A call for ideas on how we can save the lion and other species before it’s too late.

The King of the Jungle is Dead, completely wiped out, no longer existing on the face of the earth. It’s 2050, scientists all over the world are contemplating and thinking through ideas of how they could possibly bring him back, the rest of the population is reminiscing the good old days when they would visit Maasai Mara, the Serengeti or even the Zimbabwe plains and watch the spectacle of creation roam majestically like the king he is. His cubs trot alongside their mothers, as the pride follows along.

The human race cannot seem to quite understand what went wrong, it was sudden and unexpected. They thought they had more time, but I’m afraid it’s too late. Kids of the future will probably only see the lion’s shaggy mane and luscious savannah yellow-gold coat that covers its muscular and powerful body in the movies. There’s no bringing it back.

But knowing all this could happen why aren’t we taking action?

We need to do something. RIGHT NOW!

Ahead of World Lion Day I believe that it is important we have a discussion on how we ultimately need to take action as we come to brinks with the fact that the lion is under threat.

It hurts to see this:

and begin to come to grips with the fact that soon lions could no longer exist and that all we will have will be remnants of the past. I have personally had amazing experiences with lions and other wildlife alike and I would be utterly devastated if I let this topic go unheard and the opportunity to trigger change fade away. We need to do something, all of us.

The African and Asian Lion is vulnerable. It’s population has decreased by 90% from the 200,000+ total population hundreds of years ago, to the recent studies suggesting that there are 23,000–38,000 free-ranging lions living in 68 mostly geographically isolated areas. Approximately 24,000 lions are in strongholds, but about 6000 lions are living in populations with a high risk of local extinction, of which about 3000 are in West and Central Africa. Particularly critical is the situation in West Africa, with perhaps only 400 individuals, of which less than 250 are adults.

In Kenya alone, home to the Maasai Mara, as of Thursday 6^th August, Honorable Najib Balala, the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife, in Kenya, kickstarted an effort to save the declining population of Lions and the Spotted Hyena. He reported that there were only 2,400 lions in Kenya with this number still decreasing. It urgently triggered the need to find a solution immediately and hence the main purpose for this post.

The Main Challenges?

And a collection of different views of the same.

“I think it may also be a theory of natural selection where the elite and most adaptable and advanced creatures are able to survive with time and change and the non-adaptable ones are becoming extinct.”

-Alvin-

There are many challenges facing the lion population across the world. With the main challenges being habitat loss through agricultural development and human settlement, depletion of prey populations, human–wildlife conflict, epidemics and diseases and trade of lion parts. The biggest one being humans, from poaching, trophy hunting and even human wildlife conflict. 

I personally feel that the biggest challenge comes about due to habitat loss, where their homes are being encroached upon by humans in one way or another, such as having railway lines like the SGR in Kenya going through several national parks in the country, to the use of conservation land for agricultural purposes, serving as a catalyst for human wildlife conflict which is catastrophic. When this happens, they tend to migrate in search of new homes and most times the environments cannot match up. As a result their prey and eventually they themselves die and disappear. This is why we must make a change to this.

I decided to ask some of my friends from all over the world for their perspectives on this: You have an animal that’s vulnerable: A lion. Vulnerable meaning it’s on the verge of extinction but not yet endangered, thus vulnerable. What steps can be taken to redirect it from being vulnerable to being safe?

Here are their responses(in green and italicised):

“I believe it is important to not only identify but also analyze the reasons that the number of lions are declining. There are many contributing factors to the endangerment of species outside of just poaching. You have to think about the root of the issue. Why are people hunting these animals? What do they stand to gain? What put them down this path? As with many global issues, it usually sourced from a lack of education and the severity of poverty. Governments cannot approach this from a solely environmental and animal conservation approach, it must also begin with the humans who perpetuate these declining numbers. And often, governments contribute to this issue they are trying to fix. Their corruption and lack of support for vulnerable citizens pushes them to these illegal sources of income.” -Mire-

“Stopping illegal poaching seems to be the main problem. And education about protecting them.” -Spencer-

Well people think they’re pretty cool when they hunt big game like lion. So, if you make lions seem friendly, they won’t feel as cool. And then you also make huge penalties for killing them.” -Sam-

“If there isn’t a lucrative market for an animal than there’s less of an incentive to kill it.” -Anya-

One way to do what Anya said would also be to help poachers find other sources of income for the same and putting an end to the markets that facilitate the trade entirely.

I would say that its crucial to increase natural spaces and limit the access that people have to it, specially hunters. This way lions won’t die directly to people, and its natural space would remain untouched. I also think it’s not about creating but conserving or reverting changes made to the environment. When I say reverting changes, I mean that whenever a city creates a green space, people tend to think that it’s enough to protect animals. Having green spaces is good, but it doesn’t really help animals. -Oscar –

“So basically, Educate, Raise awareness, Start small and then take it to the streets/politicians. Push for change to be made. Because even though it’s an issue that affects people, since the lion is quite in danger, it’ll need bigger support. Not necessarily from the government, Corporate and NGO support too.” -Andrea-

I asked this question in one of the groups I am in:

What if their hunting is perpetuated by poverty as is in Africa or by the fact that they are simply trying to protect their livestock and homesteads what do you think? Also how can we make education more valuable and immediately effective?

“People in poverty that are simply trying to protect their property is what I like to think of a justified form of defence. But also, the root of the problem is FAR from their hands and most of the blood lies on illegal tourism and the international black market. Technically if you took out that aspect, farmers that shoot to protect their livestock hardly make a dent at all.” -Isabella-

Barton replying to Isabella and stating his perspective:

“The last part is technically true, but historically farmers have used this as an excuse for killing an animal (wolves, California condor) so in my opinion effective enforcement is also crucial. I believe it’s a three pronged effort, number one of course is education, number two is more effective enforcement, and number three is the development of sustainable areas (à la gorongosa national park) where people can use the park’s resources sustainably but also be distanced from wild animals that will at least cut down the number of predators killed due to them preying on livestock. By decreasing the times wild animals interact with people/livestock, that will help first off.” – Barton-

To the same I think it’s also important to note that conflict mitigation between humans and lions, mainly investigated in rural areas in West and East Africa, have successfully reduced livestock losses and subsequently reduced the number of lions killed. Though in the future we could see the same challenge, come up again.

NEW IDEAS ANYONE?

Perhaps two of the most interesting answers I received were:

The first by Alvin:

“Well I will start by saying something I came across the other day when I was reading

It’s not the strongest who survive but those who are able to adapt.

I think that since the lion is vulnerable this suggesting that the potential risk of extinction has been alluded to there is still some time to make a change before it is an endangered species. It is now within this time that something must be done to prevent the extinction in the offing. I would suggest perhaps restructuring the general behavior of the animal-changing its feeding habits, lifestyle, environment (those things around it- climate, humans etc.) because realistically it may be such factors which may actually make it vulnerable. So perhaps making the animal adapt to new ways of life or creating an artificial environment in the event that it is not possible to change its environment due to factors such as the ever-increasing global warming and climate change and increased desertification. It has been done with plants and it is successful yet they too are biotic organisms so it is also possible to do so with animals such as evidence of domestication of the dog and feline species over time as well as wild creatures such as snakes, fish .etc. who have been adapted to living in controlled environments rather than in the wild.

I would also suggest perhaps cross breeding depending on the nature of the factor causing it to face potential extinction-genetic factors etc. The hybrids can be created to counteract that effect.

I would first analyze the factors causing the animal to be vulnerable, and the come up with a solution, Maybe education, awareness and tougher restrictions and laws in the case of poaching if that is a factor for example.

But then again, I think it may also be a theory of natural selection where the elite and most adaptable and advanced creatures are able to survive with time and change and the non-adaptable ones are becoming extinct which is entirely natural and hence nature should sometimes be left to evolve and shape its own food chains, cycles and environment which is often the best choice as most human intervention tends to still have potential cyclical side effects.“

And I followed up and asked him how we could make controlled environments similar to their natural environments, knowing that if we created controlled environments, we would only make the lion senile to certain natural instincts. To which he responded:

 “Yeah that’s the difficulty with controlled environments because the animals lose their natural instincts but then I guess a trade-off must occur realistically because we can’t perfectly replicate their environment even if we wanted to 🤔and I believe there is a lot more complexity to animals lifestyles and habits than is known by man and their science which may make it much harder to prevent the animal’s potential extinction threat 🤔.“

Alvin touched on a variety of things aside from just human interaction, he went on to mention genetic impoverishment and even the course of natural selection, suggesting a different perspective that we probably have not considered enough.

The second perspective was reflecting on how South Africa radically developed a task force to protect animals against poachers, ultimately saving their rhinos and endangered Elephants, I have quoted some sections of the articles and I will share them below: (shared by Sagao and Veronica)

South Africa’s private security industry already employs nearly 500,000 guards in homes, malls and offices to supplement a police force overwhelmed by high crime. In recent years, the anti-poaching industry has trained hundreds more guards to take on the menace in the country’s game parks.

The South African government has declared rhino poaching to be a “national priority crime,” and has rolled out a raft of initiatives to combat the problem, including boosting security in national parks and moving rhinos to safer areas. In the first eight months of 2016, more than 400 alleged poachers were arrested, according to the government, compared with 343 arrests in 2013 and 267 in 2012.

In South Africa, a private army is fighting rhino poachers – by the Washington Post

A conversation we must continue!

And a fight for the lives we must save!

Ultimately, these are some of the views I received and would like to trigger a chance for the comment section to contribute their views as we begin to fight for the lives of the dear lions. All the thoughts cannot be condensed into one blog, but I hope I triggered a chain of thought and I believe we need to start working on this for the long run.

I will be back soon with a follow up on this and I would like to see how we can change course in due time. 

I will leave some of the questions I asked below and please share your perspectives in the comment section. Feel free to ask your own unique questions and we can think about it as a community.

1. You have an animal that’s vulnerable: A lion. Vulnerable meaning it’s on the verge of extinction but not yet endangered, thus vulnerable. What steps can be taken to redirect it from being vulnerable to being safe?
2. What new technologies can be implemented to increase surveillance and help create accurate data records for lion populations?
3. What about eco-tourism – can it help save lion populations?
4. How can we make education more effective and more deliberate?
5. How long do you think it will take to make all these happen?
6. All in all, what personal initiatives can each and every one of us take to save the lion and other species that are vulnerable or endangered?
7. Consider this interesting take on trophy hunting:  This has been successfully implemented in Namibia, which is one of the few countries where lion populations are currently increasing. Although trophy hunting can be a useful conservation tool for conserving lions, it can also be a threat. Therefore, improved regulations and management of lion hunting to prevent negative impacts on hunted lion populations is necessary in many countries

Resources

African Lions Face Extinction by 2050, Could Gain Endangered Species Act Protection -Scientific American

The genetic tale of a recovering lion population (Panthera leo) in the Savé Valley region (Zimbabwe): A better understanding of the history and managing the future – PLOS One journal.

The king of the jungle has one deadly predator – humans. -African Wildlife Foundation.

Are Lions Endangered? It’s Complicated. – Earth.com

In South Africa, a private army is fighting rhino poachers -The Washington Post

BALALA LAUNCHES LION AND SPOTTED HYENA RECOVERY AND ACTION PLAN -Tourism Go. Ke

The Technology That Will Finally Stop Poachers -Popular Mechanics