Researchers confirm lion population in remote Ethiopian park

Dr Hans Bauer, a renowned conservationist working for Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) today explained how his team found “original and undisputable” evidence of lions in the region. By identifying their tracks and using camera traps that were able to snap images of the big cats, conservationists have confirmed reports from residents near a remote national park in Ethiopia that there are lions in the area.

This discovery comes as exciting news as many African lions are expected to disappear within decades.

Conservationists are describing the find as “amazing and ground-breaking” and there are hopes of encouraging the governments of Sudan and Ethiopia to protect this precious bastion for the king of the beasts.

Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism. While a century ago some 500,000 lions roamed the continent, now that number could be as low as 20,000.

“I’m afraid this is a very rare occasion, probably the last – I would be surprised if another undocumented lion population shows up anywhere”. Bauer believes it’s likely there are lions there as well, with perhaps 100 to 200 individuals in the two parks combined.

The confirmation was made by an expedition into the Alatash National Park in northwest Ethiopia, on the Ethiopia-Sudan border.

The discovery of the huge population of lions coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the film “Born Free” that featured the real-life rescue of an orphaned lion cub in Kenya.

But this newly found population, hidden away in the remote Alatash National Park, might be better off than those living close to human development. “The International Union for Conservation of Nature only considered Alatash a possible range for the species”. Consequently, on a total surface area of about 10,000 sq km, this would mean a population of 100-200 lions for the entire ecosystem, of which 27-54 would be in Alatash, Bauer said.

The killing of Zimbabwe’s famous lion, Cecil, by an American dentist previous year sparked global outrage. And that range is populated by only 25% to 50% of the lions that were there in 1980 owing to agriculture and slaughter aimed at protecting both humans and livestock.

Claudio Sillero, the Oxford research group’s deputy director, said it was rewarding to confirm the presence of lions in Atalash because they originally thought there weren’t any.

“[I was] not confident at all – I thought all lion populations would have been reported by now and was skeptical about the few unconfirmed rumors”.