Without intervention, lions heading for extinction
March 2, 2011 (NPR) – In 1960, there were 400,000 lions living in the wild. Today, there are just 20,000. “That represents a 90 to 95 percent decline,” says National Geographic explorer-in-residence Dereck Joubert. “Unless we start talking about this, these lions will be extinct within the next 10 or 15 years.” Joubert and his wife, Beverly, have lived among populations of big wild cats for decades. Based in Botswana, the filmmakers and conservationists have spent much of their career documenting Africa’s animal population for National Geographic. In their latest documentary project, The Last Lions, the Jouberts follow the dwindling lion population living in Botswana’s Okavango Delta as they battle their prey — the buffalo — as well as rival prides. “Marauding lions [come] in from the outside into their territory and fight with them,” says Dereck Joubert. “These territorial battles are dramatic and often end up in death one way or another.” … In The Last Lions, the Jouberts focus on one lioness who tries to protect her three cubs from a vicious rival pride — by herself — after her mate dies in battle. Usually, a lioness will have a pride of female lions providing an additional layer of security for her cubs. But not in this case. “For her, the stakes were doubly high,” says Dereck Jouter. “She had lost her mate and her protector, and she had to go out and hunt — a very, very dangerous activity — and make sure she didn’t get injured long enough for her cubs to be vulnerable and in jeopardy. …
