Lions are in danger for many reasons. They are losing their homes in the wild. People are also hunting them and making them sick. With climate change, there is less food and water for them too. Lions come into towns more for food, causing fights with humans.
This article explains the big threats hurting lions so we can help save these important animals.
Habitat Loss and Fragmentation
Habitat means the natural area where a species lives. But lions are losing their habitat in Africa. Farmers are using land where lions used to hunt.
More roads and cities are built in wild places too. This splits up the areas left for lions into small disconnected pieces. It’s hard for lions to survive this way.
Agricultural Expansion
Africa now uses land for farming faster than anywhere else globally. Huge grasslands and plains that lions patrol are changed into farms.
This leaves less space for lions to hunt and find food. For example, only about 2,000 lions still live in Western Africa due to all the farming and forest loss there.
Urbanization
Africa’s cities are growing very quickly. They spread into land that’s an important habitat for lions, making it easier for poachers too.
One report found that between 2014-2017, around 9,000 square miles of land lions’ use was lost just from new roads and railways built through their habitats.
Infrastructure Development
Things like roads, railways, pipelines, and power lines now cross all over natural areas. They break up the land left for wildlife into small separated sections too tiny to support lions.
Prides get closed off from each other and cannot mix. This leads to inbreeding which hurts the health of future cubs.
Poaching
Illegal poaching is a major threat to lions across Africa:
Poaching for Body Parts
Lions are killed so poachers can sell their skins, bones, teeth, and claws. Lion bones are used instead of tiger bones in traditional Asian medicine more now, causing demand and poaching to skyrocket.
Legal exports of lion bones from South Africa went up over 600% from 2006 to 2015!
Retaliatory Killing over Livestock
Lions that try to eat farm animals are often speared, shot, or poisoned by angry owners. Though lions do not kill that much livestock, farmers have little tolerance and act fast to get revenge.
For example, just 5 lions killing 15 cows in Kenya were all tracked and killed within 2 weeks. As wild prey gets harder to find, these cases will likely increase.
Disease
Wild lions are getting dangerous illnesses, typically from domestic animals:
Canine Distemper Virus
This virus spreads from dogs and has caused major die-offs of Serengeti lions recently. In 1994, 1,000 lions died.
Scientists warn outbreaks are happening more now, putting the famous Serengeti lions in jeopardy. Vaccines and keeping dogs away are important.
Bovine Tuberculosis
Spread by livestock, bovine TB makes lions starve to death from getting extremely weak. Since it’s new to lions, they cannot fight it.
In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, TB from cattle has cut the lion population almost in half. Over 140 parks in Africa now have lions with signs of bovine TB.
Climate Change
A warming climate is hurting lions:
Droughts Impacting Prey
Scientists forecast more severe droughts across East Africa due to climate change. This could wipe out the herbivore populations lions must eat to survive.
After a 1993 drought in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater, lions starved because over 75% of the normal buffalo, wildebeest, and other prey had all died.
Rising Temperatures
Lions can easily overheat since they do not sweat like people. As temperatures go over 100°F more often in places like Botswana’s Kalahari Desert, heat stroke and dehydration will threaten lions.
Human-Wildlife Conflict
As more people live in Africa, dangerous conflicts with lions are increasing:
Livestock Predation
Hungry lions coming near villages for an easy meal will go after cows, goats, or other farm animals. Herders often shoot, trap, or poison them in return.
From 2002-2013, at least 1,000 lions were killed this way in southern Tanzania alone says a Tanzanian government report.
Persecution by Local Communities
Lions that hurt people, even defending themselves, are usually tracked and killed. But villagers also threaten lions just for losing livestock or due to cultural traditions.
Some groups hunt lions when boys become men. This ongoing persecution makes it very hard for lions to peacefully coexist near people.
Trophy Hunting
Trophy hunting brings even more risks to lions:
Legal Trophy Hunting
Wealthy hunters legally kill lions for sport and export the bones to Asia. South Africa alone allows over 800 captive-bred lions to be shot each year.
However, experts argue this does not truly help wild lions. Most money goes to a few people rather than lion conservation. Weak regulations also allow poaching.
Unsustainable Quotas
If trophy hunt rules let too many lions be killed annually, local populations can disappear quickly. From 1993-2014, lion trophy hunting spread massively across Africa without enough oversight, causing extreme declines in West Africa.
Scientists believe only 400 lions survive in total there now.
Conservation Efforts Needed
Saving Africa’s 20,000 remaining wild lions needs addressing all these threats together:
Protect Habitats and Restore Connectivity
Safeguarding land for lions from more loss and fragmentation is essential to their survival. Corridors linking protected areas also must be conserved to allow lions to roam between prides and populations.
This ensures healthy gene mixing.
Community Engagement and Education
Gaining support locally is key to reducing conflicts with lions over livestock and retaliation.
Teaching new methods to keep lions away from farms and sharing money from tourism and conservation further builds tolerance.
Disease Surveillance and Vaccination
Closely monitoring health threats and fast outbreak response prevents huge lion deaths. Targeted vaccination in zones around the most affected parks can create immunity barriers. Access by domestic animals needs controlling too.
Address Impacts of Climate Change
Adapting habitats to offer shade, water, and hardy prey during worse heat and drought gives lions a better chance.
Creating climate-smart conservation plans can also help lions stay strong where they are most vulnerable to warming temperatures in the future.
Promote Coexistence with Communities
Making lion conservation directly benefit local villages promotes acceptance. Income from tourism, compensation for cattle killed, and maintaining nature that people rely on enables peaceful coexistence.
Ensure Trophy Hunting Sustainability
Hunting quotas must be set carefully, monitored strictly, and reduced immediately if causing lion declines. Funds should go to public lion conservation.
Loopholes enabling poaching need closing. Ending captive lion hunting protects wild lions from becoming seen as merely something to profit from.
Conclusion
Lions face many tough threats. But with strong conservation policies, habitat protection, help from communities, and corridors to connect groups, we can make sure lions keep ruling Africa’s wild places for generations to come. The time to act is now before these iconic cats disappear.
