LIONS GREATEST THREATS
Gulamabbas Mohammedali
Sunday News; Sunday,September 24, 2006 @00:03
THE greatest threats to the lion species are sport hunting and conflict with farmers over livestock.
The lions appear to be declining very fast in many of the remoter parts of Africa, outside the tourist spotlight.
The estimate of 20,000 or fewer compares with a population put at about 200,000 in the early 1980s. The hunters traditionally target male lions. The resulting low density of male lions is exacerbated by the hunters' habit of shooting juvenile males when they find no mature adults.
This means males move widely, and may have ranges of 1,000 square kilometres, about three times the size of a lionesses range. So it is likelier they will leave the protection of the park and move into hunting areas.
There were about 42 adult male lions in Hwange (Zimbabwe), where between 1998 and 2002 the hunting quota in the concessions was set at 63 lions. It says the number shoot annually for exceeded the recommended sustainable level of 4-10% of the adult males.
Trophy hunters are being urged to shoot only lions with dark noses so as to do the least damage to big cat numbers. Male lions are born with pink noses which become increasingly freckled and black the older the animal get. Taking out just the older males allows prides to grow. When new males take over a pride, they typically kill cubs less than nine months old to ensure that females devote themselves to raising new young.
Excessive trophy hunting could cause male takeovers to become so common that they prevent cubs from reaching adulthood and accelerating population decline.
By only removing males older than five or six, younger males have the opportunity to remain resident in a coalition long enough to rear their own cohort of young.
Nose of male lions increases its blackness as the animal ages, to the point where at five years old the nose is about half-black. This could be used as a rule of thumb for hunters, rather than simple quotas for animals shot, in order to ensure that they kill older males only.
"Shooting too many young males leads to an inevitable decline in population size, whereas quota size is irrelevant when hunting is restricted to older males'. The strategy of only shooting males of five or more years old had the bonus that in the long run there would actually be more males in the lion population to hunt.
African carnivores today are facing a fate alarmingly parallel to our long-departed carnivores, caught between the needs of a human population and the predators' own considerable need for space and resources.
Some lions follow the seasonal migrations of zebra and wildebeest, but most seem to stay behind to ambush stray domestic livestock.
"The lions' decline is shocking, because it suggests they're a great deal frailer than we might have thought." If they were all in your sitting room, 20,000 lions might sound a lot, but we're talking about an entire continent. And there can be no animal in the world more emblematic of wilderness and conservation than the lion.
"If even they have been decimated in a couple of decades, they may tell us something about what's happening to the less conspicuous and emblematic creatures".
It was almost two years since I last went with the lionesses at the Lion Park in Gaborone, then they were 1 year 3 months old. I came to know that the park was for sale and I requested the owner, Mr Jimmy Canamayer, if he could allow me once more to go in with the lionesses who were now 3 years and 3 months old. It wasn't an easy task to get permission and just had to forget about the dream I had. On a fine Saturday while I was at work I received a call from Jimmy asking if I was still interested to go in with the lionesses. I was fasting that day since it was the holy month of Ramadhan. I just informed my wife about my visit to the lion park, not telling her about my intention.
As I arrived at the park, Jimmy was waiting for me holding full skinned chicken, one in each hand. As we reached the entrance to the den, he starched his hand above the fence holding the chicken. I was amazed to see the lionesses stretched and grabbed the chicken with their teeth. We managed to get in as Jimmy advised me to pick up a stick while we moved further deep into the den, while the lionesses were busy eating. The full chicken was swallowed by just four bites. Jimmy was ready with the camera while the lioness approached me. It brushed me with its body and seated in the shade. I went close to her and kept my right hand on its head and Jimmy started clicking.
All of a sudden the lioness swerved and bit me on my biceps an moved away. The movement was so fast that I didn't notice her swerving towards me. I felt wetness on the upper arm at the site of the pinch but the shirt was intact and there was no sign of blood.
As we moved out I approached the other lioness that was seating next to the fence towards the gate. I managed to get a snap with her too. As I reached home an told the story to my family members I noticed my upper arm had turned blue at the site of bite an it took almost a month for it to disappear. I could dare to do this because of the exposure I had with other prides.
