these guys seem to be treated as a kind of freakish show animal with some exotic conservationalists pushing for the liger to be protected like other big exotic cats, and others shaking their heads in disapproval over this "unnatural" breeding. Hey, who would have guessed that Hitchcock's The Birds star Tippi Hedren would become a wildlife conservationalist?

The faintly striped, shaggy-maned creatures are the offspring of male lions and female tigers, which gives them the ability to both roar like lions and chuff like tigers—a supposedly affectionate sound that falls somewhere between a purr and a raspberry.

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"Crossing the species line" does not generally occur in the wild, because "it would result in diminished fitness of the offspring," said Ronald Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley.

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"The interesting thing about these animals is that they have the best qualities of the tiger and the best of the lion," said movie actress and conservationist Tippi Hedren, who has run Shambala since 1972. "Those qualities manifest themselves in the fact that they like to be in the water [a tiger trait] and are very social [a lion trait]."

More at: National Geographic: Ligers Make a "Dynamite" Leap Into the Limelight

Speaking of Lions... I recently borrowed this fantastic coffee table book on lions from the library. The Art Of Being A Lion is a beautifully photographed reference covering African lion history, habitat, anatomy, social life, sexuality, hunting and the raising of cubs. The photography is stunning - they used Canon cameras and Fuji Provia and Velvia slide film, which gives the colors brilliant saturation and crisp focus. Unlike many nature books, the photographs in this book were taken in the wild. The book celebrates the beauty of lions, but does not go into much detail on the problems that plague the lion populations today - from poaching to tuberculosis.

Living With Grizzlies: How Close Is Too Close?

Many of us heard about the "Grizzly Guy" - the man living amongst the grizzlies. Well, then we heard the news that his cute and cuddly friends ate the guy and his girlfriend. Timothy Treadwell (the bear guy) may have "found his calling" with the bears, but his demise seemed more to do with ego and a false sense of safety. People are always underestimating nature and wild animals - and this kind of downplay of the "wildness" of a dangerous animal never helps people nor the animals themselves. Now there's a movie done with the guy's video footage called Grizzly Man, which won at Sundance. I expect we'll catch it on DVD if only to see the nature footage, although I'm praying it is a film that discourages contact and encourages respect of a wild animal's personal space.

Katmai park rangers shot the thousand-pound (450-kilogram) male responsible for Treadwell and Huguenard's deaths after their bodies were found. A second, younger bear was also killed when it became aggressive.

Bear biologist Lance Craighead says the deaths of Treadwell and his girlfriend created a lot of bad publicity for bears. But, he says, the New York-born Treadwell also inspired people with his message that grizzly bears should be protected and preserved.

"Treadwell did more good than harm," said Craighead, director of the Craighead Environmental Research Institute in Bozeman, Montana. "He sure reached a lot of schoolchildren—he spent most of his winters talking to schoolkids about bears."

Treadwell "pushed the envelope" when it came to taking risks, Craighead said, which may have encouraged others to do the same.

More at: National Geographic: "Grizzly Man" Movie Spurs New Looks at a Grisly Death

While I remain skeptical as to the longer term impact of Treadwell's research, I should also say that I have to applaud someone for taking the initiative to start their own private "study", regardless of education, etc. I just hope the man's achievements are acceptable to other scientists. Perhaps I'm being too harsh with the situation, after all, there have been other successful cases of non-scientists pushing the envelope successfully in order to blaze new trails in zoology and conservation - just look at Dian Fossey (Gorillas in the Mist story).

Dian Fossey gave vet school a shot but failed out when she couldn't handle the coursework. She scraped through a junior college with a degree in occupational therapy. She convinced the Wilkie foundation to sponsor her gorilla research through a mix of passion and persistence. Much like Treadwell, she got very close to the gorillas and ate and socialized with them. But there are also some very distinct differences - Treadwell went off into the woods with no equipment or plans, and just set up camp and started messing around; Fossey planned her trip for years. She read everything she could in order to arm herself in order to study the gorillas, and her research was eventually well accepted. She got funding from a variety of sources, including National Geographic, and took on interns, etc. She may have been practically self-taught as a scientist, but she worked within its boundaries in terms of collecting legit data and publishing. She was also able to use interns to supplement study she did not do herself, while still instilling upon them the importance of non-clinical approaches to science and conservation. Because of these differences, I find it uncomfortable that people compare Treadwell the Grizzly Man with a revolutionary like Dian Fossey - who also died in her line of work - but from poachers not her gorillas.

Posted by sorsha at August 16, 2005 1:04 PM