Four rare Asian lions are being sent this month from India to London zoo, where they will form part of an insurance policy drawn up to protect their kind against extinction.
These biblical lions once ranged from north and central India to the Middle East and were accorded 130 references in the Scriptures, among them "The lion hath roared, who will not fear?" (Amos 3:8). Daniel stood in a den of Asian lions, and they were to hold out in and around the Holy Land for centuries.
Sir John Gayer, a London merchant who was lord mayor at the time of the civil war, instituted an annual sermon still preached at St Katharine Cree Church for his deliverance in the desert from one of "tremendous size".
Today Asian lions survive only in the Gir forest of northwest India, where numbers stand at 230. Such reliance on one area is a cause of concern. Doug Richardson, head keeper of carnivores at Regent's Park zoo in London, fears an outbreak of a disease such as feline enteritis could wipe out the entire Gir population in a year.
Without reinforcements, the Asian might follow the Barbary lion - another beast of antiquity, which was matched against the gladiators of Rome - into oblivion. The last was seen in Morocco some time between 1920 and 1930: black-maned and hairy chested, it is depicted with the unicorn on the royal coat of arms.
Zoos in India and Europe intend to build up a captive stock of the Asian sub-species, which visibly differs from the African lion in having a fold of skin along the abdomen. The Regent's Park quartet will comprise two males and two females.
Under an exchange arrangement, the Zoological Society of London, whose Whipsnade wild animal park has won an international reputation for breeding cheetahs, will send some of the fast cats to India, where they were declared extinct in 1952. The Indian government plans a reintroduction programme for the species once employed by maharajas to hunt gazelle.
Big cats and the bears pose special problems when attempts are made to re-establish them where they have died out. It is no use letting zoo-bred carnivores loose. "They don't just eat meat - they eat animals, and have to learn to do so," says Richardson.
He favours reintroduction in suitable areas where there is at least a remnant of wild predators. A female could be trapped and, through new scientific techniques, receive an in vitro implant from a pregnant captive animal. Resulting cubs would live a hunting life from birth.
An experimental implant on a female tiger in a Nebraska zoo earlier this year produced cubs.
Projects in locations where the local people are accustomed to the presence of the animal, for example, brown bears, start with an advantage. Their sudden arrival in an area in which they have not been seen for the best part of a century is is sure to create a sensation: "This happened in Scandinavia, where the reaction to the reappearance of wolves was completely exaggerated, stemming from folk memory and kids' stories. They recall it was the wolf that killed Red Riding Hood's grandma," says Richardson.
"The agricultural community's interests have always been a major stumbling block. Authorities planning to reintroduce large predators need to be ready to pay compensation for livestock lost to them and to check against false claims."
A dozen brown bears that still live in the Pyrenees are a source of controversy in France. Their numbers have fallen from about 200 before the second world war, and public sympathy for their conservation is countered by enthusiasm for new roads and winter sports facilities.
The interests of conservationists, anxious to see native animals return to ancestral hunting grounds, and those of rising human populations conflict across the world.
The Israelis have had considerable success in building up the numbers of animals mentioned in the Bible which have become scarce. Wolves and Sinai leopards thrive in a small, crowded country but the great Asian lion would make an uncomfortable neighbour in the relaunched Ark.
