West African Lion Teeters on the Brink of Extinction

Sad news coming through from the British conservation group LionAid, who have reported that the West African lion is now on the brink of extinction. These beautiful animals are now estimated to be numbered at less than 700 in the wild, with the number dropping rapidly across the continent at a worrying pace.

Lions are now extinct in 25 countries across Northern Africa, with another 10 neighbouring countries housing barely a handful. For example, countries such as Nigeria are now home to just 39 lions, leaving yet another species far to close to extinction for comfort.

30 years ago there were 200,000 lions roaming the plains of Africa, yet now there are as little as 15,000 left on the continent. Duke University researchers used satellites to help correlate this information to show that unless something is done soon, we could be losing yet another species to the history books. This has already happened with the Barbary Lion, the largest and heaviest of the lion family, which became extinct in the wild from 1922.

Dr Pieter Kat, trustee of LionAid, said –

There has been a catastrophic decline in the populations of lions in Africa, and particularly west Africa. These lions have been neglected for a very long time and do not have adequate protection programs. They are in real danger of extinction. Even though the national parks in west Africa contain very distinct and very important fauna compared to eastern Africa, people tend to ignore that west Africa is a very special place. As a result the populations in west Africa are declining so quickly, as a biologist I would say that in a country like Nigeria, which has only 34 lions left, they are already extinct. It’s almost impossible to build up a population from such a small number.

Here’s hoping that these findings will convince local governments to put more time and energy into protecting these amazing animals before it’s too late. If you would like to help the plight of the lion, check out our dedicated charity page to find out how you can adopt one, and provide much needed funds to aid their protection.