PHOTO VIA WIKIPEDIA, CC BY-SA
The picture
Lions once roamed from Africa to India. Today around 20,000 remain in the wild, in a fraction of their old range. The bright spot is that where lions are well protected and where local communities benefit from them living nearby, prides recover. Kenya, Namibia and India's Gir forest all show numbers holding or climbing.
The science
Panthera leo. Lions are the only truly social cats. A pride is built around related females who hunt together and raise cubs communally, and a lion's roar can carry about 8 kilometers.
In numbers
Worth repeating at dinner
A lion's roar can be heard up to 8 km away - the loudest call of any big cat.
- Panthera
Lions are the only cats that live in family groups, and the lionesses do most of the hunting together.
- National Geographic
A small population of wild Asiatic lions survives in India's Gir forest, and it has been growing.
- IUCN
What they face
As grasslands become farmland, lions lose both space and the antelope they live on.
IUCN
Lions that kill cattle are often killed in return - the single biggest cause of lion deaths.
Panthera
What is already working
Simple reinforced livestock pens stop night raids, so herders stop losing cattle and lions stop being killed.
Former lion hunters are hired and trained to track and protect the same prides - one of conservation's great turnarounds.
Reasons for hope
In parts of Kenya, warriors who once speared lions now protect them by name, and killings have dropped dramatically.
India's last wild lion population has grown steadily for decades under strict protection.
Meet them
Small actions that reach them
People doing the big work
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