A king in crisis

摘要

A frica is changing. Cattle herders who once poked lions with pointed sticks now have rifles and lethal poisons. Pesticides and veterinary advances have pushed aside the tsetse flies and the sleeping sickness and opened whole new ranges to livestock.A terrible invisible lion massacre, meanwhile, has already occurred. Some estimates reckon that since 1980, numbers of lions across Africa have fallen from around 200,000 to perhaps fewer than 20,000 - a 90 per cent decline. If correct, this is a catastrophe comparable to the collapse of Asia's tiger population in the last century. The difference is that tigers were always difficult and astonishing to see, and people were easily persuaded they were growing scarce. Lions, however, are conspicuous. If you go to the right place - the Masai Mara or the Serengeti - you can't miss them. There a pride will be, lying like a bunch of old carpets under a tree, panting, covered in flies and without a care in the world. Surely not edging towards extinction?