Lion poaching: with few tigers left, Africa’s prides are being targeted, placing populations under threat
- In Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park, the number of lions has plummeted from 66 to 21 in the last five years
- Anti-poaching teams have been put in place to protect the animals, who are killed for their teeth, claws and bones
“That’s fresh, just a few hours old,” says Kris Everatt, pointing at a clear print of a lion’s paw in the hot dust. “It’s the ghost pride.”
It belongs to a female. A bigger male print is soon spotted, also leading towards a precious water hole, then a smaller one. “A cub, less than two years old,” he says.
The anti-poaching patrol continues its careful tracking across the parched landscape of Limpopo National Park (LNP) in Mozambique. Hippos wallow nearby, crocodiles sun themselves and baboons yell alarms calls at the rangers – but the team don’t find the lions.
Everatt, from the global wildcat conservation group Panthera, is pleased nonetheless. “I’m so happy – at least there are still lions here.” The ghost pride, who live along the Machampane river, have very good reason for being elusive – they have been deliberately poisoned three times since 2015. Nine lions died, their faces and paws hacked off by the poachers, and the Limpopo park’s lion population is in free fall.
The targeted poaching attacks are a new and horrific danger to lions, which were already under serious threat across Africa from destruction of habitat and the snaring of their prey for bushmeat. There are now fewer lions left than elephants.
I feel like I am racing the poachers to find the lions, and they have the advantage because they don’t actually have to see the lions. Lions are much easier to kill than to study
“Poaching has the potential to be incredibly detrimental to Africa’s wild lions,” says Everatt. “This is something we definitely didn’t need – another huge challenge.”