GLASGOW ZOO LIONS

Since opening day on 9th July, 1947, Glasgow Zoo has always maintained lions. The original pair were of the Regent's Park/ Dublin Zoo strain and called Singh and Topsy.

Events followed their traditional UK or European zoo path until the early 1970s. Lions were bred occasionally (or regularly in the case of Dublin Zoo) and fresh blood was provided from time to time by donations of animals, usually the ex-pets of returning colonialists. There was little attempt at systematic, scientific reproduction and, for that matter, why should there be? There were plenty of lions available in Africa and quarantine regulations were nowhere near so onerous as today.

In the late 60s everything changed. Longleat, the first UK safari park, opened in 1969. Overnight, there was a requirement for large numbers of good-looking lions. "I was not happy with the existing zoo lions; many were clearly very inbred," Jimmy Chipperfield told me (pers. com. 1974). "We imported several groups, from Uganda in particular. Within a short time I was able to identify accurately any UK lion because ours were distinctly different from the original UK zoo ones, which tended, amongst other things, to have longer heads," he continued. This sort of observation and captive breeding are not 'scientific' as we know it today, but traditional 'stockmanship'.

With the addition of other 'immigrants', such as the many lions used in the filming of 'Born Free' (starring Virginia McKenna as Joy Adamson), which ended up at Paignton Zoo, the UK African lion population became, during the 70s completely 'refreshed' and an annual surplus of cubs soon resulted.

The lions at Glasgow Zoo in 1972 were a pair of the old 'zoo strain' lions. After many years of not breeding they produced a single cub, Tuppence, who was hand-reared. He featured on many TV programmes and Glen Michael's Cavalcade before moving to live at the Lambton Lion Park in Durham. In 1974 a trio of young lions was purchased for £750 from Belle Vue Zoo, Manchester. It was seeing these three lions when they matured which triggered off the above remarks from Jimmy Chipperfield, when he attended an annual meeting of the Scottish Zoo Managers' Group. On hearing they were from Belle Vue he said, "I thought as much. They got the parents from us. I would recognise them anywhere."

The first litter of cubs produced by these lions consisted of two male cubs, one of which exhibited at birth a melanistic (black) patch which stretched form his right paw, all the way up the inside of his leg and across his chest. It is believe this was the first incidence of melanism - or partial melanism - ever recorded in the African lion (and quite distinct from the black tips to the ears, tail and secondary sexual characteristics of mane, etc.) It might also be related to 'mosaicism' in other species.

This male, Ranger (who was adopted and named by Rangers Football Club first team in the mid-1980s, until Graeme Souness suddenly transferred most of them!), although he mated his mate frequently, she never conceived.. As she was a proven-breeding female, which we obtained from Knowsley Safari Park, we assumed the fault lay with him. Genetically, we could almost predict a chromosome abnormality. When he was eventually put down by the vet because of a serious old-age-related disorder after 22 years, we hoped to find the answer then. Sadly, for science generally, and for me personally, Dr Irene McAndlish, the vet handling the post mortem examination at Glasgow Vet School, informed me that "it was just not possible to extract the necessary blood samples to permit the appropriate tests to be carried out." Dr McAndlish felt that the melanistic patch was similar to that sometimes seen in domestic cats and which also results in sterility.

Because of Ranger's sterility we had no successors when he eventually passed away. As this also coincided with a period of great economic uncertainty at the Zoo when our continued existence was by no means certain, we faced a dilemma. The UK Joint Management of Species Group of which we were a member had wanted us to be ready to provide places for the highly endangered Asiatic lion. However, due to the uncertainty and cut-backs it was not felt possible to proceed at that point (mid-1990s). Accordingly, we accepted on loan from the Chipperfield organisation a breeding pair of African lions which had spent the previous summer at Bristol Zoo.

Monty, the male, had been hand-reared by Mary Chipperfield, and his mate, Jemima, was mother-reared at Woburn Safari Park. Monty was a lovely lion, tame and confident, and would readily answer to his name by turning his head, sometimes accompanied by a slight grunt. Monty and Jemima produced three litters of cubs over the next four years, until tragedy struck.

In mid-March both animals were found collapsed in the morning, Monty next to the feeding flap on the den front and Jemima next to the feeding flap on the outside enclosure. The previous day had been a 'fast day' (to simulate lion behaviour in the wild), so we were at a loss to explain this collapse. Despite the best endeavours of our vets, Jemima died 24 hours later, followed by Monty another day after that. The boldest male cub (of a trio of two males and a female born on 25th April 1998) was partially paralysed from the waist down. After a week, growing weaker and weaker, despite drips, etc., from the vet, he was eventually euthanised.

The two adult lions were post-mortemed at the Vet School of Glasgow University. Very quickly they were able to tell us what they had not died of. "The lions were in excellent condition with no physical reason for illness or death." There was no sign of Salmonella, E. coli, or botulism (not that the symptoms fitted botulism). There were no signs either of barbiturates, sometimes used by injection to destroy the casualty cattle our lions were fed on. However, neither would one expect any because the liver quickly breaks down barbiturates and expels through excretion any residue.

As one can appreciate, our meat supplier is as upset as we are because, after fifty years, this is the first time such an accidental poisoning (if that is what it was) has happened to us, although many other zoos, including Edinburgh (twice in recent years) have experienced this. The Manager is adamant that his staff would have taken their usual care and in full knowledge that the meat was going to be fed to our cats.

All in all we reluctantly came to the conclusion that perhaps the tame Monty and Jemima had been fed something through the hatches. The boldest male cub frequently 'stole' portions of Jemima's meat, which could explain why he was partially affected, whilst the other two cubs escaped unscathed - but very shocked.

David Jones, chief vet in the Institute of Zoology at London Zoo, in a paper delivered to the Association of British Wild Animal Keepers symposium on the management of wild cats in captivity held at London Zoo in March 1979, states that "accidental or malicious barbiturate poisoning of large cats is a very real threat from which most zoos have suffered at some time or another".

If it was malicious, why would anyone do such a thing? It was felt that the coincidence of my being broadcast on BBC Southern TV describing the contribution of Roger Cawley (husband of Mary Chipperfield) in saving the seventeen bears at Loch Lomond Bear Park, the bears at Knaresborough Zoo and the moving of elephants for zoo breeding purposes, whilst speaking in front of the lion enclosure and pointing at Monty and Jemima as hand-reared by and belonging to Mary Chipperfield might be connected.

I quietly remarked to the BBC Scotland film crew who carried out the request of BBC Southern, "I hope I'm not going to regret this." Within two weeks of the programme being broadcast down south (but never broadcast in Scotland) the two named lions were dead, apparently of poisoning. Perhaps the fact that they were owned by the Chipperfield Organisation had been enough to seal their fate. We shall probably never know, even though many samples are still under investigation by the Veterinary Diagnostic Service at Weatherby in Yorkshire.