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JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): Today, there are thought to be little more than 30,000 African lions remaining on the continent, and about 70 percent of those live in just 10 major strongholds.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing that the African lion now be listed as an endangered species following a years-long push from a coalition of advocacy groups.
A representative from one of them joins us now, Jeff Flocken of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Well, welcome to you.
The Wildlife Service says the three main threats facing African lions are habitat loss, loss of prey base, and increased human-lion conflict. Explain what that means for us. What exactly is the threat?
JEFF FLOCKEN, International Fund for Animal Welfare: Sure.
Today’s announcement was very important for lions. It not only said that this — in fact, the species is endangered with extinction, but that it deserves protection. You mentioned the threats that include habitat loss, and when there’s conflict with local people and the lions are killed in retaliation, also loss of prey base.
But in addition to those, unsustainable trophy hunting have been a problem. When the government made an announcement today, they went out of their way to include a new system to monitor and regulate imports of trophy-hunted lion into the U.S. And that’s our best way to protect them here in the U.S.
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