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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=lions&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/lions/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Nov 2026 11:38:27 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Lions</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/lions/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>The value of South Africa’s wildlife shouldn&#8217;t be in the hands of wealthy foreign hunters (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 12:07:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stephanie Klarmann]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/27145726/gemsbok-Oryx-gazella-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318405</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Commentary, Conservation, Ecotourism, Environment, Ethics, Hunting, Lions, Predators, Top Predators, Trade, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[South Africa’s conservation debate is too often anchored within the blunt slogan, “If it pays, it stays.” At face value, this appears pragmatic, even responsible. But there’s a troubling premise underneath it: the survival of South Africa’s wildlife depends on its ability to generate an enormous income for a select group of wealthy farmers and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[South Africa’s conservation debate is too often anchored within the blunt slogan, “If it pays, it stays.” At face value, this appears pragmatic, even responsible. But there’s a troubling premise underneath it: the survival of South Africa’s wildlife depends on its ability to generate an enormous income for a select group of wealthy farmers and professional hunters from an even wealthier foreign clientele. According to this logic, wildlife is protected not because it is ecologically vital, culturally significant, or ethically deserving of life, but purely because it can be killed for a hefty price. When conservation is built on the premise that wildlife must pay its way to exist, we should ask not only who benefits, but what is being lost, and at whose expense. Each year I examine the professional hunting statistics provided to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to demand transparency regarding how South Africa’s wildlife is being utilized for financial gain. The most recently available statistics (for 2024) show a substantial increase of 17%: 7,756 visitors killed 40,508 wild animals (if one includes indigenous mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and exotic mammals also killed). For proponents of the euphemistically termed “sustainable use,” this will naturally look like a significant success. But can we continue to justify the continuous intensification and amplification of commercial wildlife use on ecological and ethical grounds? Number of animals hunted and hunting clients in South Africa, 2018-2024. Table provided by the author. ‘If it pays, it stays’ Superficially, this phrase&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-value-of-south-africas-wildlife-shouldnt-be-in-the-hands-of-wealthy-foreign-hunters-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318405</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationist wins top award to protect lions and people in Zimbabwe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 02:49:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/28190853/a-Moreangels_Mbizah_2026_Zimbabwe_Chizarira_National_Park_Moreangels_Mbizah_Posing_During_Lion_Tracking_Session_01-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318318</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Lions, Mammals, Predators, Solutions, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lion conservationist Moreangels Mbizah and her colleagues chose the name “Batabilili” for the community guardians they’re training in northern Zimbabwe. The word means &#8220;protectors&#8221; in the local language, Tonga, and its meaning cuts both ways: the guardians protect people and their livestock from lions, and lions from people. Both jobs are essential in this part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lion conservationist Moreangels Mbizah and her colleagues chose the name “Batabilili” for the community guardians they’re training in northern Zimbabwe. The word means &#8220;protectors&#8221; in the local language, Tonga, and its meaning cuts both ways: the guardians protect people and their livestock from lions, and lions from people. Both jobs are essential in this part of the Southern African country. When cattle are killed by lions, the economic losses suffered by families are considerable; when farmers retaliate by killing lions, it worsens the plight of an emblematic species, Panthera leo, now vulnerable to extinction across the continent. “In some cases these lions are female lions and at times some of them would have cubs, so when the females die [at the hands of people] the cubs would probably die [also],” says Mbizah, who is the winner of one of this year’s Whitley Awards, prestigious international conservation prizes given out annually by the U.K.’s Whitley Fund for Nature. A young lion at rest. Image courtesy of the Whitley Fund for Nature. The 50,000-pound ($67,500) prize money will go toward supporting the work by Mbizah’s NGO, Wildlife Conservation Action, in three additional rural wards — small administrative areas comprising clusters of villages and around 4,800 people — that are prone to human-carnivore conflict. This will include the recruitment of six new Batabilili. The protectors head out early each morning to look for tracks or droppings and warn farmers about the presence of predators or elephants (Loxodonta africana) so that they can avoid&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318318</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>George Schaller: The field biologist who helped redefine conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/george-schaller-the-field-biologist-who-helped-redefine-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/george-schaller-the-field-biologist-who-helped-redefine-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2026 12:08:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/13210433/Art31_52830005-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317452</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Brazil, China, Global, India, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Bears, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Books, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Endangered Species, Environmental Heroes, Gorillas, Great Apes, Jaguars, Lions, Mammals, Pandas, Primates, Protected Areas, Research, Snow Leopards, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some lives seem to belong less to a nation or a profession than to a disposition. George B. Schaller’s was one of them. He belonged, above all, to animals—gorillas, lions, tigers, snow leopards, pandas—and to the landscapes that still made room for them. In Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some lives seem to belong less to a nation or a profession than to a disposition. George B. Schaller’s was one of them. He belonged, above all, to animals—gorillas, lions, tigers, snow leopards, pandas—and to the landscapes that still made room for them. In Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller, Miriam Horn attempts something both straightforward and unusually difficult: to write a full biography of a man who spent most of his life turning his attention away from himself. Schaller is not obscure. He is widely regarded as the most important field biologist of the twentieth century, a figure whose work reshaped zoology, conservation biology, and the way humans think about animal lives. Yet he remains oddly resistant to biography. He disliked introspection, avoided publicity, and wrote sparingly about his own emotions even when describing moments of extreme danger or revelation. Horn’s achievement is to take this reticence seriously rather than try to overcome it. The result is a book that is expansive without being intrusive, admiring without being reverential, and alert to ambiguity even when recounting an extraordinary career. The arc of Schaller’s life has the shape of an adventure story, though Horn is careful not to write one. Born in Berlin in 1933 to an American mother and a German diplomat father, Schaller’s early years were marked by displacement, war, and a persistent sense of not quite belonging. His childhood moved across Nazi Germany, occupied Europe, and eventually the United States. These experiences&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/george-schaller-the-field-biologist-who-helped-redefine-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/george-schaller-the-field-biologist-who-helped-redefine-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317452</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study finds livestock pushing lions away from shared rangeland in Kenya</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2026 20:05:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/12195736/Lions_Kenya_MaraPredatorConservationProgram-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315684</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Lions, Mammals, National Parks, Pasture, Predators, Solutions, Top Predators, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions, Africa’s largest predators, are a near-universal source of fear for the continent’s wildlife. But in Kenya, it’s the king of the jungle that’s now becoming fearful — of domestic livestock. In Kenya, most wildlife is found outside formally protected areas. The lions, zebras and elephants that attract tourists mostly live in pastoralist rangeland. For [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lions, Africa’s largest predators, are a near-universal source of fear for the continent’s wildlife. But in Kenya, it’s the king of the jungle that’s now becoming fearful — of domestic livestock. In Kenya, most wildlife is found outside formally protected areas. The lions, zebras and elephants that attract tourists mostly live in pastoralist rangeland. For farmers and herders, this can be both a curse — coexistence is hard work where predators sometimes attack livestock and cattle compete with wild herbivores for grass — and a blessing — many community-owned conservancies profitably lease portions of their land to tourism operators for safaris and lodges, generating revenue for their members. In most conservancies’ grazing plans, herders can make use of the entire landscape. This allows grazing pressure to be more evenly distributed, but it also assumes that when herders and their livestock aren’t present in an area, other herbivores and the predators that hunt them make free use of the space. Niels Mogensen, a biologist with the Mara Predator Conservation Program, a Kenya Wildlife Trust initiative aimed at preserving large carnivores, says no one had actually checked to see if this was true before now. A lioness with cubs, Mara Conservancy, Kenya. Image by Ross Pollack via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).  Between 2015 and 2023, he and his colleagues carried out surveys at seven community-owned wildlife conservancies in the Mara ecosystem. They covered nearly 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) in total, collecting data about the presence of lions, and wild and domestic herbivores.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315684</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA fingerprinting convicts Zimbabwe lion poachers in landmark case</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2026 13:55:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05091917/lions-feasting-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315236</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Crime, DNA, Environment, Environmental Law, Lions, Mammals, Poaching, Technology, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A CSI-style investigation in Zimbabwe helped to successfully prosecute two people for killing a lion and trafficking its teeth, flesh and other body parts in February. Forensic specialists analyzed DNA collected from parts seized by authorities and matched it with a radio-collared lion that was killed two years ago. This conviction was historic: It’s the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A CSI-style investigation in Zimbabwe helped to successfully prosecute two people for killing a lion and trafficking its teeth, flesh and other body parts in February. Forensic specialists analyzed DNA collected from parts seized by authorities and matched it with a radio-collared lion that was killed two years ago. This conviction was historic: It’s the world’s first case to use a lion’s genetic material and trace it back to an individual to pin down wildlife criminals. The two defendants were sentenced to two years in prison for their crimes. The conviction is tied to a 2024 case in which poachers snared and killed a male lion near Hwange National Park, close to the world-famous Victoria Falls. Researchers knew this particular lion, as they’d tracked its movements as part of a study. When they captured and anesthetized the cat to fit it with a radio collar some years ago, biologists took blood samples and logged its genetic and health information into their database. Investigators used that DNA data to trace the origins of seized lion parts, which included three bags of meat, 16 claws and four teeth that were to be sold on the black market. Parts from captive-bred lions can be traded internationally and in Zimbabwe with the appropriate paperwork, but the sellers didn’t have permits, and proving these seized parts came from a wild lion and not a captive-bred one was key to this case. That would mean poaching, which is  illegal. African lions are the most-traded wildcats in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315236</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Botswana shows how smarter cattle herding can save lions, reopen ancient wildlife pathways</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/botswana-shows-how-smarter-cattle-herding-can-save-lions-reopen-ancient-wildlife-pathways/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/botswana-shows-how-smarter-cattle-herding-can-save-lions-reopen-ancient-wildlife-pathways/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Feb 2026 13:51:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/20101714/africa-lion-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314550</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Pastoralists in a Changing World]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Botswana, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Human-wildlife Conflict, Lions, Mammals, Predators, Solutions, Top Predators, Traditional Knowledge, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The lions that roamed the plains of northern Botswana were dying. One by one, the big cats were succumbing to poisoned bait planted by exasperated villagers. The lions had been chipping away at their livelihood, feasting on the cattle that they left to graze along the Okavango Delta. By the end of 2013, around 30 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The lions that roamed the plains of northern Botswana were dying. One by one, the big cats were succumbing to poisoned bait planted by exasperated villagers. The lions had been chipping away at their livelihood, feasting on the cattle that they left to graze along the Okavango Delta. By the end of 2013, around 30 lions — more than half of the northern Okavango population — had been killed in just one year. More than a decade later, the situation is radically different. The lion population has rebounded. Cub survival rate is up. And cattle losses are dramatically down. It’s the result of years of hard work: restoring traditional herding practices, collaring and tracking lions, and, most recently, establishing a market for ‘wildlife-friendly beef.’ This serves as a model, wildlife advocates say, for other parts of southern Africa where modern grazing practices have collided with big cats’ appetites. “It can be adapted to just about anywhere,” said Andrew Stein, the founder of Communities Living Sustainably Among Wildlife (CLAWS) Conservancy, which is based in Botswana. In the last 25 years, more than half the lions have vanished from the plains of Africa, largely due to conflicts with communities. As human populations have expanded, the animal’s range has shrunk, leaving remnant isolated groups. Today, there are fewer than 25,000 lions left across the continent. But in southern Africa, one large continuous population still roams the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), the world’s largest transnational land-based protected area, which runs across Angola,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/botswana-shows-how-smarter-cattle-herding-can-save-lions-reopen-ancient-wildlife-pathways/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/botswana-shows-how-smarter-cattle-herding-can-save-lions-reopen-ancient-wildlife-pathways/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Women can help rebuild our relationship with lions: Voices from the land (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/women-can-help-rebuild-our-relationship-with-lions-voices-from-the-land-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/women-can-help-rebuild-our-relationship-with-lions-voices-from-the-land-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2025 03:31:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mama SimbaVictoria Wanjohi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/06031845/Mama-Simba-Image-by-Anthony-Ochieng-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308927</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Voices from the Land]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Gender, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Lions, Mammals, Religions, Solutions, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where the impacts of these urgent crises are deeply felt, but also where solutions are rooted. Through this series, we speak from our territories, and ensure our truths are part of the global conversation. We, the Mama Simba (&#8220;Mothers of Lions&#8221; in Kiswahili) from Samburu, Kenya, have come a long way since we first approached the organization Ewaso Lions to become actively involved in its conservation work. Since 2007, Ewaso Lions has been working to support human-lion coexistence in a region of northern Kenya, today home to nearly 60 lions. When they were approached by us women from the Samburu community in 2013, it was a sign that a shift was about to happen — we wanted to be decision-makers in conservation efforts that concern us. However, with every new initiative comes a new challenge. Would we be accepted as decision makers? The program, Mama Simba, was built on the premise that if women, historically excluded from conservation decisions despite bearing its greatest burdens, were encouraged to lead conservation efforts, we could transform our community&#8217;s relationship with lions from conflict to coexistence. It acknowledged that lasting change requires shifting power, not just perceptions. This sounds good&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/women-can-help-rebuild-our-relationship-with-lions-voices-from-the-land-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/women-can-help-rebuild-our-relationship-with-lions-voices-from-the-land-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308927</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study reveals overlooked cultural threat to wildcats across Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-reveals-overlooked-cultural-threat-to-wildcats-across-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-reveals-overlooked-cultural-threat-to-wildcats-across-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 13:52:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22133238/2_GarethWhittington-JonesPanthera-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308139</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Leopards, Lions, Poaching, Research, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE ― Habitat loss and direct persecution of large carnivores are well-documented threats, but the role that cultural demand plays in the fortunes of many species of wildcats is poorly understood. In a study published in March 2025, researchers found that alongside servals and cheetahs, leopards and lions — both classed as vulnerable on the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE ― Habitat loss and direct persecution of large carnivores are well-documented threats, but the role that cultural demand plays in the fortunes of many species of wildcats is poorly understood. In a study published in March 2025, researchers found that alongside servals and cheetahs, leopards and lions — both classed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List — are among the most commonly exploited species. Study co-author Marine Drouilly told Mongabay by email that many conservation efforts fail because they don’t consider local beliefs and traditions. “While threats such as habitat loss and poaching for bushmeat are well-documented, cultural practices — such as the use of skins, bones, and other parts in rituals, traditional medicine, or social status symbols — are often overlooked,” said Drouilly, the carnivore monitoring coordinator for West and Central Africa at wildcat conservation NGO Panthera. A young female leopard rests on a fallen tree trunk in South Africa&#8217;s Sabi Sand Nature Reserve. Image courtesy of Panthera. Genet, serval and black-backed jackal skins, at the Faraday market, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2017. Image courtesy of Jacob Calle/Panthera. There are more than 2,000 ethnolinguistic groups in Africa, each with its own distinctive customs. “Many of these cultures have traditions of using wildlife for purposes such as attire, zootherapy (medicine) and bushmeat, but the pervasive usage of carnivore parts, especially in traditional ceremonies, has not received the level of consideration it seems to warrant,” Drouilly and her fellow researchers write. Among the better-known examples of cultural demand for wildcat&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-reveals-overlooked-cultural-threat-to-wildcats-across-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-reveals-overlooked-cultural-threat-to-wildcats-across-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308139</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Northern Cameroon’s lions are reproducing, but concerns remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/northern-cameroons-lions-are-reproducing-but-concerns-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/northern-cameroons-lions-are-reproducing-but-concerns-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2025 15:29:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leocadia Bongben]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/30060937/Photo-6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306792</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, GPS, Lions, Livestock, Mammals, Monitoring, National Parks, Poaching, Species, Tracking, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Real-time monitoring has captured images of lionesses with cubs in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park, but conservationists warn human pressure makes it unlikely all the cubs will reach adulthood. There are now an estimated 60-80 lions in the 220,000-hectare (544,000-acre) park in the country’s far north. “All collared lionesses have had cubs, signaling successful reproduction,” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Real-time monitoring has captured images of lionesses with cubs in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park, but conservationists warn human pressure makes it unlikely all the cubs will reach adulthood. There are now an estimated 60-80 lions in the 220,000-hectare (544,000-acre) park in the country’s far north. “All collared lionesses have had cubs, signaling successful reproduction,” Matthieu Finiels, deputy director of the northern Cameroon landscape for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told Mongabay. In August 2024, Cameroonian biologists and rangers from WCS and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) fitted seven lions in the park with GPS collars. A year earlier, in 2023, local conservation NGO BEDD had also collared three lions, bringing the total to 10. The collars ping the lions’ locations four times a day via satellite, enabling conservationists to monitor the big cats’ movements. &#8220;We can proactively prioritize those areas for patrols, ensuring protection from poachers,&#8221; Paul Bour, WCS&#8217;s landscape director said in a press release after the collaring. Bour helps the Cameroonian government plan and prepare antipoaching patrols. Despite the birth of cubs, there are still concerns about their survival. Paul Funston, director of the NGO African Lion Conservation, who assisted in the collaring, warned of the likelihood that not all the cubs would survive to adulthood. Now known as Miss Bouba for her striking beauty, she is the fifth lion collared in Bouba Ndjida National Park. Image by Daniel Djekda/WCS. “It is difficult for lionesses to raise cubs,” he told Mongabay. “When the young lions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/northern-cameroons-lions-are-reproducing-but-concerns-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/northern-cameroons-lions-are-reproducing-but-concerns-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306792</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Counting kings: How annual lion surveys reveal the health of Africa’s protected areas (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/counting-kings-how-annual-lion-surveys-reveal-the-health-of-africas-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/counting-kings-how-annual-lion-surveys-reveal-the-health-of-africas-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2025 02:45:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jon Ayers]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/29020659/south_africa_kruger_0297z-25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306701</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Carnivores, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Environment, Green, Lions, Mammals, Predators, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On a dawn drive through a savannah reserve in Zambia, a ranger slows the truck and points to a faint trail in the dust. It is not the spoor of an antelope or a stray cow. It is the print of a lioness moving with her cubs toward a waterhole. In another era, such sightings [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a dawn drive through a savannah reserve in Zambia, a ranger slows the truck and points to a faint trail in the dust. It is not the spoor of an antelope or a stray cow. It is the print of a lioness moving with her cubs toward a waterhole. In another era, such sightings were a matter of pride and anecdote. Today, they are data points. Each paw print, each camera image, and each confirmed pride member feeds into a growing network of annual lion surveys across sub-Saharan Africa. Those surveys are telling managers and funders something that budgets and patrol logs cannot: whether protected areas are holding their ground or slipping. Lions are more than charismatic megafauna. They are architects of ecosystem dynamics in the savannah food web, shaping the balance of species and the landscapes they inhabit. One apex predator can influence hundreds of plant and animal species by shaping grazing pressure, predator competition, and the movement of prey. When lions vanish, the balance frays. Herbivores boom or crash, vegetation shifts, and even fire regimes change. Reintroductions rarely restore the original equilibrium. In ecological terms, the “king” is a keystone. Lions in South Africa. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler That makes lions a uniquely revealing indicator of management effectiveness. Unlike rare endemics confined to a single park, lions occur naturally in a number of Africa’s large protected areas. Unlike elephants, whose numbers can mask habitat degradation, lions decline quickly when prey is overhunted or corridors are severed.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/counting-kings-how-annual-lion-surveys-reveal-the-health-of-africas-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/counting-kings-how-annual-lion-surveys-reveal-the-health-of-africas-protected-areas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306701</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Learning to live with lions: Interview with Claw Conservancy’s Andrew Stein</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/learning-to-live-with-lions-interview-with-claw-conservancys-andrew-stein/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/learning-to-live-with-lions-interview-with-claw-conservancys-andrew-stein/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2025 06:30:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/15060548/pexels-elena-blessing-355784-2674052-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304316</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Botswana, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Human-wildlife Conflict, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Lions, Livestock, Predators, Protected Areas, Technology, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Andrew Stein had been working across Africa for more than 15 years when he first heard of lion poisoning incidents in Botswana. In a bid to protect their livestock, communities were poisoning the big cats when they came close to their villages. It was a precarious situation. On one hand, populations of lions (Panthera leo) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Andrew Stein had been working across Africa for more than 15 years when he first heard of lion poisoning incidents in Botswana. In a bid to protect their livestock, communities were poisoning the big cats when they came close to their villages. It was a precarious situation. On one hand, populations of lions (Panthera leo) were rapidly declining across the continent. On the flip side, people had few other options to protect the source of their livelihood. “People were using poison because they were likely desperate,” Stein told Mongabay in a video interview. “They saw no other alternative to managing the issues that they were facing.” That led him to launch Claws Conservancy, a nonprofit that aims to balance the protection of lions with the needs of the community. “Something had to be done to alleviate the challenges of local people, but also ensure that this iconic species of Africa survives,” he said. Stein and his team have developed an automated real-time alert system that warns people if a lion is close by so that they can take preventive measures to protect themselves as well as their livestock. The initiative has so far enrolled 389 community members and issued more than 50,000 alerts in the last six years. As part of the initiative, the team also works with the communities to name individual lions in order to help create a connection between people and the animals. Andrew Stein spoke to Mongabay’s Abhishyant Kidangoor about why the work is crucial, how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/learning-to-live-with-lions-interview-with-claw-conservancys-andrew-stein/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/learning-to-live-with-lions-interview-with-claw-conservancys-andrew-stein/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trophies, body parts &#038; live animals dominate global lion trade, data show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/trophies-body-parts-live-animals-dominate-global-lion-trade-data-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/trophies-body-parts-live-animals-dominate-global-lion-trade-data-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2025 12:17:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex ShawSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/08112218/lion-africa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298793</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Global, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Lions, Poaching, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As apex predators, lions (Panthera leo) roam the African savanna, and occasionally even the rainforests, as the only social big cats. A small, isolated population of Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica), an endangered subspecies, is found in the scrublands of the Indian state of Gujarat. Their majestic manes, thunderous roars and regal presence have piqued [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As apex predators, lions (Panthera leo) roam the African savanna, and occasionally even the rainforests, as the only social big cats. A small, isolated population of Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica), an endangered subspecies, is found in the scrublands of the Indian state of Gujarat. Their majestic manes, thunderous roars and regal presence have piqued human fascination since the Stone Age — so much so that our ancestors drew them on cave walls. Even to this day, our enchantment with the world’s second-largest wildcat doesn’t seem to have ebbed, as the felines make up a lion’s share of the legal global wildcat trade. While the commercial trade of Asiatic lions, which are listed on Appendix I of CITES, isn&#8217;t permitted, African lions can be traded legally with permits — both as live individuals and body parts of dead lions. “The drivers for legal (and illegal) trade are diverse – as are the products,” wildlife trade researcher Vivienne Williams at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, told Mongabay in an email, adding that buyers and purposes of trade are also diverse. For instance, lion bones are in demand in Southeast Asia to substitute tiger bones in many traditional medicine prescriptions. Lion trophy hunting is a significant industry where hunters bring home a part of their kill. Captive-bred live lions are traded for entertainment purposes, circuses and private zoos. “Culturally and traditionally, lion parts are used and traded domestically, quite extensively across Africa,” Katrina Mole from TRAFFIC Africa told Mongabay. “​​That&#8217;s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/trophies-body-parts-live-animals-dominate-global-lion-trade-data-show/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/trophies-body-parts-live-animals-dominate-global-lion-trade-data-show/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298793</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What do CITES data tell us about the legal wildcat trade?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/what-do-cites-data-tell-us-about-the-legal-wildcat-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/what-do-cites-data-tell-us-about-the-legal-wildcat-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2025 11:08:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex ShawSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/07090017/south_africa_kruger_5040-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297138</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environmental Law, Leopards, Lions, Regulations, Research, Tigers, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Egypt’s feline gods, embroidered tigers on Chinese textiles, lions in Southern Africa’s San cave paintings and jaguars symbolizing military prowess in Mesoamerican cultures — all of them show how wildcats have penetrated human folklore and fascination. “These cats are historically and culturally very important to people across the globe,” says Gareth Whittington-Jones, director of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Egypt’s feline gods, embroidered tigers on Chinese textiles, lions in Southern Africa’s San cave paintings and jaguars symbolizing military prowess in Mesoamerican cultures — all of them show how wildcats have penetrated human folklore and fascination. “These cats are historically and culturally very important to people across the globe,” says Gareth Whittington-Jones, director of the Counter Wildlife Crime program at Panthera, an NGO that works on the conservation of wildcats. Our enchantment with wild felids has made them a widely traded commodity, both legally and illegally. All 40 species of wild cats are listed on CITES, the international wildlife trade agreement. The trade involves live animals, scientific specimens and body parts. A Bobcat in the United States. Image by Rhett Butler/Mongabay. “There&#8217;s very, very different types of trade,” says wildlife trade researcher Vincent Nijman from Oxford Brookes University, U.K., referring to the feline trade. Lynx (genus Lynx), found in colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere, are traded for their fur. Tigers (Panthera tigris) in Southeast Asia are in demand for their bones used in traditional medicine. Leopard (P. pardus) skins are sought after in Southern Africa for ceremonial purposes and lion (P. leo) body parts, such as bones and claws, are also sold. Many wildcats are also traded as live animals, either to zoos or private collectors and as taxidermied trophies. Nijman says each of these trade types “affect species very differently, and will be of a very different order of magnitude.” Trends in legal cat trade The CITES&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/what-do-cites-data-tell-us-about-the-legal-wildcat-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/what-do-cites-data-tell-us-about-the-legal-wildcat-trade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297138</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chain-link fencing protects livestock from big cat attacks in Tanzania: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chain-link-fencing-protects-livestock-from-big-cat-attacks-in-tanzania-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chain-link-fencing-protects-livestock-from-big-cat-attacks-in-tanzania-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2025 11:27:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gilbert Nakweya]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ochieng' Ogodo]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/31133122/1280px-Lion_Ruaha_National_Park_9_28407027344-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296737</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Carnivores, Cattle, Fences, Human-wildlife Conflict, Lions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI ― For the last two decades, Matambire Mgemaa, a pastoralist in southern Tanzania in the environs of Ruaha National Park, nighttime has meant staying vigilant to protect his goats, sheep and cattle from lion and leopard attacks in an area that is home to 10% of the world’s wild lions. “This [is] a hectic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI ― For the last two decades, Matambire Mgemaa, a pastoralist in southern Tanzania in the environs of Ruaha National Park, nighttime has meant staying vigilant to protect his goats, sheep and cattle from lion and leopard attacks in an area that is home to 10% of the world’s wild lions. “This [is] a hectic task. … I [spend] the whole day with the livestock outside, making sure they are fed, but I cannot sleep at night because I will lose them,” Mgemaa says. Because of their excellent night vision, which enables them to hunt more successfully in low light, lions, leopards and hyenas are mostly active at night, the time for their dinner. But a new study published this month in Conservation Letters has found that multiple medium- or high-density fortified enclosures in a neighborhood can shield livestock from the marauding carnivores, as they avoid such areas. The researchers reveal that such fortified pens not only help those who have them reduce attacks on their livestock but also those of their neighbors. In southern Tanzania, a key landscape for large carnivore conservation, agropastoralists keep livestock in fenced compounds at night and herd them to community grazing lands during the day. On average, Mgemaa and his neighbors have lost two of their livestock weekly to the carnivores, but the attacks have drastically reduced. Early in 2024, Mgemaa constructed a chain-link corral to prevent his livestock from being raided in the night by carnivores. Winston Mtandamo, field operations manager at conservation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chain-link-fencing-protects-livestock-from-big-cat-attacks-in-tanzania-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chain-link-fencing-protects-livestock-from-big-cat-attacks-in-tanzania-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296737</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Malawi reserve, contraceptives help balance lion and prey populations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-malawi-reserve-contraceptives-help-balance-lion-and-prey-populations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-malawi-reserve-contraceptives-help-balance-lion-and-prey-populations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2025 16:26:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ochieng' Ogodo]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/19150017/Lions-%40-Majete-Picture-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296087</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Lions, National Parks, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi ― In 2012, African Parks, a conservation nonprofit, brought three lions to Malawi&#8217;s Majete Wildlife Reserve, ending the big cats&#8217; 30-year absence from the protected area. Since then, according to park officials, the number of lions has increased to about 80-100 today, raising the risk of prey depletion and conflict between humans and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi ― In 2012, African Parks, a conservation nonprofit, brought three lions to Malawi&#8217;s Majete Wildlife Reserve, ending the big cats&#8217; 30-year absence from the protected area. Since then, according to park officials, the number of lions has increased to about 80-100 today, raising the risk of prey depletion and conflict between humans and wildlife as the animals flee from the top predators. To minimize these risks and ensure balance in the ecosystem, African Parks has been administering contraceptives since 2022 to reduce the productivity of some lionesses and control the population in the 700-square-kilometer (270-square-mile) wildlife reserve, and that has led to a reduction in cub births. “The management strategy focuses on maintaining ecological balance, ensuring that predator and prey populations remain sustainable,” says Craig Thomas, conservation manager at the reserve. Lions are apex predators and their rising number in Majete Wildlife Reserve raises the risk of prey depletion. Image courtesy of Majete Wildlife Reserve. Established in 1951, Majete Wildlife Reserve in southern Malawi suffered decades of rampant charcoal production and poaching that wiped out all rhinos by the 1980s, all large carnivores by the 1990s and all elephants by 1992 when the last one was poached, according to the wildlife reserve&#8217;s conservation history. In 2003, African Parks signed an agreement with the Malawi government and assumed management of the reserve, the first of the 23 protected areas currently under African Parks’ responsibility in 13 African countries including Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-malawi-reserve-contraceptives-help-balance-lion-and-prey-populations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-malawi-reserve-contraceptives-help-balance-lion-and-prey-populations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296087</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study links African lion survival to prey availability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/study-links-african-lion-survival-to-prey-availability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/study-links-african-lion-survival-to-prey-availability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Feb 2025 12:44:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ochieng' Ogodo]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/21092318/south_africa_kruger_1038-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294828</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bushmeat, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Lions, Mammals, Poaching, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi ― African lions are declining due to the decrease in their herbivore prey, necessitating the need for increased prey protection measures to reverse this trend, a study says. According to the study published in the Conservation Science and Practice journal, preventing prey depletion can improve the lion’s reproduction and population growth in ecosystems [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi ― African lions are declining due to the decrease in their herbivore prey, necessitating the need for increased prey protection measures to reverse this trend, a study says. According to the study published in the Conservation Science and Practice journal, preventing prey depletion can improve the lion’s reproduction and population growth in ecosystems affected by poaching for bushmeat. Large carnivores, including lions, the authors say, are declining throughout Africa, and conservation initiatives targeted at halting and reversing the collapse of large herbivore prey are likely to reduce bushmeat poaching even in vast, unfenced habitats that are strongholds of most of the lions (Panthera leo). Lion scratching itself in the morning sun in Kenya. Image by Rhett Butler/Mongabay. Panthera, an international nonprofit organization whose work contributed to the findings of the study, says that lions, as well as leopards, sit at the top of the food chain and serve as “umbrella species.” When their populations thrive and become plentiful, it leads to the protection of a range of species that make up the ecological community of their habitats and allows ecosystems to thrive. “Combining improved protection with improved programs for community conservation and coexistence in and around the communities living with these populations should substantially improve the prospects for lion conservation,” the study says. The study lists prey depletion alongside trafficking of skins and parts, habitat loss and conflict with humans and livestock as reasons for the decline of the apex carnivores. Currently, the IUCN Red List classifies the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/study-links-african-lion-survival-to-prey-availability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/study-links-african-lion-survival-to-prey-availability/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294828</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uganda’s tree-climbing lions grow scarce amid nationwide decline of the big cat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ugandas-tree-climbing-lions-grow-scarce-amid-nationwide-decline-of-the-big-cat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ugandas-tree-climbing-lions-grow-scarce-amid-nationwide-decline-of-the-big-cat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2025 17:32:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gilbert Nakweya]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ochieng' Ogodo]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/29133241/QENP23-71-1-e1738158322956-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293574</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Carnivores, Cats, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Lions, Research, and Top Predators]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI ― Poisoning, poaching and loss of habitat have significantly reduced populations of lion prides in Uganda, signaling the need for long-term commitments to conservation action, researchers write in a recent study. In the first study of its kind conducted in nearly two decades, the researchers surveyed lions (Panthera leo), leopards (Panthera pardus) and spotted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI ― Poisoning, poaching and loss of habitat have significantly reduced populations of lion prides in Uganda, signaling the need for long-term commitments to conservation action, researchers write in a recent study. In the first study of its kind conducted in nearly two decades, the researchers surveyed lions (Panthera leo), leopards (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) in six protected areas across Uganda. They found a nearly 50% decline in some of Uganda’s most iconic lion populations over the past decade, including the famous tree-climbing lions of Queen Elizabeth National Park. That population, and one in Kidepo Valley National Park, have hit critical lows, according to the study. Queen Elizabeth National Park now has about 40 lions, while Kidepo has about 22. Murchison Falls National Park remains Uganda’s lion center, with about 240 of the big cats, according to the study. It also has one of the highest densities of leopards in Africa, at about 14 individuals per 100 square kilometers. Study lead author Alex Braczkowski, a research fellow at Griffith University in Australia, said Uganda has emerged as a prominent tourism destination for lion viewing, with Queen Elizabeth National Park a key draw because of the tree-climbing cats. “This is a sighting that one will never forget as long as they live. Eight lions wedged in a euphorbia tree is simply incredible! Apart from the conservation ramifications, lions are a key part of the tourism economy,” he said. Lion inside Queen Elizabeth National Park. Image by Ashoka Mukpo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ugandas-tree-climbing-lions-grow-scarce-amid-nationwide-decline-of-the-big-cat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ugandas-tree-climbing-lions-grow-scarce-amid-nationwide-decline-of-the-big-cat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293574</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Where do illegal lion parts come from? A new tool offers answers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/where-do-illegal-lion-parts-come-from-a-new-tool-offers-answers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/where-do-illegal-lion-parts-come-from-a-new-tool-offers-answers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2023 07:42:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/12142939/ansie-potgieter-GV2LxPJArgQ-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276615</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Critically Endangered Species, DNA, Education, Endangered Species, Environment, Lions, Poaching, Research, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 50 years, lion numbers have decreased by three-quarters. Only 20,000 to 40,000 of these majestic big cats survive in the wild today. A third of lion deaths are a result of poaching, and even where lions are killed in retaliation over livestock predation, in many cases their body parts are harvested for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 50 years, lion numbers have decreased by three-quarters. Only 20,000 to 40,000 of these majestic big cats survive in the wild today. A third of lion deaths are a result of poaching, and even where lions are killed in retaliation over livestock predation, in many cases their body parts are harvested for sale. Wildlife crime investigators face a big handicap when dealing with confiscated wildlife products. Sifting through dismembered remains — claws, bones, teeth — it is hard to say where they originate from. To trace lion parts to their source populations, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed a web tool, the Lion Localizer, which uses DNA testing to pinpoint the geographic source of contraband lion parts. “Currently, the origin of most lion products is unknown,” said Rob Ogden, director and co-founder of TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network, a partner in the Lion Localizer project. The U.K.-based nonprofit, which supports the application of forensic science in wildlife law enforcement and works in at least a dozen African countries, is trying to change that. Barring a small population in India, these big cats (Panthera leo) are only found in Africa. Technically, there are two extant lion subspecies: the northern lion (P. l. leo) and the southern lion (P. l. melanochaita). The former includes populations in Asia and those in Central and West Africa, while the latter includes lions in Southern and East Africa. DNA samples from confiscated parts are already used to identify species. This is key&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/where-do-illegal-lion-parts-come-from-a-new-tool-offers-answers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/where-do-illegal-lion-parts-come-from-a-new-tool-offers-answers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276615</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Return of the lions: Large protected areas in Africa attract apex predator</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/return-of-the-lions-large-protected-areas-in-africa-attract-apex-predator/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/return-of-the-lions-large-protected-areas-in-africa-attract-apex-predator/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2023 17:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/13152428/6-African-Parks-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269719</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Chad, Mozambique, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Lions, Mammals, National Parks, Poaching, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Restoration, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions are returning on their own to parks in Mozambique and Chad thanks to the creation of vast landscape mosaics that include core protected areas, corridors and cooperating communities through which the big cats roam.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Bernard van Lente, the Peace Parks Foundation project manager for Zinave National Park, first arrived at the Mozambican conservation area in 2015, he was struck by the silence. Zinave was stunningly beautiful, he recalls, with huge trees and tall grasses, but it was deathly quiet — like a graveyard. Zinave had been protected just before the outbreak of the Mozambican civil war in 1977, and the ensuing chaos caused the new national park to collapse. Few animal species survived as insects, birds, antelopes and top predators were extinguished. Things have changed dramatically since then, van Lente says. In 2021, a lion appeared in Zinave for the first time in many decades, the crowning jewel of renewed conservation efforts. But Zinave isn’t the only place lions are making a comeback. Examples are emerging at protected areas across Africa, from Mozambique to Chad, Zambia to Senegal. The successes come at a critical time for conservation of the species. Lion populations are declining in Africa, plummeting to around 20,000 in the past five decades or so, says Kim Young-Overton, director of Panthera’s KAZA program. According to the IUCN Red List, Panthera leo is vulnerable, with the global lion population shrinking by about 43% over the past 21 years (a timespan covering just three lion generations, from 1993 to 2014). The young male lion that settled in Zinave National Park, Mozambique. Image courtesy of the Peace Parks Foundation. Lions need to roam The decline is partly precipitated by too widely scattered conservation areas.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/return-of-the-lions-large-protected-areas-in-africa-attract-apex-predator/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269719</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Video of rare West African lion cubs sparks hope for the population</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/video-of-rare-west-african-lioness-plus-cubs-sparks-hope-for-the-population/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/video-of-rare-west-african-lioness-plus-cubs-sparks-hope-for-the-population/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2023 19:06:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/17075628/lioness-and-cub-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266563</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Senegal, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Lions, Mammals, National Parks, Poaching, Predators, Protected Areas, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New video of a West African lioness and her three cubs is exciting news for the conservation community, sparking hope for the slow recovery of a population perilously close to extinction in Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park (NKNP). The lioness featured in the clips is known to researchers as Florence or “Flo.” She was the first [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New video of a West African lioness and her three cubs is exciting news for the conservation community, sparking hope for the slow recovery of a population perilously close to extinction in Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park (NKNP). The lioness featured in the clips is known to researchers as Florence or “Flo.” She was the first lion fitted with a tracking collar in Senegal by Panthera, a global wild cat conservation organization, and Senegal’s Department of National Parks (DPN). At around 10 years old, she’s considered NKNP’s matriarch. Scientists have been monitoring Flo for several years. So when her GPS collar stopped working, they were concerned she might have been killed by poachers or predators. The team placed camera traps near Flo’s last known location in an attempt to locate her. Photos and videos from the cameras later revealed that not only was Flo still alive, but that while denning in the dense forest, she had given birth to three healthy cubs. Smaller in size and genetically distinct from other lions, West African lions are considered critically endangered. Only an estimated 120 to 374 West African lions remain in the wild. Florence is the mother of an estimated nine cubs, including the first males in NKNP. &#8220;When the history of Niokolo Koba&#8217;s recovery is written, this moment will mark a turning point and Florence above all others will likely be recognized as the critical driver of West African lion recovery in one of this big cat&#8217;s last strongholds,&#8221; Panthera regional director&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/video-of-rare-west-african-lioness-plus-cubs-sparks-hope-for-the-population/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266563</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trafficked: Kidnapped chimps, jailed rhino horn traffickers, and seized donkey parts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/trafficked-kidnapped-chimps-jailed-rhino-horn-traffickers-and-seized-donkey-parts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/trafficked-kidnapped-chimps-jailed-rhino-horn-traffickers-and-seized-donkey-parts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Sep 2022 12:48:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/21123832/chimps-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260534</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Nigeria, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Apes, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Great Apes, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Lions, Poaching, Primates, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — Three chimpanzees have been kidnapped and are being held for ransom after intruders broke into a primate sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Franck Chantereau, founder of the J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre, says the kidnappers got into the 7-hectare (17-acre) facility in the southern city of Lubumbashi at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — Three chimpanzees have been kidnapped and are being held for ransom after intruders broke into a primate sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Franck Chantereau, founder of the J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre, says the kidnappers got into the 7-hectare (17-acre) facility in the southern city of Lubumbashi at around 3 a.m. on Sept. 9 and took the chimps away. Since then, the kidnappers have sent the center repeated messages demanding a ransom. Chantereau says they have threatened to kill the apes, aged between 2 and 5 years old, and send their heads back to the sanctuary if their demands are not met. J.A.C.K. is working with law enforcement agencies and other partners to find the kidnappers and rescue the young chimpanzees; law enforcement has asked that some details of the case be withheld. &#8220;It is a nightmare &#8230; it was such a disaster,&#8221; Chantereau told Mongabay by phone from the DRC. &#8220;We have faced a lot of challenges for 18 years now. But we have never experienced anything like this: the kidnapping of apes. They also threatened to kidnap my own kids and wife.” Three young chimpanzees were taken from the J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre in Lubumbashi in the early hours of Sep. 9. Image courtesy of J.A.C.K Primate Rehabilitation Centre. J.A.C.K. is one of three ape sanctuaries in the DRC and is currently home to around 40 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and diverse primates, including the endangered golden-bellied mangabey (Cercocebus chrysogaster), lesula (Cercopithecus&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/trafficked-kidnapped-chimps-jailed-rhino-horn-traffickers-and-seized-donkey-parts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/trafficked-kidnapped-chimps-jailed-rhino-horn-traffickers-and-seized-donkey-parts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260534</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small cats should be a conservation priority, says Panthera&#8217;s new board chair Jonathan Ayers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/small-cats-should-be-a-conservation-priority-says-pantheras-new-board-chair-jonathan-ayers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/small-cats-should-be-a-conservation-priority-says-pantheras-new-board-chair-jonathan-ayers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2021 16:49:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/20000234/CloudedLeopard4_CreditSW-Panthera-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247287</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Jaguars, Lions, philanthropy, Small Cats, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Most people are familiar with the world&#8217;s &#8220;big cats&#8221;: Lions, tigers, leopards, jaguar, puma, and cheetah. But far fewer people know about the much larger number of small cat species, which range from the ancestors of domesticated house cats to the flat-headed cat to the ocelot. Yet, like big cats, these small cats play important [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Most people are familiar with the world&#8217;s &#8220;big cats&#8221;: Lions, tigers, leopards, jaguar, puma, and cheetah. But far fewer people know about the much larger number of small cat species, which range from the ancestors of domesticated house cats to the flat-headed cat to the ocelot. Yet, like big cats, these small cats play important roles in the ecosystems they inhabit. Small cats&#8217; lack of visibility has meant that haven&#8217;t received big cats&#8217; level of conservation funding &#8212; collectively they get only a small fraction of the dollars that go toward lions, tigers and jaguars, for example. But small cat conservation efforts may have just gotten a significant boost with Panthera &#8212; the world&#8217;s largest organization devoted exclusively to wild cat conservation &#8212; announcing Jonathan Ayers as its new Chair of its Board of Directors. Tiger in Nepal. Big cats have received the lion&#8217;s share of conservation funding that goes to wild cats. Photo credit: DNPWC/NTNC/Panthera/WWF/ZSL Ayers &#8212; the former Chairman, President and CEO of IDEXX Laboratories, a publicly-traded company that develops veterinary products and technologies &#8212; in March pledged $20 million to Panthera. A significant portion of that commitment is for small cat conservation. Ayers pledged the funds after a cycling accident in June 2019 left him a quadriplegic. Ayers says the experience, which prompted him to step down as CEO of IDEXX, gave him a new sense of purpose: saving wild cats through conservation efforts, including creating opportunities for communities that live in and around their habitats. &#8220;I&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/small-cats-should-be-a-conservation-priority-says-pantheras-new-board-chair-jonathan-ayers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/small-cats-should-be-a-conservation-priority-says-pantheras-new-board-chair-jonathan-ayers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247287</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation after coronavirus: We need to diversify and innovate (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/after-coronavirus-conservation-needs-diversification-and-innovation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/after-coronavirus-conservation-needs-diversification-and-innovation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Sep 2021 11:14:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Frederic LaunayJonathan Ayers]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/02110622/Lioness-in-Kafue-national-park-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246672</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Conservation Solutions, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Innovation, Lions, Pandemics, Poaching, Poverty, Protected Areas, Solutions, Sustainability, transforming conservation, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The loss of the Mukambi River Pride lioness last June was sobering proof that the shock wave of COVID-19 had reached the heart and wildlife of Zambia’s Kafue National Park. All that remained of this once magnificent animal was her skin, pock-marked from spears and large rocks that had been hurled at her body, lying [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The loss of the Mukambi River Pride lioness last June was sobering proof that the shock wave of COVID-19 had reached the heart and wildlife of Zambia’s Kafue National Park. All that remained of this once magnificent animal was her skin, pock-marked from spears and large rocks that had been hurled at her body, lying next to the poacher’s snare that had wrapped around her paw, and the GPS collar that had unveiled so much about her pride’s contribution to Kafue. Before setting fire to the scene, the poachers took almost every part of her body, presumably to sell through the illegal wildlife trade. Collared for over two years, the Mukambi lioness was a star of the Zambian Carnivore Programme’s scientific monitoring program and a critical breeding member of her pride. Shortly after, another Kafue lioness was snared, just days after being GPS-collared. Both were poached in ‘Intensive Protection Zones,’ where vigorous antipoaching efforts had all but eradicated lion snarings in 2019. As COVID creeped in, however, sweeps of the park boundary recovered 136 snares from May to August 2020, compared to just 25 collected over the same period in 2019. Bushmeat seizures soared from nearly 100 pounds in 2019 to over 3,300 pounds in 2020. Far from an outlier, many formerly secure wildlife homes around the globe have followed suit. Lionesses in Kafue National Park. Image by Mosi Lager via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). When the lockdown began, the lucrative tap of international tourism upon which protected areas, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/after-coronavirus-conservation-needs-diversification-and-innovation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/after-coronavirus-conservation-needs-diversification-and-innovation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246672</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reckoning with elitism and racism in conservation: Q&#038;A with Colleen Begg</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/reckoning-with-elitism-and-racism-in-conservation-qa-with-colleen-begg/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/reckoning-with-elitism-and-racism-in-conservation-qa-with-colleen-begg/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2021 03:38:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/26221323/African-Wild-dog-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243990</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Carnivores, Cats, Colonialism, Community-based Conservation, Conservation leadership, COVID-19, Culture, Ecotourism, Education, Gender, Human-wildlife Conflict, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Lions, Mammals, Racism, Social Justice, transforming conservation, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the wake of George Floyd&#8217;s killing last year, long-running concerns about discrimination, colonial legacy, privilege, and power dynamics in conservation have gained prominence, forcing many organizations in the sector to reckon with their origins and how they operate. Current and historic injustices against Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the name of establishing protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the wake of George Floyd&#8217;s killing last year, long-running concerns about discrimination, colonial legacy, privilege, and power dynamics in conservation have gained prominence, forcing many organizations in the sector to reckon with their origins and how they operate. Current and historic injustices against Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the name of establishing protected areas, racism and abusive practices within institutions, representation in leadership, and disparities in funding and advancement opportunities are but a few of the areas that have drawn particular attention over the past year. But while there is certainly an uptick in reflection and discussion, it&#8217;s unclear whether this period will result in lasting, meaningful change or if the sector will revert back to business-as-usual. Colleen Begg, a South African conservationist who co-founded the Niassa Carnivore Project in Mozambique, says she isn&#8217;t sure either, but meaningful transformation won&#8217;t come on its own &#8212; it will require dedicated and sustained efforts to drive real change. &#8220;I have had more conversations about privilege, racism, and sexism in conservation in the last three years than before but there is still such a long way to go,&#8221; Begg told Mongabay during a recent interview. &#8220;To me conservation really is one of the last bastions of racism and exclusion on the continent and it is very resistant to change.&#8221; Colleen Begg As a white South African who has never lived outside Africa and has worked in conservation for 30 years, Begg has seen how race, gender, and privilege play out in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/reckoning-with-elitism-and-racism-in-conservation-qa-with-colleen-begg/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/reckoning-with-elitism-and-racism-in-conservation-qa-with-colleen-begg/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243990</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka zoo lion contracts COVID-19 as reports of animal infections rise</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/sri-lanka-zoo-lion-contracts-covid-19-as-reports-of-animal-infections-rise/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/sri-lanka-zoo-lion-contracts-covid-19-as-reports-of-animal-infections-rise/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2021 18:04:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/25173952/Different-modes-of-Thore-c-Nadeera-Udayanga-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244169</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, COVID-19, Endangered Species, Environment, Lions, Wildlife, Zoonotic Diseases, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Thor is an 11-year-old, well-built male lion at Sri Lanka’s National Zoological Gardens in the Colombo suburb of Dehiwala. He’s something of an icon at the zoo, famed for his regal appearance. Thor should have been enjoying a hassle-free period with his partner, Sheena, and their two cubs in their special den as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Thor is an 11-year-old, well-built male lion at Sri Lanka’s National Zoological Gardens in the Colombo suburb of Dehiwala. He’s something of an icon at the zoo, famed for his regal appearance. Thor should have been enjoying a hassle-free period with his partner, Sheena, and their two cubs in their special den as the COVID-19 lockdown kept visitors away for weeks. But in early June, Thor fell ill, going off food and showing breathing difficulties. In neighboring India, zoos had reported some of their lions contracting COVID-19 around the same time, so the veterinarians at Dehiwala feared the worst. They took samples of urine and saliva from their lion and carried out PCR tests. The results, released June 15, confirmed that Thor had contracted the coronavirus. Zookeepers took measures to keep him isolated from his family and started him on a medical regime to alleviate his symptoms. “We are constantly monitoring his condition,” said Ishini Wickremesinghe, the zoo’s director general. Authorities also placed the lion’s keepers under self-quarantine and carried out PCR tests on zoo employees; a gardener tested positive for COVID-19. “We believe the lion may have got COVID from a zookeeper. We have taken measures to safeguard our employees and animals running the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2,” Wikremesinghe told Mongabay. Sheena, Thor’s partner, has also been isolated. Image courtesy of Nadeera Udayanga. Animal patients It is important to get saliva samples to carry out a PCR test, but sticking one’s hand inside a lion’s mouth to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/sri-lanka-zoo-lion-contracts-covid-19-as-reports-of-animal-infections-rise/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/sri-lanka-zoo-lion-contracts-covid-19-as-reports-of-animal-infections-rise/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244169</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Private investors look to high-end tourism to fund conservation in Mozambique</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/private-investors-look-to-high-end-tourism-to-fund-conservation-in-mozambique/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/private-investors-look-to-high-end-tourism-to-fund-conservation-in-mozambique/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2021 11:12:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/24142056/south_africa_kruger_0272_header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244103</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Ecotourism, Environment, Fellows, Funding, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Lions, Poaching, Private Reserves, Protected Areas, Rhinos, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When COVID-19 started to sweep across the world last year, conservationists feared that it would be a disaster for Africa’s wildlife. Tourism revenues evaporated, causing salary cuts and layoffs for rangers in protected game parks. But after a spike in poaching incidents looked to be confirming those fears at first, in some countries the opposite [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When COVID-19 started to sweep across the world last year, conservationists feared that it would be a disaster for Africa’s wildlife. Tourism revenues evaporated, causing salary cuts and layoffs for rangers in protected game parks. But after a spike in poaching incidents looked to be confirming those fears at first, in some countries the opposite has proved to be the case: harsh lockdown measures instead led to a temporary decline in poaching of rhinos and other large game. Still, the crisis has laid bare one of the central dilemmas for conservation in Africa: who pays for it, and are those funding streams resilient enough to hold up under pressure? In the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, a patchwork of protected nature reserves along the borderlands of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, some investors are saying the answer is the private sector. One example is the Karingani Game Reserve in southwestern Mozambique, which is developing what it says will be a flagship example of private capital-driven conservation in Africa. But with a history of land conflict between the reserve and rural communities living nearby, how will it balance its ambitious plans for high-end ecotourism with the livelihoods and cultural needs of those communities? And will those plans lead to a profitable, sustainable business model that can deliver benefits for wildlife and local people? As the Mozambican government continues to encourage foreign investment into conservation in the wake of COVID-19, Karingani may prove to be a test case for whether private reserves&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/private-investors-look-to-high-end-tourism-to-fund-conservation-in-mozambique/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/private-investors-look-to-high-end-tourism-to-fund-conservation-in-mozambique/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244103</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation intensifies in northern DRC protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/deforestation-intensifies-in-northern-drc-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/deforestation-intensifies-in-northern-drc-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2021 21:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/02201204/0602-easternchimp-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243273</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Apes, Big Cats, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Green, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Lions, Mining, Pangolins, Population, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) contains the bulk of Africa’s humid rainforest. But forests that were once dense, impenetrable and continuous are increasingly fractured by deforestation. New satellite data from the University of Maryland (UMD) show the country – particularly its northern portion – may be in for another rocky year in 2021. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) contains the bulk of Africa’s humid rainforest. But forests that were once dense, impenetrable and continuous are increasingly fractured by deforestation. New satellite data from the University of Maryland (UMD) show the country – particularly its northern portion – may be in for another rocky year in 2021. Between 2002 and 2020, the DRC lost more than 5% of its primary forest, according to UMD data; much of this happened after 2013, with 2020 registering the second-highest amount of loss since data collection began in 2002. Preliminary data for 2021 from UMD’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) lab suggests the DRC may be in for another bout of heavy deforestation this year. The lab detected several spikes of primary forest loss in March, April and May that were “unusually high” compared to the same time period in years past, peaking the week of April 12 when deforestation activity more than doubled over the average rate. Image from Global Forest Watch. Much of this year’s forest loss appears to be taking place in the country’s northern portion, with the regions of Bas-Uélé, Mongala, Tshopo, Haut-Uélé and Ituri showing particularly high levels of deforestation activity. Even the DRC’s reserves and parks are feeling the pressure, with satellite data and imagery showing recent incursions into forest that is supposed to be under official protection. Okapi Wildlife Reserve Straddling Ituri and Haut-Uélè in the northeastern reach of DRC, Okapi Wildlife Reserve encompasses nearly 670,000 hectares (1.66&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/deforestation-intensifies-in-northern-drc-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/deforestation-intensifies-in-northern-drc-protected-areas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243273</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Keeping animals wild vs &#8216;safe&#8217; should be prioritized, lion biologists argue (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/keeping-animals-wild-vs-safe-should-be-prioritized-lion-biologists-argue-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/keeping-animals-wild-vs-safe-should-be-prioritized-lion-biologists-argue-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2021 01:36:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pride Lion Conservation Alliance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/20032617/tz_1650a-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242659</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Ethics, Human-wildlife Conflict, Lions, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wild animals, especially big cats, have captivated human interest for as long as we have existed. The very first figurative art, laboriously carved out of woolly mammoth ivory over 40,000 years ago, showed the head of a lion on a human body: ancient cave paintings from Europe over 30,000 years ago reveal extensive, careful and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wild animals, especially big cats, have captivated human interest for as long as we have existed. The very first figurative art, laboriously carved out of woolly mammoth ivory over 40,000 years ago, showed the head of a lion on a human body: ancient cave paintings from Europe over 30,000 years ago reveal extensive, careful and accurate tableaux of lions. The pull of big cats has stayed immensely strong throughout the millennia, and they are still represented on everything from the door knocker of 10 Downing Street to sportswear and luxury goods. So why do we have such an enduring and powerful attraction to these incredible creatures? They are clearly beautiful, but that does not explain the depth of their appeal: an Oxford study revealed that people found big cats far more appealing than would be expected purely from their physical characteristics. That is particularly true for lions: despite not having the striking coloration of a tiger, the appealing cuteness of a red panda, or the immense physical presence of a rhino, they are a predominant wild animal in the human psyche, becoming the world’s most chosen &#8216;national&#8217; animal. All of us writing this have personally felt that pull: we all run conservation organizations where lions are the focal species, where it is the plight of these animals more than any other that attracts attention from across the globe. Wild African landscapes support a myriad of species. Photo courtesy of Colleen Begg. The real reason, we believe, for the intense magnetism&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/keeping-animals-wild-vs-safe-should-be-prioritized-lion-biologists-argue-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/keeping-animals-wild-vs-safe-should-be-prioritized-lion-biologists-argue-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242659</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>South Africa pulls the plug on controversial captive lion industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/south-africa-pulls-the-plug-on-controversial-captive-lion-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/south-africa-pulls-the-plug-on-controversial-captive-lion-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2021 15:55:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/03155127/Breeding-Blood-Lions-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242235</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Captive Breeding, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Lions, Wildlife, Wildlife Rescues, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The South African government has made a landmark decision to end the nation’s captive lion breeding industry. This includes closing down facilities that offer touristic experiences like canned hunting and lion petting, and halting the commercial use of captive lions and their derivatives. News of this decision was made public May 2, when the government [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The South African government has made a landmark decision to end the nation’s captive lion breeding industry. This includes closing down facilities that offer touristic experiences like canned hunting and lion petting, and halting the commercial use of captive lions and their derivatives. News of this decision was made public May 2, when the government released a much-anticipated that detailed the future management, breeding, hunting, trading and handling of captive lions, as well as other species such as elephants, leopards and rhinoceroses. The high-level panel consisted of a diverse group of individuals, including conservationists, scientists, government officials, community leaders, economists, legal experts, trade experts and welfare experts, according to a government press release. “The Panel identified that the captive lion breeding industry poses risks to the sustainability of wild lion conservation resulting from the negative impact on ecotourism, which funds lion conservation and conservation more broadly, the negative impact on the authentic wild hunting industry, and the risk that trade in lion parts poses to stimulating poaching and illegal trade,” Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s environment minister, said in a statement. The move is being celebrated by conservationists and animal welfare advocates who have worked for years to expose the numerous issues associated with the captive lion industry, including the unhygienic, stressful conditions that lions are commonly subjected to at these facilities. These conditions not only affect the health of the animals themselves, but also create the perfect environment for dangerous pathogens to spread among the animals, and for disease to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/south-africa-pulls-the-plug-on-controversial-captive-lion-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/south-africa-pulls-the-plug-on-controversial-captive-lion-industry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242235</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Captive lions kept in ‘stressful conditions’ create perfect recipe for disease, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/captive-lions-kept-in-stressful-conditions-create-perfect-recipe-for-disease-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/captive-lions-kept-in-stressful-conditions-create-perfect-recipe-for-disease-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2021 14:07:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/08123454/Credit-Blood-Lions-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241464</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Atlantic Forest, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Bacteria, Big Cats, Captive Breeding, Cats, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Diseases, Lions, Pandemics, Parasites, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, animal welfare inspectors visited Pienika Farm, a captive-lion facility in the North West province of South Africa. They found sick lion after sick lion living in conditions inspectors described as “horrific.” Twenty-seven animals were severely infected with mange, a condition caused by parasitic mites, while cubs twitched in the dirt, suffering from neurological [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, animal welfare inspectors visited Pienika Farm, a captive-lion facility in the North West province of South Africa. They found sick lion after sick lion living in conditions inspectors described as “horrific.” Twenty-seven animals were severely infected with mange, a condition caused by parasitic mites, while cubs twitched in the dirt, suffering from neurological disorders. Dozens of lions were crammed into cages meant only to hold a few. Rotting food and feces littered the ground. These are the ideal conditions for pathogens to grow and spread, resulting in disease, says Louise de Waal, a wildlife conservationist and one of the directors of Blood Lions, a nonprofit organization launched after the release of the 2015 film Blood Lions. The spread of disease is not only dangerous for the lions (Panthera leo) themselves, she said, but there is a possibility that disease could spill over into the human population, threatening human health and even triggering future epidemics. According to a recent peer-reviewed paper co-authored by De Waal and other experts from Blood Lions and World Animal Protection, captive and wild lions are known to carry a total of 63 pathogens — including parasites, bacteria and viruses — and these can result in about 83 diseases and clinical symptoms. Some of these pathogens can be transmitted from lions to other species, including humans, the research says. A captive lion with no fur on its nose due to mange. Image by Louise de Waal. The Blood Lions team has identified five diseases as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/captive-lions-kept-in-stressful-conditions-create-perfect-recipe-for-disease-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-241464</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coronavirus is a crisis for South Africa’s captive lions, campaigners warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/coronavirus-is-a-crisis-for-south-africas-captive-lions-campaigners-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/coronavirus-is-a-crisis-for-south-africas-captive-lions-campaigners-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2020 16:07:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Fair]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/13150147/LionCub3_LionParkSouthAfrica_TambakoTheJaguarBY-ND-2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=228978</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation, COVID-19, Endangered Species, Globalization, Green, Hunting, Lions, Mammals, Over-hunting, Tourism, Trade, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wildlife conservation and animal welfare groups say the COVID-19 pandemic ought to spell the end for one of South Africa’s most controversial businesses: the captive breeding of lions. Industry representatives say animal rights groups have destabilized the lion-breeding business by misrepresenting it. Image by Tambako the Jaguar via Flickr (CC BY-ND-2.0) It is widely accepted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wildlife conservation and animal welfare groups say the COVID-19 pandemic ought to spell the end for one of South Africa’s most controversial businesses: the captive breeding of lions. Industry representatives say animal rights groups have destabilized the lion-breeding business by misrepresenting it. Image by Tambako the Jaguar via Flickr (CC BY-ND-2.0) It is widely accepted that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that has precipitated the global crisis, came from wildlife (bats or pangolins are the most likely sources), and campaign groups long opposed to lion breeding on an industrial scale in South Africa argue this highlights the risks that humans face by exploiting wildlife for meat or other purposes. They also say that many of the breeding centers — of which there were 297 in 2016, according to a paper published last year by researchers Vivienne Williams of the University of the Witwatersrand and Michael ’t Sas-Rolfes from Oxford University — rely on tourist income that has now vanished. These centers will now either allow their lions to starve to death or euthanize them — a charge denied by the industry. From cuddled cubs to lion bone wine Outside of zoos, lions are bred and kept in captivity in South Africa for three main reasons: to provide “cub-petting” and “walk with lions” experiences to visitors at theme parks; to be sold to other operations for “canned” trophy hunting; and, when they die or have been killed, to be sold on to countries in East Asia, where their bones are turned into wines and other products&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/coronavirus-is-a-crisis-for-south-africas-captive-lions-campaigners-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/coronavirus-is-a-crisis-for-south-africas-captive-lions-campaigners-warn/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-228978</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Some lions adapted to hunting in water, and that&#8217;s important for conservationists to understand (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/some-lions-adapted-to-hunting-in-water-and-thats-important-for-conservationists-to-understand-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/some-lions-adapted-to-hunting-in-water-and-thats-important-for-conservationists-to-understand-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2020 16:19:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Simon Dures]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/09153016/lion-cubz_1210px-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=227737</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Fragmentation, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Lions, Mammals, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The lion. The king of the jungle. It’s certainly one of Africa’s (if not the world’s) most iconic animals. It is on the ‘must see’ list of just about every person that heads to East or southern Africa for safari, and stars in an array of nature documentaries, films, and books. Nestlé even named a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The lion. The king of the jungle. It’s certainly one of Africa’s (if not the world’s) most iconic animals. It is on the ‘must see’ list of just about every person that heads to East or southern Africa for safari, and stars in an array of nature documentaries, films, and books. Nestlé even named a chocolate bar after the animal. Despite this, and possibly because of their ubiquity in our media, most people would be surprised if you told them that lions are really not doing very well. Their numbers have declined from an estimate of over 1,000,000 in the nineteenth century to about 30,000 individuals today. The biggest cause of the decline in lion numbers is simply a loss of space for them to live. As humans make increasing technological advancements to accommodate the needs of our exploding population, we encroach on the remaining areas of wilderness, dividing and splitting the parcels of habitat into smaller and less-connected refugia. The remaining fragments contain limited resources and are unable to support as many individuals. In addition, the remaining small and isolated populations risk inbreeding because closely related individuals are no longer able to disperse and end up mating together, exerting yet more pressure on vulnerable populations. Photo © Simon Dures 2012. Given the irrefutable damage that humans are having on the environment, it is very easy to assume that all population fragmentation is caused by humans. As conservation practitioners, this is something that we aim to address by reconnecting populations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/some-lions-adapted-to-hunting-in-water-and-thats-important-for-conservationists-to-understand-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-227737</doi>				</item>
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