Threatened African Lion

I have once more uploaded a paper that I wrote for my AP Environmental Science class. This one is about how the African lion populations are becoming threatened. I not only included facts, but also my personal opinion about the issue. Since this is a short paper, please consider researching more about this matter because I only covered U.S Fish and Wildlife Service's point of view. I have also posted many ways to help save the African lion from extinction in the future. 

Threatened African Lion: Are Humans at Fault?

The majectic African lion, known scientifically as Panthera leo leo, is likely to become extinct by the year of 2050, according to Dan Ashe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director. The agency has officially proposed that the African lions receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, which has the responsibility to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. There are various threats lions currently face including habitat loss, loss of their prey due to bushmeat trade, human-lion conflict, and sport hunting.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to list these lions as threatened, other than endangered, to allow the U.S. government to provide training and assistance for conservation efforts and for the gradual restriction of the lion parts trade and lion trophies into the country. With a population as low as 34,000 animals in Africa, lions face major problems since its populations have been reduced by 50 percent from three decades ago and it is still declining. Moreover, according to Ashe, lion populations in West Africa have been almost decimated to the point of local extinction.

With a growing human population of sub-Saharan Africa, it is expected that the lion habitat will be converted to agriculture, and the hunting of its prey called wild ungulates will increase. As a consequence, hungry lions are likely to attack livestock and be killed by furious farmers. Furthermore, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the biggest threats lions face are these attacks by cattle farmers, who want to annihilate as many lions as possible, in order to protect their livestock.

Another threat for the lion populations is the sport hunting that occurs in 16 of the 20 countries in which lions are located. Numbers of trophies brought from Africa to the U.S. by American hunters doubled between the years of 1999 and 2008. According to Ashe, the sport hunting does not threaten the species, because revenues from the hunt support conservation. However, through my life experience I have learned that there are several lion farms in Africa leading to the trade in lion cubs to lion parks. These parks are often called sanctuaries for the rehabilitation of lion cubs that are meant to “go back to the wild.” While volunteers pay a huge amount of money in order to go to these places where they get to pet cubs and walk with the adult lions, they think that they are actually helping lion conservation. Unfortunately, what happens is that the poor cubs end up being bought when they get a little older by the canned hunting industry. Then, they are hunted and killed in controlled situations. Even though, Ashe’s opinion supports the hunting of lions for trophies, I believe this is extremely wrong and it is definitely a threat to the species mainly because the farms are breeding thousands of lions with close relatives posing a threat to the genetic variability of the species. Also, many of these cubs are being born weak and sick leading to the spread of disease.

Sick lion cubs in Ukutula Lion Park, South Africa

In conclusion, lions are threatened in Africa mainly due to habitat loss, loss of their prey due to bushmeat trade, human-lion conflict, and sport hunting. Humans are at fault mostly because all the problems lions face are due to human activities. Even though the article is being informative, it should present more solutions and ways of preserving the African lion species, other than acquiring revenues for its conservation through sport hunting.

Ways you can help:

Go to Volunteers in Africa Beware Facebook Page where they help the future volunteers avoid the trap of breeding lion farms masquerading as conservation facilities ---https://www.facebook.com/volunteersbeware

Watch The Con in Conservation episode about hand raised lion cubs that end up in canned hunt from SABC Digital News --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hav-1GuVcWQ&app=desktop

Watch Jason Wood's speech --- https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=547847185326287&set=vb.352953834815624&type=2&theater and join him in the fight against canned hunting --- http://jasonwood.com.au/issues/canned-hunting/stopcannedhuntingnow/

                                      Works Cited

Platt, John R. "African Lions Face Extinction by 2050, Could Gain Endangered

Species Act protection." Scientific American. 27 October 2014. Web. 23 October 2014.