Ecologist condemns white lions

Brian Hayward | 27 June, 2011 06:59

White lions might be all the rage in the game tourism industry, but new research by local ecologists has warned that the proliferation of these and similar "marketing strategies" is endangering indigenous wildlife in the Eastern Cape.

The breeding of such "fashion trend" animals could also wipe out the region's ability to offer visitors from around the world "unique ecotourism experiences".

Professor Graham Kerley, an Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism board member who heads the NMMU Centre for African Conservation Ecology, colleague Andre Boshoff and Western Cape ecologist Peter Lloyd published two years' research recently, titled "Historical incidence of the larger land mammals in the broader Western and Northern Cape".

According to the research, white lions, white blesbok and even black springbok were examples of "artificially maintained colour forms" bred because of people's fascination with the abnormal, rather than out of any conservation incentive.

Kerley, who returned to Port Elizabeth last Friday after a research trip to Poland, explained: "If the government is accepting responsibility for biodiversity conservation, it should be monitoring this issue.

"Not only are we changing the frequency of the colours, but also the ability of the populations to deal with the extremes of our climate. In essence, the different colour morphs [the introduction of alien species and the selective breeding of wildlife] have no conservation value," Kerley said.