Page 28 - Aruba Today
P. 28
A28
SCIENCEThursday 29 October 2015
Lions, pride of Africa, vanishing in West Africa
MICHELLE FAUL their historic range in West most lions are in fenced 11,000 years ago, Henschel and farmers, leaving even
Associated Press Africa — a finding that reserves, the survey found. said.Today, they exist only less space for lions.
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Li- prompted the Internation- With the international spot- in India and Africa. In India, The trophy hunting that
ons, that symbol of Africa’s al Union for Conservation light on lion conservation about 500 lions remain, all killed Cecil is legal in only
wild beauty, power and of Nature to put the lions of intensified by outrage over in Gujarat state, according two West African coun-
freedom, no longer roam West Africa on its Red List as the killing this year of Cecil to state officials. Fewer than tries, Burkina Faso and Be-
in Mali. Or in Ivory Coast or critically endangered. the lion in Zimbabwe by 20,000 lions roam the wilds nin, but the number of kills
Ghana or war-shattered The situation is dire in much an American hunter, Hen- in all of Africa, according that once caused local
eastern Congo. Or most of of Africa. schel’s Panthera group to an estimate from the In- declines has diminished
the rest of West Africa. New research published hopes to attract funding ternational Union for Con- since the European Union
Three years of searching Monday shows sharp de- from conservation agen- servation of Nature. banned imports of lion tro-
and no sight of a lion for clines since 1990 in nearly cies and Nigerian philan- In West Africa, only 400 lions phies from both countries
Philipp Henschel, lion sur- all lion populations in West thropists to make sure lions remain, according to Hen- over the past year.
vey coordinator for the Before that, the EU used
New York-based Panthera This Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015 photo released by Philipp Henschel shows a lion in the Bateke Plateau to be the largest importer
conservation group. National Park in Gabon, a country where lions have not been sighted since 1995. of lion kills from the region,
Then he saw it, his first lion Henschel said, adding that
in West Africa. And in of all Associated Press the U.S. is considering listing
places, Nigeria. the West African lion as en-
“It came as a big surprise and Central Africa, and do not disappear here. schel’s research, making dangered under its Endan-
because Nigeria has by far that both regions risk los- Panthera and the Oxford them likely the most endan- gered Species Act, which
the biggest human popula- ing half their lions within University-based WildCRU gered lions on the planet. would prevent trophy im-
tion on the continent, and the next two decades. East are hosting a Cecil Sum- In the competition for land ports by American hunters.
the national parks are fairly Africa stands a 37 percent mit in February in Oxford to and food between lions With their short manes or
small compared to others chance of halving its lion draw attention to the threat and humans, the king of none at all, West African
in West Africa that already population over the same to lions like Cecil, who con- the jungle is losing. The de- lions look more like Asian li-
have lost their lions,” Hen- period, according to the servationists say was lured cline is due to growing pop- ons than their southern and
schel told The Associated survey published in the Pro- out of a protected area in ulations of peasant farmers east African cousins. They
Press. ceedings of the U.S. Nation- Zimbabwe’s Hwange Na- encroaching on their tra- are celebrated in Nigeria as
“Everyone was excited, in- al Academy of Sciences tional Park before being ditional ranges, poachers a national symbol of pride
cluding rangers from Nige- and written by researchers wounded with a bow and feeding a growing appe- in paintings on buses, the
ria’s National Park Service including Henschel. arrow and then tracked tite for bush meat, like an- logo of the National Park
— it was the first time they Lion populations are in- down and killed. telopes, that are lions’ sole Service and even a ce-
had seen one too.” creasing in only four south- Lions roamed much of the food source, and global ment label, but they have
That was in 2009. The count ern African nations: Bo- world, from Africa, across warming fueling a deadly proved easy to kill. When
was depressing: 25 to 30 tswana, Namibia, South Af- Europe and Asia, and even conflict for grazing land lions stray from protected
lions left in Kainji Lake Na- rica and Zimbabwe, where North America until about between nomadic herders areas and kill cattle, herds-
tional Park in west-central men will sometimes poison
Nigeria and only about five the cow’s carcass to kill the
in the east-central Yankari lion, Henschel said.
National Park. Three years The 40-year-old Henschel
earlier, Nigerian conserva- has lived nearly half his
tionists had reported lions life in Gabon, nurturing a
present in six protected ar- dream to re-establish a lion
eas, but they had appar- population in that West Af-
ently disappeared in four of rican nation after their two-
them, Henschel said. decade-long absence.
Henschel has gone on to Suddenly, it could be-
survey all 21 protected ar- come a reality. In Janu-
eas believed to harbor lions ary, a researcher studying
in West Africa. He has seen chimpanzees accidentally
only nine lions in four re- filmed a lion. Primate re-
serves, including Senegal’s searcher Ivonne Kienast
Niokolo-Koba National Park of the Max Planck Institute
and the trans-frontier Pend- of Evolutionary Anthropol-
jari and Arli National Parks ogy caught the image in
of Benin and Burkina Faso. Gabon’s Bateke Plateau
His research, published last National Park, where lions
year, reported that lions no have not been sighted
longer exist in 99 percent of since 1995.q
