Lions have indeed undergone catastrophic declines since the commercialization of livestock ranching and agriculture in Africa, and are now only secure in a handful of and are on the brink of extinction in all but the largest and best-managed protected areas. Outside of these places, lions are in grave trouble. However, with funding, capacity improvement and strong policy, they could make a spectacular recovery and become important assets to rural economies.
We will never know just how many lions there were, but measured trends in recent decades are alarming. Today, lions are extinct in 26 African countries, have vanished from over 95 percent of their historic range, and experts estimate that there are only about 20,000 left in the wild. Though lions still exist in 28 African countries and one Asian country, only six protected area complexes are known to support more than 1,000 lions. Thankfully there they remain safe for the foreseeable future, but in about 60 other protected areas the situation is far less secure.
Lions are currently listed as "Vulnerable" on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. In West Africa, the species is now classified as "Critically Endangered”. Any further rapid reclines may see lions listed as “Endangered” across their range.
Lions are most significantly impacted by illegal bushmeat hunting and body part trade, conflict with local people due to livestock depredation, habitat loss and fragmentation and to a lesser extent by unsustainable trophy hunting. The rise of poaching for body parts is especially alarming and might mean the end of many smaller less well-protected lion populations.
Download our Lion Fact Sheet to learn more about the lion.
Download our report:
Beyond Cecil: Africa's Lions in Crisis which can also be
downloaded in Swahili.
“Protected areas are at the heart of the formula to save Africa’s lions, and to ensure the species lives on, lions and their wild landscapes require nothing short of a wealthy and immediate investment from the global community and a restructuring of the policy environment in most range states," - Dr. Paul Funston, Lion Program Director.