A male lion in Amboseli National Park, one of Kenya's most important tourist destinations. Lions face local extinction due to continued spearing and poisoning by local Maasai in retaliation for cattle losses.
 
Mount Kilimanjaro's lions face extinction at the spear point of Maasai cattle herders, warn conservation experts.

Once common in rural Kenya, fewer than 150 lions now roam the eco-tourism haven in and around Amboseli National Park, just northwest of Tanzania's famous mountain. Since 2003, local cattle herders have killed 63 lions, often in retaliation for lost livestock, according to National Geographic Society conservationists.

It's not just lions, but tigers, leopards and other big cats worldwide also face similar losses, according to National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence Derek Joubert. He says only about 20,000 lions remain in Africa, down from hundreds of thousands only four decades ago.

"For a long time people weren't concerned about lions, but we are definitely seeing big declines," says Hollie Colahan of the Houston Zoo, who heads the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' efforts to save lion species. "Twenty years ago lions were everywhere in Africa, but not anymore."

In order to head off more lion kills, the National Geographic Society has donated $150,000 to a program that pays herders for lost livestock, and it is asking the public for more funds.

Simple education efforts aimed at protecting cattle can head off lion attacks, says Joubert, and tourism to view the elephants, lions and other wildlife can discourage lion hunting.

Some local Maasai tribesmen have traditionally hunted lions as a marker of maturity, he adds, but those who see tourists as an economic boon have turned away from the hunts.

"Of course, people have always killed lions, but there used to be far more lions, and far fewer people. Now each lion killed is a major loss to the dwindling population," says biologist Laurence Frank of Living with Lions, a conservation project based in Kenya.

"Traditional livestock protection methods are very effective at keeping lions from eating cattle, but if people can poison or spear all the lions, why should they go to the effort of protecting cattle from them?" says Frank. "We are trying to make lions more valuable alive than dead," he adds, by e-mail.

If lion killings continue at the current rate near Mount Kilimanjaro, the species will be wiped out from the nearby 2,200-square-mile reserve area within a few years, says Joubert. Hyenas and other predators that pose even more of a threat to people will flourish, he adds.

"Lions are a top predator, and when we've lost those elsewhere, we see real problems in the ecosystem," says Colahan. Antelopes and other prey species that eat the grass cattle herders rely on for their livestock might boom in numbers, leading to more problems.

"We want to see lions in the wild in Africa," she says.

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  Q&A: LAURENCE FRANK
 
An interview with Laurence Frank of Living with Lions, a conservation organization based in Kenya, on the crisis.

1. How do the killings affect research programs involving lions there? We are not doing basic research on lion biology. All our research is conservation-oriented - how do you get people to value wildlife, specifically predators, so that they want more of them rather than fewer? Traditional livestock protection methods are very effective at keeping lions from eating cattle, but if people can poison or spear all the lions, why should they go to the effort of protecting cattle from them? We are trying to make lions more valuable alive than dead.

2. Is such poaching a major factor in the decline of the lions? How does poaching fit in with declines in game, land development and feline disease? You have to distinguish between poaching (killing wildlife for food or to sell parts), traditional ritual spearing of lions to prove bravery and manhood, and killing predators to protect livestock. Poaching of antelope for meat wipes out lions' natural food, forcing them to turn to livestock. Very importantly, meat poaching kills many lions, leopards and hyenas that get caught in snares set for edible wildlife. There is little commerical poaching of lions, but many are killed incidentally to commercial poaching of edible wildlife. In spite of misleading publicity about Feline Immunodeficency Virus, no disease is a significant threat to lions. Of course, uncontrolled growth in the human population underlies all conservation problems, as more land is taken up for agriculture and livestock.

3. Lions and people have lived uneasily together in Africa for a long time. What is occurring now that makes these events most worrisome? That is the crux of the matter. Tradtional livestock protection techinques work very well, but now there are so many people, and highly lethal poision (Furadan, an agricultural insecticide) is so readily avialable, that people can just wipe out the predators rather than looking after their cattle. Of course, people have always killed lions, but there used to be far more lions, and far fewer people. Now each lion killed is a major loss to the dwindling population.

4. Can you say anything about the role of scientists in assuring a sustainable situation between people and animals under study? Is this what you learned in graduate school? You cannot conserve any species without knowing a lot about its biology, the threats to the species from humans, and careful experiments on how best to alleviate those threats. Once a course of conservation action is taken, you need to closely monitor the species to see if numbers actually recover; lots of well-meant conservation actions look good on paper but in fact have little impact on animal numbers. All of this requires well-designed research and follow-up.

5. Any comments you think are particularly important for U.S. readers regarding the situation? Animal-loving Westerners often fail to understand that our sentimental approach to wildlife is meaningless in most of the world. People in Africa are very poor, and for the great majority of them, wildlife is a nuisance that kills livestock, eats crops, and occasioanlly kills people. Wildlife in Africa is doomed unless it provides a major economic benefit to the people who live with it. In Kenya, there is no way for people to benefit from wildlife, as tourism returns very little money to rural people who bear the brunt of wildlife damage. The challenge to conservationists is to make people want MORE wildlife, because it improves their standard of living, rather than wanting less wildlife because it costs them money.

-- By Dan Vergano

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-06-12-lions-kilimanjaro_N.htm