Endangered Species: West African Lions

Background: Lions are one of the most beautiful and majestic creatures on the face of the earth, these animals. This particular species is found in West Africa. The problem is many hunters are going after these animals because they won’t kill them just for sport or these lions pose as a threat to domestic animals and humans kill them to solve this problem. Humans are also driving out these species because they are trying to industrialize these animals’ habitats. Over the past 100 years, African lions have become more and more endangered.

Studies predict that they can become totally extinct by 2050. Lions are one of society’s favorite animals because of the king-like personality but many people want to hunt them just so they have a trophy and can say they have killed a lion.

Cause: The main cause of these lions becoming endangered is humans. Many humans from all over the world traveled to many parts of Africa looking for lions to hunt just for fun and sport. Many animals are hunted for specific parts of their bodies but lions hardly offer anything to a hunter. It makes the hunting very pointless but for hunters, it’s about bragging and the trophy of a lion. Also, humans are coming into the lion’s territory and they are leaving their habitats and having to relocate. Humans who have domesticated animals near lion habitats also try and kill lions because they are afraid if the lions hurting their domestic animals.

Effects: Humans are affecting many parts of the ecosystem. They are killing endangered animals which do not let the predators of the endangered animals eat therefore the whole food chain is thrown off. The extinction of these lions would affect the biosphere because the biosphere is always in a cycle of endangerment of all living species.

Claim: Lions are becoming more and more endangered every day in 2050 they are predicted to become completely extinct. Without lions, the food chain for other animals will be thrown off and predators of the lions will have to find other sources of food. Humans need to put an end to hunting and poaching of the West African lions because without them many other species will be left hungry and having to seek other prey.

Data: Numbers of lions (decrease by 8,750 per 10 years)

Analysis: In the graph and table it shows how 8,750  lions are being killed per 20 years. In the year 2050, it shows that there will be no more of this species. The graph has a negative trend because so many lions are being killed the line trends downwards.

Solution: This issue needs to be solved immediately because if we wait too long these lions will be gone forever.

Many charities have been set up to create preserves, reserves, and sanctuaries but hunters come in those illegally and are not always caught.

The best thing for these beautiful creatures is to stop hunting. One way to stop huntings to have fines We could have a special reserve for these beautiful animals. To solve this problem I would have higher security at each reserve and have a much higher ax if these hunters are caught possibly even jail time.

We could focus more on animals’ safety and their wellbeing than on the industrialization and the making of new facilities on their habitats.

The only setback to this solution is the cost. With the added people securing the area you would need to pay them and if we wanted to have special fences around the reserve that would be costly. This option is one of the best for the environment because all we are adding is protection for these animals.

Sources:

All About Wildlife. (2018). ARE LIONS ENDANGERED?. [online] Available at: http://www.allaboutwildlife.com/endangered-species/are-lions-endangered/5825 [Accessed 21 Dec. 2018].

Platt, J. (2018). African Lions Finally Gain Endangered Species Act Protection. [online] Scientific American Blog Network. Available at: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/african-lions-protection/ [Accessed 21 Dec. 2018].

Service, U. (2018). Endangered Species Program | What We Do | Foreign Species | Overview. [online] Fws.gov. Available at: https://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/lion.html [Accessed 21 Dec. 2018].

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