Helping Lions Means Bad News For Cheetahs

If there was ever a story that perfectly illustrates with web of life, this would be it. It involves domestic dogs, African lions, cheetahs and man’s interference in the natural world.

In 1994, a deadly virus spread by domestic dogs had a devastating impact on the celebrated lions of Africa’s Serengeti National Park (SNP). The outbreak of Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) killed nearly 1,000 lions, or about one-third of the third of the population. In response, conservationists launched “Project Life Lion,” a campaign to vaccinate dogs in villages around the Serengeti in a bid to halt the spread of the virus to lions and other wildlife. A new study, however, suggests that such vaccination campaigns, while good for lions, could be bad news for the Serengeti’s cheetahs.

Full the story at Vaccinated To Extinction

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