US moves to protect lions from big-game trophy hunters

The U.S.is going to protect lions in Africa under the Endangered Species Act, the Obama administration announced Monday, a move that would make it harder for American big-game hunters to bring a lion head or hide back into the country.

The Obama administration’s decision to extend Endangered Species Act protections for two breeds of lions is a turning point for the lions now roaming Africa, advocacy groups say. What’s concerning is that while trophies from countries where lions are endangered will be “generally prohibited”, there are a few “limited circumstances” wherein lion parts may be permitted.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signaled in a document obtained by the Associated Press that it would classify the lion as threatened or endangered across its entire range in Africa.

The other lion subspecies, found in eastern and southern Africa – including Zimbabwe – has an estimated population of 17,000-19,000 and will be listed as threatened.

“The lion is one of the planet’s most beloved species and an irreplaceable part of our shared global heritage”, said Ashe.

Though the Fish and Wildlife Service told the AP the move was not connected to Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who rose to infamy after hunting down Cecil in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, the news agency noted he pled guilty to a felony charge in 2008 after lying about an illegal 2006 hunt involving a protected black bear. While this addendum certainly doesn’t prohibit Americans from heading to these countries to bring back lion trophies, United States has inserted a special notation asking such countries, where lions still exist in the wild, to regulate sport hunting of lions in ways that promote conservation, reported Yahoo.

“Today we are telling the lion’s side of the story”, said FWS director Dan Ashe.

“Importing sport-hunted trophies and other wildlife or animal parts into the United States is a privilege, not a right, a privilege that violators of wildlife laws have demonstrated they do not deserve”, Ashe said.

The dentist was cleared by Zimbabwe officials of wrongdoing in October, because he did not break the country’s hunting laws. Ashe said the listing will not bar the import of trophies from these hunts into the USA, but it will “raise the bar significantly” and require permits that prove any hunts were conducted in a sustainable manner.

Lion populations have declined 43 percent in the last two decades due to habitat loss, difficulty finding prey, and increasing conflicts with the growing human population.