Since our last update and the encouraging article on the front page of the Daily Telegraph ( see our previous update), there has been a very disappointing silence from the UK Government about progress on a ban on lion trophy imports into the UK ! Not a word either from the MPs we again wrote to in the last two weeks. Now the Parliamentary summer recess beckons. We will keep pushing to keep reminding one and all that stopping lion trophy hunting is an urgent priority and needs to be urgently addressed.
You may have seen in the UK Times newspaper that WWF have allegedly completely changed their minds on their previous support of trophy hunting as a conservation measure. It is notable that while this supposed U turn is now being widely circulated, WWF themselves have never made any sort of official statement to this effect. Their website still endorses trophy hunting under certain conditions as a conservation tool. We have today contacted WWF to ask for confirmation of this welcome U turn but so far, they have not got back to us. We will keep you posted!
In the meantime, there has yet again been discussion in the media about how many wild lions are left in Africa and the best way to count them.
Strangely, for a species so iconic, we have no good estimates. Note we said “estimates” and not numbers, and this should reveal much.
The IUCN (supposedly an organisation keeping tabs on species numbers and publishing via their “Red Book” based on “expert opinion”) has no idea, but has come down from an original estimate of 34,000 to “more likely 20,000” in 2017.
Lions, being thin on the ground where they might still occur, are supposedly “difficult to count”. Well, that could be resolved by putting proper funding into independent lion counts. Compared to elephant surveys and the like, this could require much less money actually.
Why? Because all those few lions live in a few small places on the African continent. Five places, to be exact, can claim more than 500 lions in local populations. One supposedly in South Africa – Kruger National Park. No official count since at least 20 years. Another is in northern Botswana. No official lion count since 2002. Another is in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania. No reliable lion count with valid techniques ever. Another is the Serengeti/Mara in Tanzania/Kenya. No reliable counts of lions for decades across that ecosystem.
And on it goes. And sadly, whenever people do come to do some lion counts where there are supposed to be “plenty” come up empty-handed. In southern Angola, 1,000 supposed lions turned to maybe 10 when surveyed properly? And on it goes.
Kenya claims 1,700 lions but these numbers are decades old. Nobody is counting in even this supposed “leader among wildlife conservation nations”.
It is all a mess and a muddle – and not acceptable. Lions have always been put in the back of the urgent conservation queue, and this has led to further and further declines. There are way more elephants, chimpanzees, white rhinos, lowland gorillas, polar bears, Sumatran orangutans, even pangolins and blue whales - than lions.
If we want to conserve lions, we need to start with reliable population counts of what is left and put strong conservation effort into those populations most likely to survive into the future.
We need GOOD lion counts, not unreliable numbers. LionAid has experience in lion counts, with Dr Pieter Kat having conducted the last lion count in the Okavango Delta in Botswana at the request of the Botswana Government back in 1999, and he knows the best way to conduct a scientific, reliable count.
In essence, it requires baited calling stations, camera traps, individual identification, even tracks on the ground. Put it all in the pot, stir with good statistical methods, and then repeat in the same places a year later.
LionAid was discussing such a lion count with the Tanzania Government, in one of the remaining important strongholds, in the Selous Game Reserve, before COVID put a stop for now to all the preparations. We will resume this work as soon as conditions allow.
Lions are owed the highest level of attention and LionAid will continue to seek ways to combat the complacency that is surely killing the cat.