Could lions become established if introduced in Southwest states?

Question

i dont see any reason why they couldnt live in the wild down by texas

Answer 1

The biome of lions is extremely variable. Asian Lions tend to inhabit forested areas but African Lions seem to prefer the savannas or more open country. Temperature range is not a problem as they can tolerate temperatures from below zero to as high as 40 degree centigrade. So in short, yes they could become established in Texas or much of the southwest. This also presents a problem as many animals are adaptable and if introduced into an area become a danger to local wildlife as did the rabbit, mongoose and the Marine toads. Lions could become predatory on cattle and possibly even man himself. Several areas in Africa have occasional problems with man-eaters.

Answer 2

no, the main reason would probably be prey. you see, when a new species is introduced to a new environment, it would cause drastic changes to te environment itself, if the lion finds a sucessful prey, then the population of lions will go up, the population of the prey would go down, if the prey population goes down, there will also be severe competition between the prey's original predators and the lions, lions porbably being dominant, which could cause the original predator population to go down, and later on, the lion population might go down because of the lack of prey. however, if the lions dont find a sucessful prey, then the entire project will not work at all. and, even in the texas "wilderness", it would be too close to people, there are many farmers/ranchers, the lions could begin to prey on cattle, which would make the farmers kill off the lions. and i believe texas wilderness is mostly desert, lions are used to the african savannah.these are just my predictions, and there are hundreds of other things that could happen, but lions cant be expected to live in an environment like that.

Answer 3

It's not good ecologically to introduce a non-native species to a region. It's bad for the species because they might be exposed to viruses they aren't immune to (or worse, might not adjust to the environment). It's bad for the region because it upsets the food chain. For example they might compete with a native animal for food and end up wiping them out.

Not to mention, it depends on the species of lion. Texas already has mountain lions. If you mean like African lions -- Africa is a mostly tropical climate close to the equator, whereas Texas is not and doesn't have the same vegetation. Despite what you might think, Texas isn't always hot, and they would probably die in a Texas winter.

Answer 4

No if the lions are put into a balanced ecosystem the will take the population of the herbivores down to a dangerous number.

Answer 5

Just like the wolf, they could survive if it wasn't for the ranchers. Lions would undoubtedly become a big problem after they learned that cattle are much easier prey than deer.

Answer 6

theoretically, yes. They could live on large tracts of vacant land owned by the air force. However they would be competing with other animals who live in these desert areas for the scarce resources, and they would kill animals that are already part of this enviornment, and they're dangerous, so it would be too politically incorrect for the U.S. government to aloow this to happen.

Answer 7

there is no big game for them to hunt and eat and they would end up in competition with mountain lions, ocelots, and jagurundis or territory, habitat, etc. It would disrupt the balance of nature.

Answer 8

They would be invading the natural niche of other predators, but yes they could. We need to protect native species and stop invasive ones, plant or animals.

Answer 9

oh yeah.....but then the "humane" fish and game would have to kill them all (im not a envirolist --opissate to be exact-- but the fish and game arnt the best in fish and game mangement)

Answer 10

And what would they feed on, the Jackrabbits or the rancher's cattle?