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Directly or indirectly, the African wild lion population, already decreasing in numbers across the continent, remains under great threat from human-mediated (anthropogenic) causes. Below is a short list of such anthropogenic sources of mortality, some direct, some indirect, and reasons why LionAid is concerned about the rather complacent attitude taken by local authorities and international wildlife conservation agencies who should be much more concerned by this escalating threat
DIRECT
1. Targeted poaching.
Traditional medicine and commercial use of wild lion parts are driving an unsustainable trade across Africa and internationally. In some areas, lions are falling victim to targeted poaching for parts and this, along with other significant threats facing lion populations, is adding to population declines in most African countries. While we rely here mostly on negative effects of such trade on lion populations in Tanzania and Mozambique, traditional medicine markets using wildlife products are common in Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, etc. This should raise the concerns that targeted, commercially-driven poaching for body parts is an emerging threat that has largely been absent from the catalogue of risks faced by contemporary lion populations. Present-day use of lion parts in Africa comprises a diverse range of largely traditional and culturally derived uses including zootherapeutic traditional medicines, clothing, ornamentation, and curios as well as witchcraft and divination of the future. Parts from such targeted poaching includes, claws, teeth, paws, skins, fat – even lion noses. As just one example, a Vietnamese man was arrested in 2021 with 4.2 kilos of lions’ teeth and 680 grams of lion claws. The illegal export of lion teeth and claws from Mozambique and Tanzania seems similarly driven by markets in Vietnam according to TRAFFIC. Amounts of lion products involved are based on customs seizures and are likely considerable underestimates of the total amounts involved. The amounts consumed domestically are almost completely unknown.
Despite such data, a 2020 article by Coals et al., (Global Ecology and Conservation) based on lion population information gathered over about 20 years dismissed the importance of targeted poaching as a significant source of mortality of lion populations around Ruaha NP in Tanzania and Hwange NP in Zimbabwe. More recent analyses refute such conclusions. Specifically, the Ruaha and Selous landscapes in southern Tanzania are identified as key areas where these conflicts are prevalent, with high levels of lion killings on village land south of Ruaha National Park. Additionally, the Kwakuchinja Corridor in northern Tanzania, home to a significant lion population, experiences frequent conflicts, including human fatalities and retaliatory killings of lions. While detection rates of carcasses are low (<20%) in Mozambique, there is evidence of a growing threat. Between 2010–2023, 326 incidents of anthropogenic mortality involving 426 lions were recorded (of a LionAid estimated lion population of <996). Bushmeat bycatch and targeted poaching for body parts were the greatest proximate causes of lion mortality (i.e., 53% of incidents – 226 lions), followed by legal trophy hunting (i.e., 33% - 140), and retaliatory killing (i.e., 13% - 55). Mozambique also appears to have become a regional hotspot for IWT in lion derivatives, both as a source and transit state that is particularly vulnerable to corruption and poor enforcement. (Almeida et al., 2025. Unsustainable anthropogenic mortality threatens the long-term viability of lion populations in Mozambique. PLoS One 20(6)). Trophy hunting statistics quoted by Almeida et al do not match CITES data that show trophy hunting exports and imports from Mozambique 2010-2023 stand at 372. Such disparity among different databases are common in trophy hunting statistics, which brings us to the next category of anthropologic mortality of lions:
2. Unregulated trophy hunting.
Sport hunting is a controversial practice in those African countries that still allow it. On the one hand, trophy hunting proponents argue that hunting blocks conserve vast amounts of land for wildlife, which under different circumstances may have been used for agriculture and grazing; they maintain that hunting blocks may also provide economic benefits to neighbouring communities.
These and other claims are consistently propagated but are largely void of any demonstrable evidence.
However, the many negative facets of trophy hunting have been well documented. When lions are hunted for sport, it is the mature males that are supposedly targeted (six years and older). In social cats such as lions, this can create a situation of abnormal male replacement that can lead to high levels of infanticide. Unmanaged or unregulated trophy hunting can lead to unsustainable offtake which can have a negative impact on lion densities. In Mozambique, the Administracao Nacional das Areas de Conservacao (ANAC) is responsible for issuing species-specific hunting quotas per Coutada (hunting block), per annum. Quotas are set based on the following information: lion surveys, research reports, human-lion conflict incidences, historical surveys, government and operator opinions. Quotas are increased in areas where there is a substantial amount of human-lion conflict; however, this is reportedly not an effective criterion as these data could be misreported and false, which could lead to the incorrect distribution of quotas within Mozambique - the main concerns expressed about the hunting quotas as identified in the ANAC, 2016 National Action Plans for African Lion, are that the hunting quotas in most cases are issued without any scientific basis and consequently seem to be too high. Adequate lion population surveys on which any concept of “sustainable” utilization in hunting areas should be based are almost non-existent. In Zimbabwe, researchers in Hwange NP have stated that during 1999 -2004 sport hunters shot 72% of marked, territorial adult males with most shot close to the park boundary (Loveridge et al., 2007: Biological Conservation: 134, 548-558). This is likely to be because of the practice of using carcass baits to lure lions. Baits placed on or close to the park boundary were likely to attract lions whose home ranges fall within the park and has never been penalized. Poorly defined objectives, institutional failure, lack of management capacity and corruption are likely involved. No nation that allows lion trophy hunting can show stable or even increasing lion populations in hunting areas and independent surveys are generally not permitted by concession holders. The lion population in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania (a population supposedly containing over 1,000 individuals and therefore crucial to the future survival of African lions, has never been properly surveyed).
3. Problem Animal Control (PAC).
Lions are prone to conflict with humans, whether it be killing livestock or in some cases, people. PAC is a measure used to mitigate this conflict. When human-lion conflicts (HLC) occur, wildlife authorities, village game scouts, or game officers are called out to assess the damage caused by the lions and if deemed necessary, remove the individual. PAC can be challenging to implement as the lions may have already moved out of the area by the time the wildlife authorities arrive. In many cases, only the livestock carcasses are discovered and reported, or in other cases, if lions are encountered, they are chased away. In many incidences where villages are isolated, and wildlife authorities lack the human resources to send a representative out to assess the situation, these “problem” lions face persecution and are often killed or injured by villagers themselves (retaliatory/revenge killings).
INDIRECT
1. Diseases.
Diseases originating and maintained by domestic animals, such as bovine tuberculosis and canine distemper, are a threat to lion populations. Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a severe and often fatal disease. Outbreaks have been recorded in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania as well as in the Serengeti ecosystem. The Ngorongoro Crater lion population is isolated due to geographic barriers making this population more susceptible to inbreeding and diseases such as CDV. Increasing human populations, and thus domestic dogs (the reservoir for CDV in northern Tanzania), create the perfect environment for CDV to be transferred to lions, and this relatively small population does not fare as well with disease outbreaks when compared to larger, less isolated populations like the Serengeti lions. Lions are also susceptible to Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB), a disease which is closely linked to bovine species such as cattle and buffalo. Buffalo is one of the top prey for lions and therefore this disease can spread to lion prides after lions consume infected buffalo meat from herds which have a significant prevalence of bovine tuberculosis like in Kruger NP. When bovine tuberculosis is present in a pride it can have many adverse effects, such as reduced breeding success, reduced longevity and high cub mortality. Also, most of the lion populations tested show evidence of infection with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus that significantly affects the immune system, therefore reducing the capability of lions to combat diseases like CDV and bTB.
2. Prey-base depletion.
The illegal bushmeat trade occurs in many countries across Africa. Bushmeat has become an essential source of protein and income generation for countless impoverished people living in rural areas. However, as areas surrounding nationally protected areas become over-utilised, protected areas are becoming negatively affected by unsustainable bushmeat poaching. The illegal bushmeat trade is considered a significant factor affecting the relationship between wild predators and their natural prey due to excessive hunting of certain ungulate species High rates of growth in human populations exacerbate this problem, as do ever-increasing incidences of civil strife and resultant displacements of residents, as well as the growing number of militant armies. Competition for the same prey resources and growth of commercial poaching across Africa to supply local markets with wildlife meat has already greatly reduced numbers of natural prey abundance, and will affect lion numbers unless the uncontrolled poaching of wildlife is not better managed. Also, depletion of natural prey directly leads to predators turning to livestock for sustenance, leading to increased rates of retaliatory killings.
3. Habitat loss due to human encroachment.
One of the main threats to lion conservation is the issue of habitat loss and conversion of natural habitats to support growing human populations. Lions do not cope well in human-modified landscapes or areas with high human density. With an increasing human population comes an intensification of the resources needed to sustain more people. These resources could be in the form of grazing land for cattle or fields for cultivation, both of which transform and fragment natural habitats. For protected areas that are unfenced, encroachment into these natural areas is a common occurrence, and human habitations are common within protected areas in many African nations. Growth of human populations around wildlife areas in Tanzania is directly attributable to simultaneous declines in prey species due to bushmeat poaching. People and carnivores are increasingly competing for the same limited space and resources, making lions extremely susceptible to persecution due to increased contact and possible conflict with livestock (see above)
4. Indiscriminate killing (snaring/gin traps).
Lions are often the indirect casualty of poaching traps used to capture or kill wildlife for bushmeat. In particular, wire snares and gin traps pose a significant threat to lions. This method of poaching is indiscriminate, and even if a trapped lion manages to break free, the snare often remains attached to its victim and can cause fatal injuries if left untreated. Gin traps are still the preferred method of poaching in many areas in Mozambique. Lions caught in gin traps often lose their paws.
In summary, urgent measures need to be taken to prevent or at least reduce anthropogenic threats to lions if the species is to have any chance of survival in the wild over the coming years.
Such remedies are not forthcoming, and losses could be reduced in many cases by better funding to determine levels of threat to remaining lion populations, more frequent lion population counts based on scientifically rigorous techniques, better law enforcement, application of existing and effective programmes to reduce human-lion conflict, and stricter rules on lion trophy hunting, including the requirement that such “legal” offtake shows direct proof of enhancement of hunted populations. In addition, there needs to be better monitoring of new and existing threats to wild lions in already identified “conflict” zones, better education of customs officers and magistrates, heavier penalties for those who illegally kill lions, and much better engagement of wildlife authorities, game scouts, and NGOs.
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