Abstract
The African lion, Panthera leo, has, like many of the world’s megafauna, become threatened with extinction over the past century. Loss of habitat and prey, persecution in retaliation of livestock depredation, by-catch by bushmeat poachers and unsustainable trophy hunting are all documented anthropogenic caused threats to lion conservation. Here we present data that indicate the emergence of a further threat to lion conservation: the targeted poaching of lions for body parts. We present lion abundance and mortality data from field surveys in southern Africa between 2011 and 2018 of a resident lion population. The targeted poaching of lions for body parts accounted for 35% of known human caused mortalities across the landscape and 61% of mortalities within Limpopo National Park with a clear increase in this pressure in 2014. Retaliatory killing for livestock conflict accounted for 51% of total mortalities, however in 48% of conflict cases body parts were also removed, suggesting that a demand for body parts may incentivize conflict related killing of lions. The use of poison was the most common means of killing lions and was recorded in 61% of mortalities. Teeth and claws were the body parts harvested most often from illegally killed animals in the study area, with an increase from 2014 onwards. This pressure threatens the viability of the species in our study area and the success of current conservation initiatives. We suggest that the results of this study be viewed as a warning to the global conservation community to be vigilant of the impact that illegal wildlife trade can have on the conservation of lions, just as a similar pressure has already had on other big cat populations.
Highlights
The African lion, Panthera leo, has, along side many of the world’s megafauna, become threatened with extinction over the past century (Ripple et al 2014; Bauer et al 2015a)
This study reports on data collected from the Mozambican portion of the Greater Limpopo Lion Conservation Unit (GLLCU) including Limpopo National Park (LNP)
In order to reduce bias associated with the variation in study area coverage between 2011 and 2012 (Everatt et al 2014), 2013 (11,000 km2), and 2015–2018 (Everatt et al 2015, 2019) we presented all data on annual mortality sources, means and body parts removed as percentages of yearly documented totals (Figs. 2, 3, 4)
Summary
The African lion, Panthera leo, has, along side many of the world’s megafauna, become threatened with extinction over the past century (Ripple et al 2014; Bauer et al 2015a). Lion populations are estimated to have declined by approximately 43% over the past 21 years (Bauer et al 2015b) with an estimated 32,000 remaining across Africa, while lion range has declined by 75% over the past 50 years (Riggio et al 2013). Widespread illegal bushmeat hunting is responsible for decimating prey populations across Africa, reducing habitat suitability for lions (Lindsey et al 2013) as well as impacting lions directly through mortalities as by-catch in wire snares set for prey species (Becker et al 2013). In addition to each of these well documented drivers of lion population declines, the targeted poaching of lions for body parts for illegal wildlife trade (IWT) may emerge as yet another significant threat to the viability of lions, as it has for several other big cat species (Environmental Investigations Agency 2017). The targeted poaching of tigers (Panthera tigris) for bones and skins is one of the most significant threats to tiger population viability (Chapron et al 2008; Dinerstein et al 2007; Goodrich et al 2008), as is the poaching of leopards (Panthera pardus) for skins (Swanepoel et al 2016; Raza et al 2012), the poaching of snow leopards (Panthera uncia) for skins and bones (Hussain 2003; Li and Lu 2014) and the poaching of jaguars (Panthera onca) for skins and more recently for their teeth (Verheij 2019)
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