Well,I'd like to talk to you now about the Gir Sanctuary in India.That's where I've just come back from.The sanctuary was established specifically to protect the Asiatic lion.It's 1,450 square kilometres in area and most of it is forest.There are now around three hundred Asiatic lions in India and almost all of them are in this sanctuary.But despite living in a sanctuary,which makes them safe from hunters,they still face a number of problems that threaten their survival.One of these is the ever-present danger of disease.This is what killed more than a third of Africa's Serengeti lions in 1994,and people are fearful that something similar could happen in the Gir Sanctuary and kill off many of the Asitic lions there.India's lions are particularly vulnerable because they have a limited gene pool.The reason for this is interestingit's because all of them are descended from a few dozen lions that were saved by a prince who took a particular interest in them.He was very wealthy,and he managed to protect them - otherwise they'd probably have died out completely.
