Majestic Conservation

Advocate of Big Cat, especially Panthera leo, conservation

[coiour-my-world]

Botswana Sunset

[priceofliberty]

'What lion?' Zimbabweans ask, amid global Cecil circus

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

As social media exploded with outrage this week at the killing of Cecil the lion, the untimely passing of the celebrated predator at the hands of an American dentist went largely unnoticed in the animal’s native Zimbabwe.

“What lion?” acting information minister Prisca Mupfumira asked in response to a request for comment about Cecil, who was at that moment topping global news bulletins and generating reams of abuse for his killer on websites in the United States and Europe.

The government has still given no formal response, and on Thursday the papers that chose to run the latest twist in the Cecil saga tucked it away on inside pages.

For most people in the southern African nation, where unemployment tops 80 percent and the economy continues to feel the after-effects of billion percent hyperinflation a decade ago, the uproar had all the hallmarks of a ‘First World Problem’.

“Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country,” said Tryphina Kaseke, a used-clothes hawker on the streets of Harare. “What is so special about this one?”

As with many countries in Africa, in Zimbabwe big wild animals such as lions, elephants or hippos are seen either as a potential meal, or a threat to people and property that needs to be controlled or killed.

“Why are the Americans more concerned than us?” said Joseph Mabuwa, a 33-year-old father-of-two cleaning his car in the center of the capital. “We never hear them speak out when villagers are killed by lions and elephants in Hwange.”

[lionsmajesty]

Operative phrase: “First World Problem” People’s care for animal-kind before man is a the decimation of a soul. Only as a collective people who first understands what societal justice means can we solve the environmental issues plaguing our world.

[just-shower-thoughts]

Hundreds of kids killed in Syria, no one bats an eye. A lion killed and the whole world gets in a uproar.

[skettimon-deactivated20160125]

Kids in Syria aren’t endangered.

[tunte]

Imagine being this stupid

[king-emare]

You can’t be serious

[lionsmajesty]

Golden Crowned King, May He Forever Reign!

Imagine yourself in the heat of the afternoon sun, bumping around the back of a safari truck on the roughly paved path, eyes wide to the majestic scenes of nature. But during your journey you notice the air is missing a distinct cord, the feel of your surroundings is a little off balance, and to your surprise by the end of your travels you find the “king of the jungle” dethroned and the golden reign of the majestic lion lost. Today, the lion (Panthera leo) is down in number by 30%, having only around 30,000-32,000 individuals concentrated in Eastern and Southern Africa (Fitzherbert et al., 2014). These animals belonging to the core five species of sub-saharan ecosystem (along with the leopard, the buffalo, the elephant, and both the white and black rhino), have been placed under the vulnerable list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

 In addition to habitat loss, disease, and trophy hunting, direct killing by locals for defense and ceremonial reasons contributes to the continental decline of the population. Defending their pastoral lands and livestock, locals retaliate and even seek out lions in protected areas to kill. A well-studied case of conflict can be found in Eastern African with the Maasai people. For generations ritualistic killing by warriors had become the cultural norm, and now with the people raising livestock for their livelihood much trouble has arisen as they attempt to defend their investments.  Being it impossible to change the lion’s natural instinct to hunt for prey, we can only find a solution in diverging the native people from hunting the predators and fortifying them with the knowledge and resources to defend their property.

The beautiful parallel is that the Maasai people from their ancestral blood are rooted into the cryptic symphony of the savanna that many scientist spend a lifetime atoning to. With their unique knowledge they actually can be the best advocates in the cause for conservation. Lion Guardians, a conservation program that works with the Maasai people in the Amboseli ecosystem, actually recruits well respected elders that take role in preventing further hunts. The elder leaders also are responsible in retrieving livestock lost in the brush, inform the community about carnivore movement, and monitor lion movements on the land through radio tracking. Through incentives LG (Lion Guardians) compensates the leaders' work which benefits the entire community and the lions which they help conserve.

Research conducted by Hazzah et al. (2014) has shown that since the installation of LG’s program in 2007 there is a “near-total cessation of lion killings in the area where it was implemented.” Their participatory conservation with the Maasai people drives a deep responsibility between the communities and alters their perspective of how beneficial the lion can actually be in the ecosystem. The continued mission of LG and their vision of “sustainable coexistence between people and lions in Africa” requires the support of concerned advocates like us to donate. Even the tiniest amount will help LG towards its success in keeping the golden crowned king forever reign.

Please visit: http://lionguardians.org/donate to donate

Sources: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24527992

                http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320714001207

[lionsmajesty]

The Alliance On June 1, 2014, environmental philanthropists from China, India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States formed a new Global Alliance with Panthera committing an initial $80 Million over the next ten years to conserve the world's wild cats and their ecosystems.

Progress!

[fruitsaladchewits-deactivated20]

[lionsmajesty]

  Beautiful creatures who deserve the opportunity of life

[lionsmajesty]

Massai warriors turn lion protectors

A group of Maasai warriors in southern Kenya have turned from hunting lions to protecting them as part of a wildlife project.

[awkwardsituationist]

two lionesses and their cubs taking an early morning stroll in kenya’s masai mara. photos by david lazar

[discoverynews]

Wildlife Numbers Cut in Half in Just 40 Years

[lionsmajesty]

Lions and hyenas are known to steal meals from hard-working cheetahs. But are carcass thefts enough to account for the dramatic decline in cheetah numbers?

Human activity cause for cheetah population decreases over lions extracting kills from cheetahs