Study: Lion ranges, populations dropping in Africa

 
No Author Published: December 4, 2012    Comment on this article Leave a comment

photo - FILE - In this Saturday, April 10, 2010 file photon , a lion and lioness lay alongside one another in the Lion and Rhino Reserve near Johannesburg. The lions that roam Africa's savannahs have lost as much as 75 percent of their habitat in the last 50 years as humans overtake their land and the lion population dwindles, said a study released by researchers at Duke University Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012.(AP Photo Carley Petesch-File)
FILE - In this Saturday, April 10, 2010 file photon , a lion and lioness lay alongside one another in the Lion and Rhino Reserve near Johannesburg. The lions that roam Africa's savannahs have lost as much as 75 percent of their habitat in the last 50 years as humans overtake their land and the lion population dwindles, said a study released by researchers at Duke University Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012.(AP Photo Carley Petesch-File)

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Five countries in Africa have likely lost their lions since a 2002 study was run, the report said. Only nine countries contain at least 1,000 lions, while Tanzania alone has more than 40 percent of the continent's lions, it said.

"An obvious caveat is that areas for which we detect little conversion of savannahs to croplands may still suffer human impacts that make them unsuitable for lions," the report said. "Over-hunting for trophies, poaching — of lions and of their prey species — and conflict with pastoralists may not have any visual signal to satellites. Even where there are low human population densities and areas designated as national parks, there (may) not be lions within them."

The report calls for more mapping and studying to be done to ensure the lions' protection.

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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

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