Africa’s lion population is declining at an alarming rate. Despite the creation of wildlife preserves in the late 20th century to curtail hunting, African lion numbers have dwindled from 100,000 in the early 1990s to no more than 30,000 and possibly as few as 16,000 today. So what is endangering Africa’s best known carnivore and what is being done to halt this trend?
Habitat loss and conflicts with humans are considered the most significant threats to the species. In the mid-1990s a mysterious disease spread through the lion populations of Tanzania and Kenya. Studies revealed that jackals and hyenas were contracting canine distemper from dogs in nearby villages and in turn passing it on to lion. The spread of the disease was quickly halted and today lion numbers in the affected areas are back to previous levels, but this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the influence that humans are having on lion populations.
With an ever-expanding human population, cattle herders push further into lion habitat. Some cats developed a taste for the easy-to-kill livestock and farmers often kill the predators to protect their livelihoods. For the farmers to better protect their herds the solution may be as simple as a stronger fence, but where does the money for this come from?
As with most conservation efforts in Africa, tourism can play a major role in protecting lion populations. Tourists pay considerable amounts to see the big cats and if that income can be funneled into local communities, it creates a strong financial incentive within those communities to protect the animals.
As lion populations dwindle those that remain are often geographically isolated, which can lead to inbreeding, and reduced genetic diversity. The African lion is considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and it is essential that we find the money and political support to implement plans that will allow people to learn how to live with lions. . . . . .or we will soon be living without them.
A few interesting Lion Facts:
- Lions are the second largest living feline species, second only to the tiger.
- Both male and female lions roar, and that roar can be heard over five miles away!
- Females do almost all of the hunting, they are smaller, swifter and more agile than the males, and unencumbered by the heavy and conspicuous mane, which causes overheating during exertion.
- Although lions have very sharp teeth they usually kill prey by strangulation.
- An adult lioness requires an average of about 5kg (11lb) of meat a day, a male about 7kkg (15.4lb).
- A lioness may mate with more than one male when she is “in heat”, and during a mating bout which can last for several days, the couple copulate 20 – 40 times a day and are likely to forgo eating.
- Young cubs are vulnerable to predation by hyenas, leopards and black-backed jackals. The cubs begin hunting at 11 months but remain with their mother for at least two years.
- Lionesses in a pride often synchronize their reproductive cycles so that they cooperate in the raising and suckling of the young. The synchronization of births has an advantage in that the cubs end up being roughly the same size, and thus have an equal chance of survival.
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