Lions kill cattle, so people kill lions. Can the cycle end?
Associated PressLOIBOR SIRET, Tanzania — Saitoti Petro scans a dirt road in northern Tanzania for recent signs of the top predator on the African savannah. “It will be a big loss if our future children never see lions.” And so he’s joined an effort to protect lions, by safeguarding domestic animals on which they might prey. “Once you make lions safe, their numbers can recover quickly,” because lions reproduce rapidly, says Laly Lichtenfeld, an ecologist and co-founder of African People & Wildlife. Says Craig Packer, a biologist and founder of the Lion Center at the University of Minnesota, who is not involved in the project: “These conflict-mitigation efforts clearly help lions, although there’s always the question of whether they’re going to last 20 or 50 years with a growing human population.” Wildlife refuges are sometimes not a sufficient answer _ at least for species that require large ranges. “We don’t want to hear lions roar at night,” says Neema Loshiro, a 60-year-old woman selling handmade jewelry spread out on a cloth on the street of Loibor Siret.
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Lion patrol: Learning to share the savannah with big animals
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