Possible Survivors
Currently several dozen individuals in captivity are claimed to be Barbary lions. In the past scientists believed that the distinct subspecies status of the Barbary lion was established by its seemingly fixed external morphology, particularly its heavier mane. However, it is now known that various extrinsic factors influence the color and size of all lions' manes, such as ambient temperature. As the cooler ambient temperature in European and North American zoos has been found to produce Barbary-like manes in other lion subspecies, this characteristic is now considered an inappropriate marker for identifying Barbary ancestry.
Mitochondrial DNA research published in 2006 supports the distinctness of the Barbary lions as a subspecies. The results found a unique mtDNA haplotype to be present in some of those museum specimens believed to be of Barbary descent. This may be a good molecular marker for identifying—and excluding—other potential Barbary lions. The mtDNA results revealed that five tested samples of lions from the famous collection of the King of Morocco are not, according to this criterion, maternally Barbary. However, in the same year, mtDNA research revealed that a lion specimen from Neuwied Zoo (which originated from the collection of the King of Morocco) is not of sub-Saharan origin according to its mitochondrial lineage and, thus, very likely a descendant of a Barbary lion.
In 2008, in a major study published in PLOS Genetics, it was found that four "Atlas" lions from Morocco did not exhibit any unique genetic characteristics. However, the Moroccan cats shared mitochondrial haplotypes (H5 and H6) with central African lions, and together with them were part of a major mtDNA grouping (lineage III) that also included Asiatic samples. According to the authors, this scenario was in line with their theories on lion evolution. They conclude that lineage III developed in east Africa, and then travelled north and west in the first wave of lion expansions out of the region some 118,000 years ago. It apparently broke up into haplotypes H5 and H6 within Africa, and then into H7 and H8 in west Asia.
While the historical Barbary lion was morphologically distinct, its genetic uniqueness remains questionable, and the taxonomic status of surviving lions frequently considered as Barbary lions, including those that originated from the collection of the King of Morocco, is still unclear.
Nonetheless, genes of the Barbary lion are likely to be present in common European zoo lions, since this was one of the most frequently introduced subspecies. Therefore many lions in European and American zoos, which are managed without subspecies classification are in fact partly descendants of the Barbary lion.
Read more about this topic: Barbary Lion
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—Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)
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—Lisel Mueller (b. 1924)