A new study showed the decline of the African lion population, with statistics predicting that their numbers will decrease by half in the next two decades unless conservation efforts are started.
Lion populations have started declining in the early 1990s, but the recent study showed that in the West and Central African populations, specifically in Comoé and Mole national parks, lions are already nonexistent, while in East African countries where lions use to thrive, a drastic decline was also observed, the New York Times reports.
"We have known for a long time that lions are declining, but this is not just about less lions; it is about lions no longer playing a keystone role in functioning ecosystems. Lion trends are indicative of a deeper crisis that will eventually affect other, less sensitive species," said Hans Bauer, co-author of the study and a scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford, according to Newsweek on MSN.
As this presents a wider conservation crisis, it would greatly help if people started learning more about lions and helped with funding on-ground action to protect them. Funding, coupled with improved and open governance of states in which they live, could help to avert this crisis, Huffington Post reports.
Researchers determined the trend through data from 47 of the 67 African lion populations with a total estimate of their numbers being at 8, 221, according to the study published in this week's journal on Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
