The international trade in lion (Panthera leo) products, particularly bone, has increased substantially over the last decade. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has established a zero-export quota for wild-origin lion bones. Whilst the trade of lion bone is permittable from captive-bred South African populations, there is no established method to differentiate between captive and wild-sourced lion derivatives in trade. This study acts as a preliminary investigation, by examining the stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope composition of hair from wild and captive lion populations as well as wild prey animals in South Africa, to judge the accuracy and applicability of this method for future bone analysis. Isotopic values for δ¹⁵N are found to be significantly enriched in some wild populations, however it is not possible to discriminate between captive and wild populations using δ¹³C analysis alone. Using the classification algorithm k-Nearest Neighbour, the origin of simulated data was identified with 70% accuracy. When using the model to test the origin of seized samples, 63% were classified as of wild origin. Our study indicates the potential for stable isotope analysis to discriminate between captive and wild populations. Additional study of captive husbandry, and analysis of bone samples from populations of a known origin and feeding regime is recommended to improve the utility of this method for maintaining transparency in trade.

在过去的十年中，狮子（Panthera leo）产品，特别是骨骼的国际贸易已经大大增加。《濒危野生动植物种国际贸易公约》（CITES）规定了野生狮骨的零出口配额。虽然南非人工饲养的狮子种群的交易是允许的，但尚无确定的方法来区分人工狮子捕获和野生狮子贸易。本研究中用作初步调查，通过检查稳定的碳（δ ¹³ C）和氮（δ ¹⁵N）来自南非野生和圈养狮子种群以及野生猎物的头发的同位素组成，以判断该方法在未来骨分析中的准确性和适用性。同位素值δ ¹⁵被发现N到在一些野生种群被显著富集，但它不可能使用圈养和野生种群之间进行区分δ ^13点C单独分析。使用分类算法k-最近的邻居，以70％的精度识别模拟数据的来源。使用该模型测试缉获样品的来源时，有63％被归类为野生来源。我们的研究表明，进行稳定同位素分析以区分圈养种群和野生种群的潜力。建议进一步研究圈养饲养，并分析已知来源和饲养方式的种群的骨样，以提高这种方法在保持贸易透明度方面的效用。