Threats to Lions & Lion Conservation

[Sprocky]

Add the Lion bone market to the mix, and we have a problem!

Tigers are similar, but now very thin in numbers.

[Toko]

Lion market dying a natural death

Lion market dying a natural death

by Bashi Letsididi
10-12-2012

The lucrative trade of the African lion faces it toughest challenge yet as a United States government department begins a year-long process to determine whether this sub-species is endangered.

“We will determine whether a petitioned action is warranted after we have completed a thorough status review of the species,” says the Branch of Foreign Species, Endangered Species Program, US Fish and Wildlife Service in its preliminary findings about a petition submitted to it by of wildlife and animal welfare organisations lobbying to add the African lion as an endangered species under US law.

Sport hunting in Africa is considered the main revenue earner for the wilderness outside national parks and reserves and the US is the largest market for big game safaris in Africa. Two-thirds of the lions hunted for sport were taken to America over the last 10 years.

A favourable ruling would mean that American hunters - who pay up to US$125 000 to shoot a male lion - would no longer be able to do sport hunting in African countries like Botswana. According to the The Guardian in the United Kingdom, between 1999 and 2008, 64 percent of the 5663 lions that were killed in the African wild for sport ended up being shipped to America; the numbers had risen sharply in those 10 years, with more than twice as many lions taken as trophies by US hunters in 2008 than in 1999; Americans are also the world's biggest buyers of lion carcasses and body parts, including claws, skulls, bones and penises and in the same period, the US imported 63 percent of the 2715 lion specimens put up for sale.

The group petitioning the US government cite Botswana among the two other Southern African countries (South Africa and Zimbabwe) that which are the primary exporting countries in lion parts for commercial purposes. Between 1998 and 2008, Zimbabwe sold 914 specimens, South Africa 867 and Botswana 816, all three accounting for 83.7 percent of all specimens in commercial trade. The specimens were traded internationally through permits.

Other notable markets are Asia where lion bones are used in traditional Chinese medicine in part as a replacement for tiger parts, which have been more strictly regulated within the recent past. Africans themselves use body parts (fat, skin, organs, and hair) to treat a variety of ailments as happens in Nigeria where lion fat is the most highly valued. According to the petition, some African countries such as Guinea-Bissau and parts of Guinea, lions are hunted down for their skins for use in traditional ceremonies.

In the past, some African countries (like Botswana in 2001-2004) imposed a moratorium on hunting lions and banned the hunting of female lions from the hunting quota (Zimbabwe starting 2005) but lions populations continue to decline. One of the studies that the petitioners cite, one says that Africa’s lion population has declined from 100,000 to roughly 32,000 over 50 years. In 2008, the African lion existed in 30 countries but two years later, three countries fell off the list. Countries like Congo, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana no longer have lion populations.

By all accounts, one-half of the total African lion population is in Tanzania, with the two largest populations found in the Serengeti and Selous ecosystems. Smaller populations remain in Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia. The population estimate for Southern Africa is 10,000 lions, with the majority being in Botswana and South Africa.

At a time that a sizeable group of citizens have petitioned the government to free up more land for use, a study by Wildlife Conservation Society indicates that the depletion in lion population is principally driven by the conversion of their habitat to agriculture and grazing as well as human settlement. Between 1970 and 2000, sub-Saharan Africa experienced a 25 percent increase in the amount of land allocated to agriculture. The African lion’s way of life and habitat needs are generally incompatible with human activities and naturally, higher human population density has resulted in a negative correlation between lion density and human density.

The near side-by-side living arrangement often leads to retaliatory killings when lions kill livestock.

WCS found that between 1997 and 2001, approximately 3 percent (representing 93) of the lion population was killed on farm land adjacent to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana. Likewise, three-fourths of the lions in Nairobi Park were speared by local tribesmen within the period of a year.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission Cat Specialist Group, the growth and expansion of the human population may be exposing African lions to new diseases that African lions may have little or no immunity to. Instances have been noted where some lion populations were affected by canine distemper virus, which is normally associated with domesticated dogs.

The petitioners indicate that during one study conducted in Kruger National Park in South Africa, more than 80 percent of lions were found to be infected by bovine tuberculosis, a disease believed to have been caused by the importation of cattle from Europe. The significance of this is that in many areas, buffalo are the primary prey of lions. Lions infected with this disease experienced respiratory problems, emaciation, lameness, and blindness.

Trophy hunters are also being fingered for being directly responsible for the behaviour of infanticide by adult male lions.

“When male lions take over a pride, they often kill the lion cubs. The petition asserts that this is significant because trophy hunters preferentially seek adult male lions, which has cascading effects on a pride. When an adult male lion associated with a pride is killed by a trophy hunter, surviving males who form the pride’s coalition may become vulnerable to takeover by other male coalitions, and this often results in injury or death to the defeated males within the pride. Replacement males that take over a pride will also usually kill all cubs that are less than nine months of age in the pride. Because this behavior is common, the removal of the dominant males in prides through trophy hunting has the effect of not only removing one or two older males, but rather several individuals including the younger cubs from the pride,” reads the preliminary findings of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

What adds to the potential incidences in human-lion conflict is that, according to the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, human population is expected to increase significantly in the next 40 years, particularly in the range of the lion.

On account of the African lion being increasingly restricted to small and disconnected populations, the threat of “incest” will increase. The petitioners’ calculations are that large lion populations with 50 to 100 prides are necessary to avoid the negative consequences of inbreeding and state that population connectivity is essential in order to allow males to travel to other areas in order to preserve genetic variation. They suggest that the lions in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, may be inbred, and subsequently their vulnerability to disease may be increased. The lion population of West Africa is geographically isolated from the lion populations in Central Africa, and there is little to no exchange of breeding lions.

[Sprocky]

2013-01-16 08:40

Wolmaransstad - Lions may be the well-reputed kings of the savannah, but South Africa's lucrative trophy-hunting industry means the regal cats are more likely to know the inside of a paddock ringed with an electric fence than the country's sweeping plains.

To the dismay of animal rights activists and environmentalists, growing numbers of the top predator are being farmed for hunting, with more than half of South Africa's roughly 8 000 lions now in captivity.

"The principle that you breed wild animals for economic exploitation is an international norm. It takes place everywhere in the world," said Pieter Potgieter, chair of the South African Predator Breeders' Association.

But "the problem is with the lions because the image has been created in the minds of people that the lion is the king of the animals. Walt Disney with his Lion King and all these things, they have created that image," he added.

The big cats are bred in pens then leased to zoos or game farms, where they are kept in cages or used as pets to attract tourists.

Auction

When they mature, some of them are released into the wild. The release usually happens just days before trophy hunters shoot them.

Breeders treat lions just like any other farm animals before leaving them to the mercy of trophy hunters.

"In principle, a lion is no more or less than any other animal species," Potgieter said.

An estimated 3 000 or so lions live wild in SA, compared to more than 5 000 held in paddocks.

A few hundred metres from the Bona Bona Game Lodge, which is also a popular wedding venue, are large cages with nine placid lions and three Bengal tigers. It housed three times that number of lions before an annual auction in June.

The lions are fed weekly, each Sunday morning - an exercise visitors pay an entrance fee of R80 to watch. Animal lovers pay R300 to play with cubs or give them a feeding bottle at most zoos.

"Cubs are rented out by the captive lion breeders to eco-tourism resorts to be petted by tourists, who are assured that such cubs will be set free," said Chris Mercer of the animal rights group Campaign Against Canned Hunting.

Cost

But a fuming Mercer says: "Tourists should know that these cubs will not be returned to the wild. They will, instead, be returned to the breeders... as semi-tame targets for the lucrative canned hunting industry."

"These cubs are farm-bred, held in confined spaces until they are old enough to be hunted," he added.

Paul Hart, who runs Drakenstein Lion Park in the southern Cape region, said it was the "process of removing cubs from their mothers at birth specifically so that they can be used as play things and to increase the speed of breeding that is inherently cruel, not to mention the methods employed to ensure the cubs are docile with tourists".

Critics say some lions are also specially bred for their bones, which are sent to Asia to end up in potions, but farmers deny that claim.

Amateur trophy hunters - most of whom come from the US - each year kill about 500 captive-bred lions in SA.

Hunters are ready to part with $22 000 per male lion, in addition to just about as much for other logistical and taxidermy costs. A lioness however comes in much cheaper at $4 000.

The trophy-hunting practices also raise controversy.

Endangered

In the Northwest province with the most lion-breeding farms, the cats are often released, hungry, just four days before a hunt.

Unleashing them into unfamiliar turf means they are unlikely to escape their pursuers.

But farmers justify the practice.

"Whether you kill a cow, a sheep or a pig, or you kill a lion, it's exactly the same thing. It's an animal," Potgieter argued.

A recent study by the Duke University in North Carolina has shown that two thirds of the African lion population have vanished over the past 50 years, to around 35 000 from nearly 100 000.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service also recently announced it would launch a review on whether to list African lions as endangered species.

Such a listing would prevent US hunters from bringing lion trophies from Africa back to the US.

- AFP

[Richprins]

The "canned lion" debate has gone on for a long time, which may indicate it has been accepted by Provincial Parks Authorities.

Lion are not an endangered species in SA, reproduce quickly, and don't suffer a lingering death in most of these cases.

A lot of money comes into the country, supporting job-creation etc.

It may sound harsh, but I don't see much difference between killing a lion or killing a cow for whatever purpose is necessary?

Just my opinion.

[Mel]

The cow doesn't have the status of being 'vulnerable'.

[Flutterby]

news24
2013-04-16 09:22


Johannesburg – Forget about the rhino for a moment and spare a thought for the lions.

When the rhino poaching problem subsides in five to 10 years, wild lions will be gone.

The continent's lion population has shrunk by 75% in the past two decades, according to wildlife experts.

They are currently "vulnerable" on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's list of threatened species. In west and central Africa lions are classified as "endangered".

"The facts are these lions are declining at such a pace. We will have nothing left in a few years," conservation group Walking for Lions (WFL) founder Marcus Roodbol says.

"Have we ever thought what we will do when we realise the last lion has been shot or poisoned? What will we do when we sit in the African bush and not hear the lion roar?"

Concerns

Trophy hunting, human encroachment, poaching, lion poisoning, and human/lion conflict have become a grave concern, prompting educational and awareness campaigns to save the king of the jungle.

In Asia, lion bones have become a popular commodity for healing and traditional purposes.

"This is a huge concern as the market is increasing for lion bones... to make lion soup or lion wine. Its properties were believed... to provide medicinal remedies, which is medically unfounded," says Roodbol.

The expanding agricultural sector has led to lions confining themselves to isolated areas, increasing their risk of extinction.

"We as humans have this ideal image that we can reintroduce lions back into the wild once they are gone. What makes us think this? If we cannot even save the last remaining wild lions and support the local communities living with these animals, what makes us think we can do it later?"

Wildlife photographer and conservationist Christina Bush says the most urgent threat to lions today is widespread use of pesticides and poison by farmers in retaliation for the loss of livestock.

"Every year more lions die as they are forced to make room for Africa's growth. In Botswana alone over 100 lions are killed each year in an attempt to protect livestock."

Trophy hunting

In South Africa around 1 500 lions are killed each year in the name of trophy hunting, she says.

"By killing the dominant male in the pride... hunters set off a chain reaction of instinctive behaviours in which the subsequent
dominant male kills all the offspring of the previous dominant male lion. It is estimated that six to eight feline deaths results from each dominant male that is shot."

A lot more needs to be done to prevent the species' extinction.

"Wild African lions are at risk of extinction by the year 2020 unless drastic measures are taken to save them," she warns.
WFL in South Africa has taken up the plight to help preserve wild lions.

Roodbol and several others will embark on a 500km walk from Namibia's capital Windhoek to Ghanzi in Botswana over two months starting 1 May.

Their aim is to educate people, including farmers and schoolchildren, along the way about the importance of lion conservation.

The group will walk 30km per day and film the campaign to promote global awareness through social networking sites.

Students from the University of Botswana and Cheetah Conservation Botswana are expected to join the march for a few days.

Topics such as poaching, canned hunting, the illegal lion bone and fur trade, lion consumption, lion mitigation methods, and volunteering will be discussed.

"We would like to create global awareness and give people something to think about when it comes to various aspects of lion conservation," he says.

If enough money is raised through the walk, it will be used to help communities living with lions to ensure their survival.

"Through the years of working with wild lions and hand-raised lions we finally came to our senses that if we as a younger generation do not start working on the future of our wildlife, our children will not experience the beauty of Africa," Roodbol says.

According to Panthera, a wildcat conservation group, lions have vanished from over 80% of their historic range and are extinct
in 26 countries. Only seven countries, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are believed to each contain more than 1 000 lions.

Over-hunting

On its website, Panthera says lions are increasingly coming into closer contact with humans as their habitat is converted for human use.

Kenya alone loses around 100 wild lions every year due to human contact. Experts believe there will be no more wild lions left in Kenya by 2030.

Panthera says there is a scarcity of wild prey due to over-hunting by humans. When wild preys are over-hunted, lions are forced to feed on livestock. This drives further conflict with humans in which the lion ultimately loses.

Beverly and Derreck Joubert, National Geographic explorers based in Botswana, say there will be environmental havoc if lions go extinct.

"They are the most vital centre point in many ecosystems. If we lose them we can anticipate eventual collapse of whole environments, right down to the water systems, as prey shifts or migrations stop, and species overgraze and destroy the integrity of important vegetation, especially along rivers."

It could also hurt the economic systems of people who rely on tourism to survive.

"Many come to Africa to see the big cats in the wild. Losing that could devastate areas where this tourism is the sole source of income," the pair believes.

"Saving the lions from extinction is a cause that not enough people know about. Lions are incredibly powerful cats, but even they need help from those who care about preserving wildlife for the future."


- SAPA

[Mel]

"We as humans have this ideal image that we can reintroduce lions back into the wild once they are gone. What makes us think this? If we cannot even save the last remaining wild lions and support the local communities living with these animals, what makes us think we can do it later?"

This says it all for me. We has human beings have such a devastating effect on nature around us and everything related to it,
it's more than tragic... 2020 - is not a long way to go. By the time the urgency of this is understood by everyone and according
counter measure are in place it might be way too late...

[Flutterby]

guardian.co.uk
16 April, 2013

Fears of a rise in poaching as Asian traders look for alternatives to tigers as a source of ingredients for traditional medicine.

Koos Hermanus would rather not give names to the lions he breeds. So here, behind a 2.4-metre high electric fence, is 1R, a three-and-a-half-year-old male, who consumes 5kg of meat a day and weighs almost 200kg. It will only leave its enclosure once it has been "booked"' by a hunter, most of whom are from the United States. At that point the big cat will be set loose in the wild for the first time in its life, 96 hours before the hunt begins. It usually takes about four days to track down the prey, with the trophy hunter following its trail on foot, accompanied by big-game professionals including Hermanus. He currently has 14 lions at his property near Groot Marico, about two and a half hours by road west of Johannesburg.

After the kill Hermanus will be paid $10,000, but he can boost his earnings further by selling the lion's bones to a Chinese dealer based in Durban. At $165 a kilo (an average figure obtained from several sources) the breeder will pocket something in the region of $5,000.

If his client does not want to keep the lion's head as a trophy, the skull will fetch another $1,100. "If you put your money in the bank you get 8% interest," he explains, "but at present lions show a 30% return."

According to several specialists the new market is soaring. "In the past three months we have issued as many export licences as in a whole year," says an official in Free State, home to most of South Africa's 200 lion breeders. In 2012 more than 600 lions were killed by trophy hunters. The most recent official figures date from 2009, certifying export of 92 carcasses to Laos and Vietnam. At about that time breeders started digging up the lion bones they had buried here and there, for lack of an outlet.

Asian traders started taking an interest in South African lions in 2008, when the decline in tiger numbers – now in danger of extinction – became acute. In traditional Chinese medicine, tiger wine, made using powdered bones, allegedly cures many ills including ulcers, cramp, rheumatism, stomach ache and malaria. The beverage is also claimed to have tonic qualities, boosting virility.

Despite the lack of scientific proof this potion is very popular, so with tiger bones increasingly scarce, vendors are replacing them with the remains of lions. Traders soon realised that South Africa could be a promising source. It is home to 4,000 to 5,000 captive lions, with a further 2,000 roaming freely in protected reserves such as the Kruger national park. Furthermore such trade is perfectly legal.

But a South African investigator, who has been working in this field for 35 years, paints a murky picture. "The legal market only accounts for about half the business, the other half depends on fraud and poaching, which make it possible to obtain bigger volumes, more quickly, and without attracting attention," he asserts, adding: "It's exactly the same people buying lion bones and poaching rhino horns. It's all connected." Sentenced to 40 years in prison last November for fraudulently obtaining and exporting rhino horns, the Thai trafficker Chumlong Lemtongthai also purchased lion bones on his trips to South Africa. "At the end of last year, at Johannesburg international airport, we intercepted several lion bones among bits of rhino horn and ivory, all in a packet ready for despatch," says Hugo Taljaard, head of the Revenue Service's detector dog units. In six months' time South Africa will have 16 dogs trained to detect the smell of lion bones, compared with only two at present.

In June 2012 an online petition calling on President Jacob Zuma to ban the export of lion bones and body parts attracted 750,000 signatures. "The fact that the business is legal just fuels demand, but with the supply-side unable to keep up, buyers will increasingly switch to lions that are still in the wild, including elsewhere in Africa, despite them being endangered," warns Pieter Kat at the NGO LionAid. "To prevent that risk, it would be better to let us cater for growing demand," counters Pieter Potgieter, head of the South African Predator Breeders Association.

"As the price of bones is rising steadily, some breeders have started slaughtering their own lions, without obtaining a permit or getting a vet to put the animal to sleep," says a fraud inspector. "But with the present wave of rhino poaching, we've neither the time nor the resources to address the problem."

• This story appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde

[Richprins]

Ja...it is not illegal, and lion are not endangered. Strange that lion bones can replace tiger bones so easily...tells you something about the gullibility, or more probably the desperation to show off amongst the growing number of enabled consumers in Asia.

Notice the Chinese connection AGAIN...

[Sprocky]

They will find a need for anything that occurs naturally in any part of the world except for China!

This is just another small part of their big plan to take over the small areas of the world that they don't already control.