Will the lion always roam Africa?

August 29, 2024

"I have always been grateful that I was born into a world and shall die in one where the lion, however diminished in number, is still roaring. Heard in his and my native setting, it is for me the most beautiful sound in the world. It is to silence what the shooting star is to the dark of the night."

Busanga Plains, Kafue - Zambia

The other night I woke up in the early hours of morning. It was dead still, even the nightjars were silent. Then I heard the roar of a lion. Every few minutes the roar sliced through the cold, dense air. I lay awake, grateful for the privilege of living in a land of lions.

For it is a rare thing. Lion numbers have plummeted in the last 50 years. It is now extinct in 16 countries, and its range has shrunk by 90 per cent. Two hundred years ago, there were probably more than a million. Today there are fewer than 25 000 wild lions in Africa. There are more rhinos than lions.

In places like Kruger and Niassa, lion numbers are stable or increasing, but these are exceptions to the rule. The king of Africa is in exile on his own continent. Lions are effectively an endangered species (even though IUCN ranks them only as “vulnerable”.)

Despite our fear of lions – or maybe because of it – we are fascinated by them. Lions feature on the royal coats of arms of European countries and the UK. Lions appear on our bank notes. Sports teams name themselves after the lion. The lion is used to sell hundreds of retail products. The Lion King franchise is the most successful movie and theatre franchise ever, earning over $10 billion revenue. How much of that goes back to lion conservation?

I’ve had powerful, weird, wonderful dreams about lions. Lions are a symbol that is embedded in our psyche – an icon of strength, bravery and nobility. Yet no dream can match the actual, living, roaring lion of Africa. When I hear lions roaring, I am assured. Everything seems in balance.

We can pretend that lions – or other apex predators like tigers, sharks, bears – aren’t relevant in the modern, urban, tech world. We can shrug our shoulders in despair or hopelessness, believing that their diminishment and eradication is an inevitable result of “progress” and “development”.

But I believe lions do matter to us – very much – in ways that we don’t completely understand. The lion is meant to be here. And so am I – and you. We are all meant to be here – lions, humans – together, sharing this precious planet. If we lose the lion, we lose part of Africa. And we lose part of ourselves.

I write about lions and their conservation in my new book Spirit of Africa, to be released worldwide in October 2024.