Lions 'facing extinction'

If you haven’t yet watched the video I posted in my last post, then click here! We see lion-hearted Kevin Richardson, a zoologist and animal behaviouralist from Johannesburg, cuddling lions. The man, known as the ‘lion whisperer’, has been working in a South African game park for 16 years and has been accepted into several lion prides.  His secret? He maintains that all that is required to develop such personal bonds is three simple ingredients: love, trust and understanding – it sounds to me like this man could apply himself quite successfully to marriage counselling!

Kevin’s unique relationship with lions has captivated the imagination of many people and he has produced several documentaries that detail the struggle lions face both in captivity and in the wild. It’s this I want to explore a bit more today because after watching that video I came across a news article published on the BBC website that was also about lions but this had a more serious tone.

Through his unique relationship with lions, Kevin is able to increase people's awareness of the threats that they face. Source: The Lion Whisperer

I’m going to review this news article today and then I also want to talk a bit about a paper I have read which talks more generally about the status of some of the world’s largest carnivores, lions included.

The article begins by introducing a recently published study conducted by Phillipp Henschel and colleagues at Panthera, a non-profit organisation that directs and implements conservation strategies for the world’s largest and most endangered cats. The study synthesises expert opinion and field data to investigate the current distribution, status, and potential management deficiencies of specially designated ‘protected areas’ for lions to live in. The study suggests that there has been a ‘catastrophic collapse’ in the number of lions in West Africa, reporting that there may only be around 400 left in the region. This number is shocking. I would never have imagined it to be so low! It really is devastating and something HAS to be done – surely?

Large-scale plantations for cotton and food-crops have contributed significantly to the decline of lions in the last decade. 

The article continues, outlining concerns that the entire population of West African lions could disappear. For me, seeing a face to the threat of extinction is so upsetting. The lion is such an iconic species, one that everyone grows up with and everyone has visions of an open-African savanna, teaming with prides of lions. Clearly this is quite naïve, and unfortunately may be something of the past.

Further to this, the genetic sequence of the lions is unique to lions of this region, and so if they are lost then a unique locally adapted population will become extinct.

West African lions are genetically different from other lions. Source: The Guardian

The report estimates that the lion range is now 49,000km² roam, just 1.1% of their historic range. What has happened to the rest of their range? One word: agriculture. The collapse of lion range in West Africa is reported to be linked to large-scale habitat loss outside of PAs through conversion to agriculture (Bauer & Nowell, 2004). The organisation is calling for the lion to be listed as critically endangered in West Africa. Phillip Henschel says that the conservation of lions in West Africa has been largely neglected in comparison to lions in eastern and southern Africa, where millions of dollars a year are spent.

The report gives two reasons for the increased vulnerability of West African lions:

1. A lack of funding for conservation
2. Increasing human population and impoverished economies 

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) urges for international help and Panthera’s President, Luke Hunter says ‘To save the lion will require a massive commitment of resources from the international community’.

In my opinion everyone is responsible for saving the West African lions and certainly it's not something that should be left to national governments. Threats as huge as this one have global consequences and morally we can't just sit back and watch these animals disappear. I have found this discussion particularly hard-hitting. What has shocked me most is the fact that I was previously unaware of the status of these amazing creatures. When it comes to this we all need to be global-citizens and become more aware of issues that are not necessarily on our doorstep - I know I'm certainly guilty of this.