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Headline : World Lion Day (10 Aug): Wildlife Photographer Shares His Pictures
Caption : For World Lion Day (Saturday, 10 August), British wildlife photographer Paul Goldstein shares his thoughts on the vulnerable species, as well as a selection of his amazing pictures.

The Exodus Travels (www.exodus.co.uk) guide, from Wimbledon, says:

“Disney’s reworked extravaganza may have received mixed reviews for its rather clinical and soul-less approach but has still been a summer blockbuster, doing nothing to diminish the King of the Jungle’s allure. However, if the King is to retain its status it will require royal pardons from poachers, hunters, encroachment and disease. So says photographer guide and presenter Paul Goldstein on World Lion Day.

"It is perhaps the most recognisable animal in the world, yet its numbers have dropped almost 45% in the last 25 years. Significantly its prey base has dropped by an even larger number, so the future of this tawny and majestic predator is by no means certain and it is only a whisper away from being critically endangered.’

"Despite the dubious justification for hunting, this has grown as has poaching, being fuelled by the growing international trade in lion parts. Under certain permits this despicable trade is still legal which is as ridiculous as there being any provenance in the traditional medicine for which they are used in China. In some areas of Vietnam and China lion bones have replaced tiger ones as those striped cats are in even worse shape thanks to this insidious trade.

“Lions have to be valuable to many alive rather than parcelled up on the slab ready for the Chinese market, if enough people get a financial warm from them they will get the protection and indeed space they both deserve and crave.

“In West Africa numbers have dropped to under 400 across the whole region which is virtually untenable and until the evils of poaching and corruption are arrested, they will vanish here.

“However, there is some good news: numbers have actually grown in Southern Africa, but only in fenced areas. In East Africa, venue for Lion King, the success is patchy and only in the Mara Conservancies is there an actual increase where careful private management and tightly controlled tourism has suited both animals and tourists alike.

“As ever, the real heroes are not the big film companies but the honest wardens, rangers and anti-poaching patrols – stoic guardians of a very vulnerable species who put their lives on the line each day and, in the case of the anti-poaching patrols, are often out-numbered and out-gunned.

“A huge male roaring at dawn, a mother leading her small cubs across the plains, or a lethal hunter carving into a wildebeest herd, these animals are hard to forget and that roar, which can travel six kilometres, has stayed with me for 35 years since I heard it first, and even in London it is my wake-up call.

“They matter, as do their protectors, and initiatives like the marvellous Remembering Lions (https://rememberingwildlife.com/remembering-lions/) this year, which has already raised vast sums for this animal’s protection, show that there are still many generous and informed people who are aware of this cat’s plight.



Paul Goldstein guides for Exodus travels (www.exodus.co.uk) and co-owns Kicheche Camps (www.kicheche.com) in Kenya.
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