LIONS POPULATION DECLINING

What would Africa be without their lions? Yet they get hunted and/or pressured all the time into smaller spaces. A great warning signal came from Dr Luke Hunter, president of Panthera which is a leading organisation of wild cat conservation.

He stated that it is wrongly to assume the lions are doing well. Apparently only in the last few year the decline had sped up enormously and it is slowly heading towards extinction. It is not even a century ago when there were 200,000 lions living in Africa. This number has dropped alarmingly and unbelievable down to a mere 30,000. A further revelation tells us that 200 years ago, before Europe started to have colonies in Africa; the lions existed everywhere in Africa except in the Sahara, the Congo and the rainforest. It is estimated that there were millions.

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Since 2002 lions became already extinct in five countries. Today there are to be found in only 28 African countries and one Asian country – India.  However, there are only seven countries which have at least 1,000 left in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

LIONS  IN THE SAVANNAH

The greatest problem is the disappearance of the lions’ habitat. The best example, the Africa savannah disappeared over the last 50 years. The savannah grassland used to be the homeland for lions but has now been broken up into farmlands or developments. A study revealed that the lions’ population is on the verge of extinction especially in West and Central Africa.

Africa has the fastest growing human population than any other continent and this alone has a greatest impact on wildlife including the lions. Since human habitat spreads into lions’ territory it multiplies the danger of attack.  The result is herder either spears, shot or poison them.  In Kenya alone 100 lions are being killed every year.  The country has a lions’ population of 2,000 and with a loss of 100 a year does not give a great survival rate.

Dr Hunter is fully aware to the problem of lions’ attacks either to the livestock or the farmers and herders themselves.  The lions will also increase their attacks since their own prey such as antelope are being over-hunted by humans. Dr Hunter came to the conclusion there could be an answer to save both the humans and lions.  The established conservation in good game reserves and national park has shown a great increase of lions. A fine example is South Africa the National Kruger Park is the size of Israel. Another one is Tanzania is still wild and has mostly large protected areas.

The other way of life for humans and lions to live side by side Dr Hunter refers back to centuries ago. The Masai Tribe had been herding their cattle, which is their main asset, for century across the savannah’s grassland.  They were also known for traditional lions hunt but infrequent. Today it has increased a great deal and as before it was no problem to have a hunting party now and then tradition is forgotten and they kill lions because they attack their cattle. This change of outlook causes now a great damage.

The answer to this is a programme to change lions’ hunter into lions' guardians.  This brings back the old method of good protection of their livestock which avoids problems with lions.  The basic rules are the lions can’t get to the livestock and fewer lions get killed.

One great danger of lions being killed by poachers is either for bush meat, for trophies and for Asian's traditional medicine trade.  Unfortunately, every part of a lion had a potentially use in Asian medicine.  There is also an increase because of the demand.

Dr Hunter states that if there isn’t a drastic change it only would take a couple of decades and lions will be found only in very isolated places like the tigers today.

A rare northern white rhino is already being guarded with a soldier equipped with a rifle on each side while it is grazing. This is a disgrace to humans with their endless greed.

IS THAT WHAT WE WANT FOR EVERY LAST ANIMAL?

EVEN GREED SHOULD NOT OVERRULE COMMON SENSE