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Lions under same threats as extinct Ice Age cats
Lion
If prey continues to decline, both the African lion and the Sunda clouded leopard will be at high risk of extinction.

Researchers learn from the past to prepare for the future

Researchers are calling on governments to protect big cat species and their prey, as a new study shows that lions face the same threat as extinct sabre-toothed tigers.

Writing in the journal Ecography, researchers assess whether the Ice Age extinction trend could be applied to big cat populations today.

Using a new global database FelidDET, the team analysed the cause of extinction of seven large cats from the Ice Age, including sabre-toothed tigers, the case and American lion and the American cheetah.

They found that if these animals were alive today, only 25 per cent of their preferred prey species would remain across their former natural ranges. The majority have gone extinct, in part due to human pressure.

The team also used the database to find out if a similar decline in the availability of prey could lead to the demise of some of the world’s best-known big cats. It revealed that if all the currently threatened and declining prey species were to go extinct, just 39 per cent of the African lion’s prey and 37 per cent of Sunda clouded leopards would remain.

Even more concerning, researchers say, is that if this prey loss trend continues, both of these cats will be at high risk of extinction.

“Where prey species have, or are likely to become extinct, this poses a serious risk to the big cat species which feed on them and we now know this is the continuation of an unhappy trend which began during the last Ice Age,” commented Dr Chris Sandom from the University of Sussex.

“We need to buck this Ice Age trend once and for all and to reinforce the urgent need for governments to protect both big cat species and their prey.” 

Professor David Macdonald, co-author and director of the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit added: “The fairy-tale consequences of Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard being bare are all too vividly real for modern big cats.

“Our study of the consequences of prey loss – ‘defaunation’ in the jargon -  is about, in everyday language 'what if' or perhaps better 'if only': without the extinctions of the Pleistocene, in which the fingerprints of humanity are all to incriminating, there would have been between one and five more felid species in most places today.

“The Churchillian aphorism that those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it was painfully in mind when we saw how many of the prey of lions and East Africa and of clouded leopards in Indo-Malaya look set to go down the same drain down which their counterparts in other regions have already been flushed.”

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Vets to run marathon for World Animal Protection

News Story 1
 Two recently graduated veterinary surgeons will be running the London Marathon in April to raise money for the charity World Animal Protection.

Alex Bartlett and Maeve O'Neill plan to run the race together if they are given the same start times.

Dr O'Neill said: "You're always limited in what you can do to help animals, so it is nice to raise money for a charity that helps animals around the world."

Dr Bartlett added: "I have never run a marathon before and am excited to run my first one for such a good cause!"

Both Dr Bartlett and Dr O'Neill have fundraising pages online. 

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News Shorts
BSAVA releases new Guide to Procedures

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) has published a new edition of its Guide to Procedures for Small Animal Practice.

It has added four new procedures; cystostomy tube placement, endotracheal intubation, point-of-care ultrasound and wet-to-dry dressings.

BSAVA says that it is an essential step-by-step guide to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed in practice. The textbook includes new images and illustrations, as well as high-definition videos for use prior to procedures.

Nick Bexfield and Julia Riggs, editors of the new edition, said: "We have built upon the success of the previous editions by responding to the feedback received from the BSAVA readership, and hope this new guide helps to further increase the confidence and accuracy with which these procedures are performed."

Print copies are available in the BSAVA store, with a digital version in the BSAVA library.