Washington, Nov 7 : An international team of researchers has tried to unravel the natural history of the lion, by providing insights into the genetic structure of the animal.
Understanding the broader aspects of the evolutionary history of the lion has been hindered by a lack of comprehensive sampling and appropriately informative genetic markers.
The unique social ecology of lions and the well-documented infectious diseases they have experienced, including lion-specific feline immunodeficiency virus (FIVPle), provides the opportunity to study lion evolutionary history using both host and virus genetic information.
In total, a comprehensive sample of 357 individuals from most of the major lion populations in Africa and Asia were studied.