By allAfrica
Lions have declined precipitously in the wild, down from an estimated 200,000 continent-wide a century ago to just over 20,000 today.
Released on August 3, a report entitled “State of the Lion: Fragility of a Flagship Species” by Amy Dickman and Amy Hinks from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford, suggests that wild lions have vanished from 95 percent of their historic range. According to the study, there are only 22,509 wild lions left in Africa.
Tanzania has the highest number of lions at 8,176, followed by South Africa with 2,070 lions, Kenya with 1,825, while Zimbabwe has 1,709 lions to its name,” says part of the report. Mozambique and Zambia have 1,295 and 1,095 lions respectively.
Trophy hunting advocates and some conservationists argue that fees from hunts support conservation efforts for the big cats, whose main threats are habitat loss, prey depletion, and greater conflict with humans, says the National Geographic. Read more>>
