I always find it amusing that most people care more for this lion than they do to the humans who are being killed daily.
Can't say I'm amused. First of all, and again, I don't know why caring should be considered a competition and I don't understand why some people don't care at all. Yes, this was one lion, but we're at the point that losing genetic material is important.
This National Geographic link is a real eye opener.
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/big-cats-initiative/lion-decline-map/Don't just look at the numbers on the video map, check out how the lion terrain is shrinking. Here's some figures:
Est. African lion count worldwide
1940's 450,000
1960's 200,000
1980's 100,000
1990's 50,000
2000's 20,000
Even if the early figures are overestimated and the newer ones, which I would expect to be more accurate, are underestimated, I find this incredibly shocking. Not just for the lions but all of the other species that they represent by habitat loss. I try to look at the positive side of everything, but I see nothing good about where these figures are going, nor the limited efforts to correct the decline.
Btw, the recent halt to lion hunting in Zimbabwe has been lifted - they were afraid that it would encourage poaching and, of course, they were losing trophy "hunter" money.
And then there's the African elephant and the rhinoceros, maybe we could care instead about putting money into getting viagra in the drinking water worldwide so trophies and tusks become not such a big deal.
