Lions are in danger of completely disappearing from West Africa. Formerly thriving in the entire West African region, from Senegal to Nigeria, now there could be fewer than 250 adults left, all confined to less than 1 percent of their historic range.
The risk of lions becoming extinct soon in West Africa has been documented in a new study, led by Philipp Henschel, of the wild cat conservation group Panthera, and published in the journal PLOS ONE. Henschel's team spent six years, between October 2006 and May 2012, surveying the lions of West Africa with remote camera, counts of lion tracks, and interviews with people.
The study found that about 400 adult and juvenile lions existed West Africa, and they actually inhabit only four of the 21 separate countries in the region. These countries are Senegal, Nigeria and the borderlands between Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso.
"Individuals are limited in their choice of mates, Henschel said in an interview, "and end up reproducing with closely related individuals. Such inbreeding reduces the genetic fitness of sired offspring, which, in lions, manifests itself in lower reproductive success caused by lower sperm counts and higher rates of abnormal sperm in males,"
The study recommended that conservation efforts should be intensified and budgets for conservation parks and personnel should be beefed up by government, especially as less than 35,000 lions remain in Africa to date, which is only about a quarter of the species' original range. The gradual disappearance of lions across Africa has been a result of growing human population and livestock herds, which competed with the lions and other wildlife for use of the land. Agriculture and animal farming already required land, and so savannahs were converted to for their use.
The West African lions involved in the study are a genetically distinct species from the ones found inside game parks in East and southern Africa. They are closely related to the extinct Barbary Lions that once roamed North Africa. West African lions are also similar to the Asiatic lions in India, that are also struggling to survive.
"Lions have undergone a catastrophic collapse in West Africa," Dr. Luke Hunter, Panthera's President and co-author of the paper, said in a statement. "The countries that have managed to retain them are struggling with pervasive poverty and very little funding for conservation. To save the lion - and many other critically endangered mammals - will require a massive commitment of resources from the international community."
