WORLD LION DAY 2024
World Lion Day is a day to celebrate lions and to raise awareness of the conservation plight facing one of nature’s most revered (and feared) predators. Learn more about African lions and keys to their conservation in our latest story for #WorldLionDay2024.
Watch our video campaign raising awareness about lion conservation for #WorldLionDay2024.
Lions are the majestic kings of the African savannah. They are the apex predator of the habitats in which they range, regulating prey populations, disease and keeping ecosystems in balance. But lions are in trouble. They need our help.
Here’s the depressing reality: just 100 years ago there were an estimated 200,000 wild lions in Africa. By 1960, as human impacts expanded, their numbers halved to an estimated 100,000. Today, only 20,000-25,000 remain, limited to just 8% of their historical range. Lions evolved over millions of years, and yet in an historical flicker of time - just 50 years - over 90% of wild lion populations have been lost, extinct in 26 countries where they formerly roared. They are now officially ‘Vulnerable’ to extinction.
A gorgeous lion cub by our Ambassador, Martin Meyer @martinmeyer_wild
We all know that cats - breed like cats! Lions, too. Their populations could seemingly quickly recover - and what’s cuter to see than lion cubs? So what is holding back lion populations?
Lions are disappearing for reasons hard to solve: habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict.
Lion populations have collapsed for different reasons across Africa depending on range countries and local circumstances: To truly make an impact for the recovery of wild lions we need to be focused on the major causes of their disappearance:
Habitat loss due to agricultural expansion
Encroachment on wild lands by people and livestock
Poaching of lion prey for bushmeat, and
Human-wildlife conflict (including retaliation for livestock predation)
In West and Central Africa, the primary cause of lion killing is due to poaching and bushmeat. Illegal hunting for bushmeat affects lions in two ways; by dramatically reducing the populations of animals that are their food (their prey base), and by directly killing lions who inadvertently are caught in the wire snares that are set to illegally trap other species for food.
In southern Africa, habitat destruction is the main threat to Africa’s lion populations. This includes the loss of habitat connectivity. Human settlement and development are creating even smaller pockets of wilderness in which lions and their prey exist, making it challenging or impossible for lions to roam or safely disperse, restricting gene flow leaving populations vulnerable to diseases and other threats.
So after these depressing facts, how can we turn this around for lions?
Lions need us to give them some space (literally!). Securing and linking habitat for wildlife is a roadmap for not only creating more space for lions, but all other species. Wild Tomorrow believes that the most important action for the protection and recovery of lions and all threatened species is the protection of habitat and the creation of wildlife corridors to link as many of the small fragmented reserves together as possible.
Lions also need us to help fund their survival. A study published in the journal Biological Conservation (May 2017) found that if existing Protected Areas (PAs) home to wild lions in Africa could be managed and financed well, lion populations could increase by four. “Conservation outcomes for lions were best explained by management variables. PAs tended to be more effective for conserving lions and/or their prey where management budgets were higher, where photographic tourism was the primary land use, and, for prey, where fencing was present.”
The bottom line is that to adequately protect existing wildlife reserves, what is needed is more funding so that government and private reserves are able to adequately protect all of the precious biodiversity, including lions, within their borders. “We need to translate global love for lions into support for their protection” says Wild Tomorrow’s co-founder, Wendy Hapgood. “African lion countries alone cannot be expected to fund the protection of their expansive conservation areas without the help of the international community.” We highlighted this issue as part of our recent World Ranger Day campaign. Rangers who protect lions, rhinos, elephants, pangolins are doing their best but, particularly in government reserves, lack basic supplies from uniforms to boots.
African male lion gazing upward. By Wild Tomorrow Ambassador Shannon Wild @shannon__wild
While the challenges facing lions are great, their pathway to recovery is straightforward. Lions need connected and expanded wild spaces that are adequately funded. The international community has signed up to “30x30”, an ambitious conservation commitment to conserve 30% of terrestrial and marine habitat by 2030. Let’s hope we can collectively create this future, saving life on earth including lions.
Wild Tomorrow is playing our part, working to protect wild areas, restore damaged habitats, and connect fragmented landscapes in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa. Our vision is to create a wildlife corridor which will ensure a more resilient landscape where lions and other wildlife can thrive. We look forward to welcoming back the roar of the lion to our Greater Ukuwela Nature Reserve, and seeing its footsteps cast in the mud of the Mzinene river. It’s a future that couldn’t come soon enough.
To support Wild Tomorrow’s work to protect lions and expand habitat, please consider making a donation.
A lioness and her cubs, Kenya. Photo by our Ambassador, Nadja Rutkowski @lpgfilms.
References
Bauer, H., Packer, C., Funston, P.F., Henschel, P. & Nowell, K. 2016. Panthera leo (errata version published in 2017). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T15951A115130419. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T15951A107265605.en.
Bauer, H., Chapron, G., Nowell, K., Henschel, P., Funston, P., Hunter, Luke T.B., Macdonald, D. & Packer, C. Lion (Panthera leo) populations are declining rapidly across Africa, except in intensively managed areas. PNAS December 1, 2015 112(48) 14894-14899. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1500664112
Lindsay, P.A. et al. The performance of African protected areas for lion and their prey. Biological Conservation Volume 209, May 2017, Pages 137-149.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.01.011
Lindsay, P.A. et al. More than $1 billion needed annually to secure Africa’s protected areas with lions. PNAS November 6, 2018 115(45) E10788-E10796 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805048115