Fifty year ago there were close to half-a-million lion in Africa. Today there are around 20,000. To ...
Fifty year ago there were close to half-a-million lion in Africa. Today there are around 20,000. To make matter wore, lion, unlike elephants, which are far more numerous, have virtually no protection under government mandate or through international accords. This is the jumping-off point for a disturbing, well-researched and beautifully made cri de coeur from husband and wife team Dereck and Beverly Joubert, award-winning filmmaker from Botswana who have been Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic for more than four year. Pointing to poaching as a primary threat while noting the lion's pride of place on the list for eco-tourists-an industry that brings in 200 billion dollar per year worldwide-the Jouberts build a solid case for both the moral duty we have to protect lion (as well as other threatened "big cats," tiger among them) and the economic sene such protection would make. And when one takes into account the fact that big cats are at the very top of the food ...
