Lions are renowned for their majesty and strength. The only social member of the cat family, lions live in prides consisting of females, their young, and either a single male or sometimes a group of two to three males. Primarily nocturnal in nature, females do almost all of the hunting. Lions are the second largest living feline species, second only to the tiger.

Lions are facing many threats. The population of African lions is less than half of what it was just three decades ago, and continues to decline as lions have been wiped out across much of Africa.

Poaching by traffickers seeking “alternatives” to endangered tiger products, coupled with massive habitat loss and loss of prey base due to human settlement, development and climate change have resulted in the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposing to list the African Lion as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Lions are also legally hunted in several countries in Africa, which if done unsustainably, can result in population impacts.

African lions are still found across a large area of the continent but about 70 percent of the current population exists in only ten major strongholds and its historical range is estimated to have shrunk by nearly 80 percent.

Studies predict that unless we act now, African lions could be extinct in the wild by 2050. We can’t let that happen. Ongoing protection for lions will be an important step forward in extending the reign of these kings of the jungle.