Exciting news out of Chad this week , as conservationist at the Sena Oura National Park study the first sighting of a unfounded lion in the expanse in nearly two decades .
Even comfortably , the freehanded cat looks like thriving . Caught on remote camera back in February , astatementfrom the New - York base Wildlife Conservation Society ( WCS ) describes the feline visitant as “ a beautiful lioness , in her bloom and understandably in great health . ”
Lions , often consideredone of the most iconicof all African wildlife , have been classify as “ Vulnerable ” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) since 1996 . That ’s only one step above Endangered , and it ’s clear why : as of the most recent assessment of the species population , the figure of wild lions hadnearly halvedin just three generations .
But even that care statistic masks a bleaker trueness : “ In the majority of its compass the Lion meet the A2 standard for Endangered , ” the judgement observe , “ but this trend is numerically palliate by a small number of subpopulation in a restricted geographic compass . ”
And indeed , in Sena Oura , part of the larger Bouba N’djida - Sena Oura Landscape along the Cameroon / Chad border , the specie is technically already out . In the yesteryear , the part get wind a period of time of “ unpitying , unionized poaching , ” WCS explicate – one which saw lion populations in West and Central Africa decline by an forecast 66 percent over the past three ten .
While the place has of late benefitted from unattackable commitments to conservation from the governments of both Chad and Cameroon , the moving-picture show is still not a pretty one : fewer than 1,000 of the 22,000 - 24,000 Leo surviving in the wild belong to the genetically distinct West and Central African subspecies , and populations are “ specially diminished and split , ” WCS notes .
The sighting of a healthy lioness in the area , therefore , is cause for festivity – another sign , along with recovering populations in the adjacent Bouba N’djida National Park in Cameroon , that late local conservation efforts may be pay off .
“ [ It ] is hugely encouraging , ” WCS Big Cat Programme executive director Luke Hunter toldBBC News . “ choice females are the basis of any lion universe , and they are not fully grown wanderers : they populate areas that have quarry and are safe to raise their young carnivore in . ”
“ I am certain she is not alone , ” he said .
