As the world marked World Lions Day on Monday, World Animal Protection warns that the King of the Jungle may soon be extinct if urgent measures are not taken.
Edith Kabesiime, Campaigns Manger at World Animal Protection says, “African lions are facing human and nature induced threats hence the need to priotize their protection.
She says they have witnessed the population of lions in Africa decline in the last decades as human beings occupy their habitat.
Statistics from the International Union for Conservation of Nature indicate that Africa’s lion population declined from 200,000 in the last century to the current 20,000.
Lions exist in 26 African countries but continent has lost about 90 percent of the carnivore from its original habitat.
Tennyson Williams the World Animal Protection Country Director says that At individual level one should distance themselves from wildlife trade, making it socially unacceptable.
He adds that If people want to learn anything from the current situation, it is that people need to leave wild animals where they belong in the wild.
Tennyson says everybody have a responsibility to make a shift in our behaviour and attitudes towards animals that could save the lives of lions, other wildlife species, millions of people and our economies.
According to wildlife conservation, lions have reduced by 33 per cent in Uganda’s game reserves over the last 10 years. This is according to the findings of a census undertaken in Murchison Falls, Kidepo and Queen Elizabeth national parks.
The finding shows that in the three parks, the number of lions has reduced from 600 to 400 in the past decade. The biggest decline was recorded in Murchison Falls, where the ‘king of the beasts’ decreased from 320 to 130 animals.
