After years of pressure from wildlife biologists and conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service recently announced that two species of the African lion, Panthera leo, will be protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, according to National Geographic. The first subspecies, P. l. leo, will be listed as endangered; along with being nearly extinct in western and central Africa, there are only 1,400 of them loosely scattered across other countries. The second subspecies, P. p. melanochaita, which resides in east and southern Africa, will be listed as threatened with approximately 17,000 to 19,000 of this subspecies remaining in the world.
African lions face numerous threats including depletion of prey, habitat loss and murders in retaliation to livestock depletions. Furthermore, the hunting of lions for sport is also another threat and the addition of lions to the endangered species listing will help with this problem. Although the addition will not ban the hunting of lions if the host country allows it, trophies cannot be imported into the U.S. without a permit, according to The Washington Post.
"I am pleased," said Luke Hunter, president of Panthera, an organization devoted to the conservation of big cats. "I think they have used, clearly, a fair amount of science in the decision, and as I understand it, it is a significant improvement on their first proposal."
After the infamous killing of Cecil the lion earlier this year, many believe that the addition of these two subspecies of lions to the endangered species act will help confront the industry, according to The New York Times.
"Many have challenged the hunting industry to show some figures to support their claim that the revenues from lion hunting support lion conservation, but the industry has been notoriously opaque and has long resisted calls for reform," Hans Bauer, a lion expert at Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, said. "This must now change."
