Lion is vulnerable at a global level.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: The undisputed king of the jungle, the lion, is among the 23,000 species at risk of going extinct, a top conservation agency warned on Tuesday.
According to Agence France Presse, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) updated its “Red List” of threatened species, hailing clear advances in saving endangered species such as the Iberian lynx.
Following six decades of steady decline, the population of the Iberian lynx, considered the world’s most endangered feline, has seen its numbers grow from only 52 adult cats in 2002 to 156 a decade later, IUCN said.
Arduous work to restore the rabbit populations the cats prey on, along with monitoring for illegal trapping and conservation breeding has allowed the species to move from the Red List’s “critically endangered” to the “endangered” category, the agency released to AFP.
However, it also warned that such successes have been overshadowed by declines in a range of species, with 22,784 animals and plants threatened with extinction, including the mighty lion.
“Our natural world is becoming increasingly vulnerable,” warned IUCN chief Inger Andersen, urging increased efforts to save species no the verge of disappearing forever.
The lion remains listed as vulnerable at a global level, with its western African subpopulation listed as “critically endangered” due to over-hunting and dwindling prey.
A rapid drop in population has also been recorded in eastern Africa, which historically has been a bastion for lions, IUCN stated, warning “that trade in bones and other body parts for traditional medicine in Africa and in Asia was a new and emerging threat to the species.”