Check out this great post by Maymie Higgins. It is an excellent, short and to the point summary of the current state of lion conservation.
African lions (Panthera leo) are possibly the most iconic species of all time, yet their populations are in free fall. I just finished watching a documentary called “The Last Lions,” and it stated that 50 years ago there were as many as 450,000 wild lions in Africa. Now there may be as few as 20,000.
Check out Maymie’s post to learn more. Also, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List has some important information about this most charismatic of animals.
Cecil the lion at Hwange National Park (4516560206) by Daughter#3 – Cecil. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cecil_the_lion_at_Hwange_National_ParkPark_(4516560206).jpg
Scientific Name:Panthera leo
Panthera is latin for leopard. Leo is latin for lion.
Taxonomy currently used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources SSC Cat Specialist Group to refer to lion subspecies includes Panthera leo persica for Asian subpopulations and Panthera leo leo for African subpopulations.
Where African Lions Live:
Lions are found in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa. According to the IUCN, outside sub-Saharan Africa, the Lion formerly ranged from northern Africa through southwest Asia (where it disappeared from most countries within the last 150 years), west into Europe, where it apparently became extinct almost 2,000 years ago, and east into India (Nowell and Jackson 1996, Sunquist and Sunquist 2002). Today, the only remainder of this once widespread northern population is a…
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Thanks, Josh! Big cats need all the heroes we can muster.
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You’re welcome, and thanks for all your hard work!
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