Why Act Now to Save the African Lion?

Historically, lions were distributed throughout the Mediterranean, the Near & Middle East as far as India, and all of Africa.  They were eliminated from their last European strongholds in Greece by 100 A.D. but survived until the 20th century in Syria, Iran and Iraq. The last lion in Iran was shot in 1942.  The Asiatic lion subspecies now only exists as a population of around 300 in and around the Gir Forest of north western India.

In Africa, the last wild Cape Lion of South Africa was shot in 1865 and the last Barbary lion of Northern Africa was shot in 1922.  Reduced numbers of lions are still present north of South Africa and Namibia and south of the equator.  North of the equator they are found in a narrow belt south of the Sahara desert on the western side and extending further south to link with the southern hemisphere population on the eastern side of the continent.

Lions (Panthera leo) are listed as Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix II and are regarded as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List [Version 3.1 2001].

Known and Occasional Distribution of the African Lion

Myers (1975) wrote, "Since 1950, [lion] numbers may well have been cut in half, perhaps to as low as 200,000 in all or even less". Later, Myers (1984) wrote, "In light of evidence from all the main countries of its range, the lion has been undergoing decline in both range and numbers, often an accelerating decline, during the past two decades". In the early 1990s, IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group members made educated "guesstimates" of 30,000 to 100,000 for the African lion population (Nowell and Jackson 1996).

Two surveys; (Bauer & Van Der Merwe 2004 and Chardonnet 2002) provided the first real estimates of the African lion population with some ground-truthing. The African Lion Working Group, a network of lion specialists affiliated with the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group, conducted a mail survey and compiled estimates of 100 known African lion populations. Not included were lion populations of known existence but unknown or un-estimated size. The ALWG African lion population estimate is 23,000, range of 16,500 - 30,000 [data collected in 2002 but not published until 2004]. The second survey was carried out by Philippe Chardonnet and sponsored by the International Foundation for the Conservation of Wildlife and Conservation Force. He compiled estimates for 144 individual African lion populations, grouped into 36 largely isolated sub-populations. His methodology included extrapolation of estimates of known populations into areas where lion status was unknown, and his total figure is larger: 39,000 lions in Africa; range of 29,000 - 47,000.”

It is important to realize that these numbers are based on various categories of what can best be described as “guesstimates”. Bauer and van der Merwe’s data, for example, are about 70% based on some category of estimation. This is not surprising, as lions are difficult to count accurately. These large predators occur at low densities and individual recognition is difficult and relies on considerable photographic evidence and expertise. Several survey techniques are available but have been used in very few known geographic locations that lions still occur as they are both time-intensive and expensive. Despite such shortcomings, African lion numbers are accepted by most experts to be in sharp decline; the IUCN stating that “a species population reduction of approximately 30% is suspected over the past two decades (approximately three lion generations)” (Bauer et al., 2008).

Such declines appear to be continuing: Kenya for example was estimated to have more than 20,000 lions in 1963, dropping to 2,749 in 2002 and 1,970 in 2008 (Omondi, 2009) representing a 28% decline in lion numbers in only six years.

Like lion numbers, habitat for lions is also suspected to have declined over recent times. Since the 1960s, the human population, land cultivation and numbers of livestock have steadily increased (Ferreras and Cousins 1996, Chardonnet 2002). Myers (1975) suggested lion range to total two million square miles or 5,178,000 km², remarking that extent was likely only about half of lion range in the 1950s. The African Mammal Databank Project estimated the lion’s potential area of occurrence at approximately 10 million km², while noting that much of the most suitable habitat is fragmented and unprotected. The most detailed range calculation is Chardonnet’s (2002) estimate of approximately three million km², with about half having some form of protection, from national park to hunting reserve. Overall, habitat for 18% of African lion populations is described currently as declining (Chardonnet 2002).

With few exceptions, lion populations now occur as isolated remnants with doubtful long-term viability. It is estimated that 43% of lions reside in only four populations in three countries and 45% of locations of lion prides have less than 70 animals (Bauer and Van Der Merwe 2004).

Opportunities for the natural re-colonization of areas in which populations have decreased or have been eliminated are becoming increasingly unlikely given the continued fragmentation of the remaining suitable habitat for lions.  This raises the importance of interventionist approaches in lion conservation through translocation and reintroduction programs in the future to support traditional habitat protection methods.

In some areas the use of wild caught lions in translocation and reintroduction programs may be viable and preferable.  However, disease prevalance and inbreeding depression within many free-ranging populations combined with genetic, political and economic barriers to their use leads us to believe that in many places in Africa the use of free-ranging lions alone is not possible. 

Therefore ALERT also supports the idea of utilising captive sources of lions, including in combination with wild-caught individuals, within reintroduction programs, however, reintroduction of captive bred stock brings additional complexity in reintroduction methodology.

References:

Bauer, H., Nowell, K., Packer, C. & K. (2008) Panthera leo. In: 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. http://www.iucnredlist.org. [accessed 16 March 2009].

Bauer, H., van der Merwe, S. (2004) Inventory of free-ranging lion Panthera leo in Africa. Oryx 38(1): 26–31.

Chardonnet, P. (ed.) (2002) Conservation of the African Lion: Contribution to a Status Survey. International Foundation for the Conservation of Wildlife, France & Conservation Force, USA.

Ferreras, P., Cousins, S.H. (1996) The use of a Delphi technique with GIS for estimating the global abundance of top predators: The lion in Africa. Unpublished report, International Eco Technology Research Centre, Cranfield University, UK.

Myers, N. (1975) The silent savannahs. International Wildlife 5(5): 5-10

Myers, N. (1984) Conservation of Africa’s cats: Problems and opportunities. In: Cats of the world: Biology, conservation and management (1986) (eds Miller, S.D. and Everett, D.D.) pp. 437 - 446. National Wildlife Federation, Washington DC.

Nowell, K., Jackson, P. (1996) Wild Cat. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN, 382 pp.

Omondi, P. (2009) In: Kenya on the brink of recording big five extinction. http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144016253&cid=4. [accessed 7 June 2009]..