Save the Lions

Today I'd like to draw everybody's attention to a very serious issue affecting big cats in the wild. In southern Kenya, along the border with Tanzania, is Amboseli National Park. It is a near four hundred square kilometers reserve situated right next to the breathtaking Mt. Kilimanjaro, the 'roof of Africa'. For generations the park has housed big cats and their prey that have lived alongside the local Maasai natives of that region. Of late, however, the situation has taken a turn for the worse for the people and wildlife of Amboseli. Lions have taken to attacking cattle. In retaliation the herders have started killing lions. Lions are disappearing at an alarming rate and the situation has now reached a critical level.

I learned about the issue first a few days back via the electronic National Geographic Society Newsletter and was already thinking of making a post in this regard when yesterday somebody from the National Geographic Society commented on the African Lion profile age to draw attention to this issue. The situation is really desperate at the moment. You can read more about it here:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/projects/big-cat-conservation.html

The Maasai are not entirely to blame either. As conservationist Dereck Joubert points out in the NGS video, Maasai have a cattle based economy and the wanton loss of their cattle has disastrous influences on the well being of their families. These poor people can literally starve if lions continue killing their animals. And so they take to eliminating the lions in retaliation. National Geographic has set up an emergency fund that aims to compensate the Maasai people for the loss of their cattle to lions. Such conservation efforts have proved to be successful in the past and they are already working in Amboseli. Other aspects of the program include benefiting the local people and regional ecosystem so that there is a harmonious relationship amongst all the elements of the area. In the long term, in my opinion, they can also try to convince people to migrate from areas next to lion pride territories to safer places, and compensate them monetarily in this regard. This strategy has worked for saving tigers in India.

National Geographic Society is doing a world of good. They are helping create jobs for the natives and involving them in the regional ecotourism industry. They have already provided a US $ 150,000 grant to the Maasailand Preservation Trust. It is time for us to help. We can donate directly to the fund by going here:
https://donate.ngs.org/NETCOMMUNITY/SSLPage.aspx?pid=608&srcid=608

We can also raise awareness about the issue by posting about it in our blogs or websites. In this way a wider audience will be able to learn and spread this important message. I've created a small 125 x 125 graphic that we can place anywhere in our site to link to the National Geographic Society project page. Following is the html that you can paste in your blog or site's template/html to display the banner:

<a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/projects/big-cat-conservation.html"><img border="0" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2596441493_5eeb9aa3c6_o.jpg" width="125" height="125" alt="Save the Lions">

It is now or never for the Maasai Lions. It is up to us to save the magnificent animals from the brink of extinction. If we don't act now these most majestic of Nature's creations will be lost forever. Please go here now to learn about this issue:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/projects/big-cat-conservation.html


I am going to leave this post on the blog's front page for the next one month in order that a maximum number of people can gain awareness about the dire need of Kenya's lions and contribute towards alleviating their suffering. I'll continue to write posts in the intervening period that will be available for reading in the left sidebar. Thank you all and God bless.