In the last 20 years, the
population of lions has been cut in half and the animals have gone
extinct in about 33 countries, researcher Amy Dickman said during an
appearance Monday night at the St. Louis Zoo.
There are
only about 10 lion strongholds left in the world, Dickman said. In
total, there are fewer lions than rhinos, with a population of only
about 20,000.
Dickman is a senior research fellow at
Oxford University and has worked on big cat conservation for nearly 20
years. “I’ve always been passionate about big cats,” she said.
In
an effort to develop a community-based lion conservation initiative,
she established the Ruaha Carnivore Project. Ruaha is a national park in
the East Africa country of Tanzania, a nation that supports a tenth of
the world’s lions as well as globally significant populations of other
threatened carnivores.
The Ruaha landscape has
traditionally had a high rate of lion and other big animal killings. The
challenge for Dickman was to make a community where many people live on
less than $2 a day and have limited access to clean water, food,
education and medical care take an interest in wildlife conservation.
Dickman learned that, for local men, killing big cats translated into wealth and status.
The
Ruaha Carnivore Project used several tactics to reduce the killings,
such as providing locals with guard dogs that protect the cattle. The
project also provided the community with various other benefits, such as
pairing village schools with U.S. and U.K. institutions. It established
a village clinic, and it educated the local population on wildlife
preservation.
Now villagers who maintain the wildlife cameras planted in the area earn points that can be traded for additional benefits.
Dickman said that those who are literate have gained status in the community, rather than those who are lion hunters.
One of the final steps Dickman and her team took was to expose villagers to wildlife in non-threatening situations.“The
No. 1 thing we hear from people is, ‘I didn’t know lions could be
gentle,’” Dickman said, noting that her project’s efforts has resulted
in a 80 percent reduction in carnivore killings.
Dickman’s
lecture by coincidence fell on the same day that a Zimbabwean official
said that nation is no longer pressing for the extradition of Walter
Palmer, an American dentist who killed a well-known lion called Cecil.
Palmer
can now safely return to Zimbabwe as a “tourist” because he had not
broken the southern African country’s hunting laws, Environment, Water
and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri told reporters in Harare
on Monday. Zimbabwe’s police and the National Prosecuting Authority had
cleared Palmer of wrongdoing, she said.
Dickman did not bring up Palmer or the death of Cecil in her lecture.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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