African lion populations could be cut in half by 2035
Source: CBS News
By AMANDA SCHUPAK CBS NEWS October 26, 2015, 3:23 PM
African lion populations could be cut in half by 2035
Lion populations in West, Central and East Africa are in danger of declining by as much as half in the next two decades, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers from the University of Oxford looked at surveys of 47 lion populations across Africa conducted since 1990 and used the observed trends to predict how those animals would fare two decades into the future. The results were sobering.
The surveys, which accounted for an estimated total of 8,221 lions, showed that over the past 25 years populations have declined everywhere except in four countries -- Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In West Central Africa, there is only one region where numbers are not falling, and two areas in which lions are now likely extinct.
A similar pattern was found in East Africa, with Serengeti's being the only large lion population not in decline.
From this, the researchers, led by Oxford's Hans Bauer, estimated that lions in West and Central Africa have a 67 percent chance of seeing their numbers halved over the next two decades. In East Africa, the chances of this are 37 percent.
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