85 Lions Perish in Serengeti

Canine distemper virus has killed about 85 lions in the Serengeti National Park in the heart of Africa’s safari land. But as devastating as the epidemic has been, researchers say the area still has the continent’s largest population of the big cats.

The epidemic was first detected at the beginning of the year, according to Craig Packer, co-director of a 28-year lion study that has focused on 250 of the 3,000 lions in the Serengeti, Tanzania’s most famous game park. It is contiguous with the Masai Mara game reserve in neighboring Kenya.

Lions are social animals that live in “prides” and up to 80% of some of the prides in the Serengeti study may have been wiped out. Packer stressed, however, that published reports of hundreds of fatalities caused by a wide variety of other diseases, such as AIDS, are incorrect.

In a telephone interview from Seronera,Tanzania, Dr. Melody Roelke, a veterinarian for the Tanzania National Parks Service, said the highest death rate had occurred in the woodlands on the edge of the plain, but “in the middle of the plain, where visitors go, we didn’t lose any. There are plenty of lions to see.”

Researchers suspect that the lions contracted distemper from domestic dogs living near the park. Canine distemper got its name because it usually strikes dogs, wolves and foxes. But researchers have found that it can also afflict felines such as lions, leopards and tigers, as well as skunks, raccoons and other animals.

Vaccines are impractical for wild animals, says Packer, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Minnesota. However, efforts are under way in Tanzania to begin a program to inoculate domestic dogs, which would, in turn, help protect the lions.

In the meantime, the epidemic appears to be tapering off and there is no indication that it has crossed the border into the Masai Mara.