This is no surprise. Apex
predators make awful neighbors and will do what they do best. This in the age of the long range high
powered rifle, that other apex predator will and must eliminate the populations
except for natural refugia where they can be contained. In North America, the grizzly fills the same
role and is presently contained within the Great Bear Rainforest and Alaska.
Mankind is also vulnerable to
other predators but not nearly so.
Common sense and care will protect the weakest generally. Mistakes will still be made. Wolves and cougars have taken smaller joggers
and hikers in the past few years.
Running along a forest trail with earphones makes me cringe.
The lion is still a special
case. It can leap twenty foot fences to
get at you and it hunts at night. Thus
corralled cattle are attractive and completely at the cat’s mercy. Add in a night watchman properly armed and we
have a perfect lion trap and an ample supply of disappearing lions to account
for.
I am sorry to say, that we are
not going to save them except through the use of special parks and careful
population management. The only ones
left now are surely the smart ones avoiding humanity. Their offspring will not be as smart.
Physically
and emotionally demanding. That’s how Philipp Henschel, Lion Program Survey
Coordinator for the big-cat conservation organization Panthera, describes the six years he and other
researchers spent combing the wilds of 17 nations looking for the elusive and
rarely studied West African lion. The results of their quest were disheartening
to say the least. Back in 2005, before the survey began, West African lions
were believed to live in 21 different protected areas. But now a paper about
the survey, published today in PLoS One, confirms that lions actually exist in
just four of those sites. Worse still, the researchers estimate that the total
population for West African lions is only about 400 animals, including fewer
than 250 mature individuals of breeding age.
West
African lions—historically referred to as the subspecies Panthera leo senegalensis, although that
taxonomic designation is not currently in use—are smaller than and genetically
distinct from their southern and eastern African relatives, which are also in
decline and currently number about 35,000 big cats. Recent genetic tests link
them more closely to the extinct Barbary lion of northern Africa and the
critically endangered Asiatic lion (Panthera
leo persica) in India, which also has a population of about 450 animals.
Although
shocking, the news of the lions’ near extinction should probably not come as a
surprise given the context of the region. The populations of other large mammal
species declined an average of 85 percent in West Africa between 1970 and 2005,
mostly to feed the voracious demand of the bushmeat trade. The 11 nations of
West Africa are among the poorest on earth and include six of the world’s least
developed countries. The countries in the region have no money for
conservation, and the study found that most of the protected areas that were
expected to contain lions had little to no enforcement, security patrols or
management. National parks are frequently overrun by tens of thousands of
domesticated cattle. Henschel describes many of the so-called protected areas
as “paper parks”—conservation sites in name only.
Devastating
Realization
The
research team conducted in-person surveys in 13 of the 21 protected areas—each
of which was larger than 500 square kilometers—and relied on field reports from
scientists studying other species in the eight smaller sites. Although some of
the work could be done from vehicles, that wasn’t an option in many sites. “Due
to the complete lack of roads in some protected areas, we had to conduct all
survey work on foot in those areas, hiking up to 600 kilometers through rough
terrain during individual surveys,” Henschel says. The research was also
sometimes quite dangerous. “Encounters with aggressive poachers, and, in some
countries, rebel groups, were frequent.”
The
human encounters also illustrated some of the dangers the lions face (the cats
are often killed as pests). “In many of the protected areas we surveyed, we
also conducted interviews with various groups about the potential presence of
lions,” Henschel says. “One group we targeted for interviews were herders of
the Fulani ethnic group, which is the largest migratory pastoralist group in
Africa, and extends across all of West Africa. We often encountered Fulani
herders and their cattle deep inside protected areas, and individuals
interviewed almost uniformly admitted to carrying poison to kill any lions that
attacked their herds.”
Even
harder than the travel was the fact that the researchers rarely saw evidence of
any lions. “It was devastating to realize that despite all this physical
effort, despite weeks spent searching for spoor, no lion sign could be found in
so many areas,” he says.
But
their work was not completely in vain. They did find spoors, tracks and other
evidence of lions in the four sites and ever-so-rarely laid eyes on an actual
lion. Henschel says the most rewarding encounter occurred in Senegal’s
Niokolo-Koba National Park. They had been searching the area for more than a
month under extreme heat—”over 95 degrees Fahrenheit even at night”— when they
finally spotted a big cat. “What says it all, concerning the rarity of the lion
in the park, is that not one of my four survey team members, all long-serving
national park service staff, had ever seen a lion in their lives. It was
extremely rewarding to see how excited they all were to finally have seen the
animal that is also a symbol of national pride in Senegal.”
The
Counts
The
researchers found the most West African lions in W-Arly-Pendjari, a complex of
parks that crosses the borders of Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, which they
estimate to hold about 350 big cats. The three other sites in Senegal and
Nigeria are each estimated to have fewer than 50 lions. None of the sites are
anywhere near each other, as you can see in the map below:
(The
map also shows the sites of two possible but unconfirmed lion sites in Guinea.
No lions have been seen there in more than 10 years, but the authors write in
their paper that “credible reports of vocalizations suggest they may still be
present.”)
In
addition to their low numbers, the lions also live at a very low density of
about 1 lion per 100 square kilometers. Lions in East Africa live in
populations fifteen times denser. Despite this stretched out distribution,
Henschel reports the good news that cubs were observed, both in person and via
their spoor, meaning the cats are finding each other well enough to mate.
“Lions at all four sites where the species was confirmed present are still
reproducing successfully,” he says.
What
Comes Next?
“Now
that this massive survey effort has been concluded,” Henschel says, “we finally
know where lions remain and where we need to invest our efforts to save them.
This was a vital first step, but the real work of saving them is only just
beginning. Even the protected areas that retain lions are understaffed and
underequipped. We intend to assist lion range countries in improving management
effectiveness of the areas containing lions by helping them to increase the
numbers, expertise, and operating budgets of enforcement personnel in protected
areas with lions.” He says that will help to “curb the killing of lion prey and
illegal incursions into protected areas by pastoralists.”
Beyond
that, the genetic material collected from lion droppings during the surveys
will be assessed to determine the animals’ genetic diversity and health. Along
those same lines, the IUCN/SSC
Cat Specialist Group,
which determines the conservation status of wild cats around the world, is also
tackling the thorny issue of lion taxonomy, which may result in new
classification for the West African lion. The IUCN currently lists the West African lion as a population, not
a separate subspecies, and considers it to be endangered. “If West African
lions were indeed classified as a separate subspecies by IUCN/SSC, we would
recommend listing them as Critically Endangered,” Henschel says.
Panthera
president Luke Hunter, who co-authored the new study, also hopes that the world
will take notice of these lions, which have been ignored until now. “Lions have
undergone a catastrophic collapse in West Africa,” he said in a press release. “The countries that have managed to
retain them are struggling with pervasive poverty and very little funding for
conservation. To save the lion—and many other critically endangered mammals
including unique populations of cheetahs, African wild dogs and elephants—will
require a massive commitment of resources from the international community.”
Whether that aid and assistance will materialize in one of the poorest and
least supported regions on earth remains to be seen.
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