The Lion: An Introduction

Lions are like the best animal in the world!

Africa’s lion population appears to be declining at an alarming rate. NATURE’s The Vanishing Lions searches for explanations and solutions to the troubling trend. Across Africa, the King of Beasts is in trouble. In the late 20th century, wildlife preserves were created to curtail safari hunting, but the African lion population continues to decline. Their numbers have dwindled from 100,000 in the early 1990s to no more than 30,000 and as few as 16,000 today. What could be endangering the King of Beasts? In the mid-1990s a mysterious disease spread rapidly through the lion population in Tanzania and Kenya. An investigation revealed that the big cats had contracted canine distemper from jackals and hyenas that were picking it up from dogs in nearby villages. The spread of the disease was quickly halted and today lion numbers in the affected areas are back to previous levels. If canine distemper was halted, why have lions continued to decline? An ever-expanding human population has led to competition between herders and lions for land and food. Lions living at the edge of the preserves sometimes stray from protected areas in search of easy prey. The Maasai and other ranchers will often kill them to protect their livestock and source of livelihood. But as NATURE’s The Vanishing Lions shows, Africans are now struggling to reverse the decline. Everyone from scientists and conservationists to Maasai herders and ranchers is working together to find solutions. Travel to Kenya’s famed Serengeti Plains, the wildlife-rich Laikipia Plateau, and elsewhere in Africa as NATURE explores efforts to allow people and lions to coexist and prosper.

The more I see men the more I like animals. Thanks.

At present there are around 450 lions in Gir Forest of Gujarat. The forest is spread in an area of approximately 1250 Sq. Km., which according to wild life experts is not enough to sustain this many numbers of carnivorous. That is why every now and then, these wild animals are encroaching in nearby villages and attacks on human beings and their livestock have been a regular phenomena. There was a suggestion from the expert bodies in wild life that certain amount of lions from Gir be shifted to other forests in Central India. However, this was not acceptable to political masters of the state of Gujarat, as they fear of losing their status of only abode of Asiatic lion. What happens, if there is epidemic spread around Gir forest and survival of this animal in this area is in danger.

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