World Lion Day: The King of Beasts Is Running Out of Time

Today, on World Lion Day, there’s a hard truth worth sitting with: the animal we’ve turned into a symbol of strength and courage on flags, crests, and logos across the globe is disappearing from the wild at an alarming rate — and much of the world still isn’t paying attention.

The Numbers Are Worse Than Most People Realise

According to LionAid’s most recent continent-wide assessment, a comprehensive synthesis of wild lion numbers across Africa’s range states, just 13,014 lions remain in eastern and southern Africa, with a further 342 in western and central Africa — a combined total of roughly 13,356 wild lions left on the entire continent. That western and central African figure is itself a steep decline from the charity’s previous estimate of 410 lions in the region, underlining just how fast these genetically distinct populations are vanishing.

Put that in perspective: Africa is estimated to have had around 200,000 lions a century ago, and even a decade ago estimates hovered around 30,000. Lions now survive in only a handful of countries, and are considered highly vulnerable in around a quarter of the nations where they’re still found at all. This isn’t a slow decline — it’s a collapse happening largely out of public view, masked by the fact that lions remain highly visible in tourist hotspots and zoos, creating a false sense that all is well.

The UK Still Hasn’t Banned Lion Trophy Imports
Here’s the part that should make British readers uncomfortable: despite years of campaigning by LionAid and other conservation groups, the UK still has not banned the import of lion trophies.

This isn’t for lack of trying, or even lack of political promises. A ban on hunting trophy imports has been a manifesto commitment under two different UK governments. Conservative MP Henry Smith’s Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill passed through the House of Commons with cross-party support, only to be blocked by a filibuster in the House of Lords. Since then, further attempts — including a bill from Labour MP John Spellar and, more recently, one from David Reed MP — have repeatedly stalled or been delayed.

Along the way, the campaign has faced pushback dressed up as principle: claims that a ban would amount to “neo-colonial” interference in African nations’ affairs, and even direct lobbying from the US government against the legislation. LionAid and others have consistently pushed back on this framing, pointing out that countries regulate what crosses their borders all the time, and that the actual conservation benefits claimed for trophy hunting rarely stand up to scrutiny.

The result is that, more than a decade after this was first promised, British hunters can still legally bring home lion heads, skins, and other body parts as trophies.

A Petition That Refuses to Be Ignored
This LionAid petition has been running since  2019, calling on the UK government to ban lion trophy hunting imports. Seven years on, that petition has now passed over 910,000 signatures — a staggering show of public support that stands in sharp contrast to the political inertia in Westminster.

That’s nearly a million people who’ve taken the time to add their name and say, in effect, that they don’t want the UK to be part of a trade in the body parts of an animal that may not survive this century in the wild. If you haven’t signed it yet, today — World Lion Day — is as good a day as any.

What This Day Should Really Be About

World Lion Day isn’t just an excuse to post a nice photo of a lion on social media. With barely over 13,000 lions left across the whole of Africa, and legislation that could remove one small but symbolic driver of their decline still stuck in political limbo nearly a decade after it was first promised, this is a moment to ask what we’re actually willing to do about it.

Signing a petition won’t save lions on its own. But nearly a million signatures on a single petition is exactly the kind of pressure that eventually turns promises into policy — if the politicians in question stop finding reasons to look away.

Please consider donating to LionAid this World Lion Day

Nearly a million people have signed this petition — proof that public opinion is firmly on the side of lions. But turning that pressure into an actual ban takes sustained work: lobbying MPs, countering the misinformation pushed by the hunting lobby, and keeping this issue in front of the politicians who keep letting it stall.

LionAid does that work year-round, on a shoestring, because we believe lions are worth fighting for. If you've signed this petition and want to do one thing more, a donation — however small — helps us keep pushing until this ban is actually law.

Donate to LionAid

Thank you for standing with us, and with the lions.

Photo credit: Martin Fowkes