Hacking a Lion To Death To Promote Tourism

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/62695809@N02/5725553973/

I recall a number of years ago some halfwit promoting a fight between a tiger and a man. The man would be using karate. There was an outrage and the fight was stopped. Such exhibitions are easily staged and are neither clever nor heroic. In fact they are barbarous and cruel.

Now we have the most idiotic of ideas. Killing a lion to promote tourism. It has to be stopped. I know it would appeal to a certain part of our society but that does not make it acceptable.

This is no demonstration of strength or courage this is a promotion of idiocy and cowardice. If anything it will mark Egypt as a nation of animal offenders and turn many tourists away.



Read about it Here:

Egyptian to fight lion to promote tourism

CAIRO: In a strange and angering move by an Egyptian citizen, a lion is to be fought and killed in an effort to promote tourism to the country. The report has sparked outrage among animal welfare activists in the country, who have called on the government to intervene to stop the killing.


“This is disgusting, to fight a lion to death to raise public attention is so wrong,” one animal rights activist in Egypt said in an email to Bikya Masr detailing the situation.


According to local reports, an Egyptian citizen purchased a lion for around 25,000 Egyptian pounds – in violation of stated international wildlife regulations – and is “”to fight the lion to death with swords.”


Egyptian Arabic newspaper al-Youm al-Saba’a said the idea was to “raise public attention and media to invite tourists to Egypt.”


As of Thursday, the Egyptian government has yet to speak out on the issue and activists are hoping international animal conservation agencies will take up the cause in order to prevent the “battle” from taking place.


“It is simply shocking to me that anyone would think that the vast majority of tourists that are thinking about coming to Egypt, or are in Egypt right now, would want to see this fight actually take place,” said Helen Reese, a British national who has lived in Egypt for over two years and is an ardent animal activist.


“I just wish that there was a stronger movement to stop this cruelty,” she added.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=33976

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The Last Lions

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The Last Lions

Directed by Derek Joubert

Written by Derek Joubert and Jim Kouf

Narrated by Jeremy Irons

Running time: 88 minutes

Rated PG for some violent images involving animal life

For each viewing of this trailer, National Geographic is donating 10 cents (up to a cap of $100,000) to lion and big cat preservation efforts in Botswana. The end of the movie also provides viewers with options to help out more substantively.

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'No Mirrors Involved'

Snow Leopards

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Welsh Mountain Zoo

 

Lion Guardians - Annual Report 2010

Executive Summary

The past year has been the most difficult, yet most rewarding year for the Lion Guardians program since its inception in January 2007. Recovering from one of the worst droughts in history, Maasai lost more than 65% of their livestock, and lion attacks on livestock increased eight-fold. As a result, lion hunting attempts increased dramatically and the Lion Guardians found themselves between the spears of their angry brothers and the remaining lions. The Lion Guardians’ unwavering dedication, along with that of the other stakeholders in the ecosystem, ensured the continued survival of over 40 lions (more than half of the remaining population) that were hunted by Maasai in the Amboseli region. Unfortunately, during the same time in an area adjacent to the Tanzania border (without a Lion Guardians program), at least 18 lions were killed by both spears and poison. After lengthy meetings with communities and leaders, we expanded the Lion Guardians project to this high conflict region in September 2010. From inception to date, we are thrilled to report that there has not been a single lion killed in the new expansion site.

Read Full Report HERE

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'No Mirrors Involved'

Snow Leopards

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Lion Extinction Looms

Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjunstorm/3465748469/

The video here has been very badly put together but it does make a point, and one which most people are tending to overlook. Please watch it.

African Lion Population Declining

The Fall and Potential Rise of Africa's Lion Populations

Article By Diane Dulken

When I was in Kenya's Maasai Mara, I experienced a beautiful illusion.

                                 Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/auburnnewyork/



As the sun clawed across the sky, we galloped on our horses through open plains dotted by acacia trees. Everywhere we looked on our multi-day riding safari, wildlife ranged freely and expansively - giraffes, elephants, gazelles, hyenas and on more than one thrilling occasion, lions.



It seemed as if in this part of the world that nature was intact. Predator and prey, vast plains, Maasai herdsmen walking or bicycling (yes) across the open grassland, intermingling with wildlife. It seemed to be a world primal and whole.



But what I saw was as real as a snapshot. I saw a reflection of reality, but perhaps not an accurate reflection, or one that captured a complete picture. The reality is far more complex.



In reality, there has been a sharp and rapid decline in lion populations. A new report points to two strategies that if adopted may help to revive them. In just the last 20 years, scientists say that Africa's lion population has plummeted by about 85%, from about 200,000 to about 23,000 to 26,000. That's not a decline, it's an emergency.



Dr. Laurence Frank, a University of California Berkeley conservation biologist who lives a good portion of time in Kenya studying lions and other predators and devising conservation strategies to ensure their survival, is blunt. He says wild lions may be gone in 10 years.



While lions may be king of the Kenyan tourist economy, they are a threat to herdsmen and farmers. People kill lions for the same reason American ranchers shoot wolves - to protect their livestock. Lion killing also is a ritual passage for young Maasai.



But in his recently released annual report as part of the Living withLions project he helped found, Dr. Frank points to two positive trends:




A CBS 60 Minutes expose on lion poisoning in May led the US-manufacturer to withdraw the poison from the Kenyan market. Furadan, or carbofuran, made by the Philadelphia-based company FMC Corporation, is exceedingly toxic. It's banned in Europe, practically outlawed in the United States, but until the 60 Minutes report, it was easily and widely accessible in Kenya. And until 60 Minutes featured a lion dying on TV, FMC had denied a link between its product and predator deaths. I still wonder about its availability in other African countries.


"Our most important single achievement was the Sixty Minutes piece on lion poisoning, which brought about the immediate withdrawal of the pesticide Furadan from Kenya," reported Dr. Frank. "This action has saved a great many lions, plus countless vultures and other scavengers."

                                       Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cleopold73/




Harnessing Maasai culture to turn lion killers into lion protectors. The Living with Lions and Lion Guardians programs flip the economics of lion killing to lion protection by both compensating livestock owners for cattle lost to predators, and by paying young Maasai warriors to protect lions. Where spearing lions used to be a traditional rite of passage and mark of prestige, now guarding them is. That's an enormous and clever reversal. Living with Lions is now expanding its programs to other areas of Kenya as fast as it can.



Perhaps a third trend is in play: The power of the web and social media to engage people from all over the world in lion and African wildlife conservation.



Since my Kenya safari, I've visited Dr. Frank in Berkeley, heard him speak in Oregon and I have just received via e-mail his annual report. But the work conducted by Dr. Frank and other conservationists is available every day to be engaged with interactively. View a lion kill, watch the Lion Guardians in action, support their work, all through Web 2.0 tools.



In addition to livingwithlions.org, additional engaging web 2.0 experiences include wildlifedirect.org  (Twitter @wildlifedirect), founded by the

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Zoo Keeper Killed By Lion

Lion kills China zoo keeper

A worker at a wildlife park in central China has been attacked and killed by an African lion while he was cleaning out its cage, state media says.

                                 Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/



The 56-year-old worker, identified only by his surname Ming, was attacked by the lion at the Nanhai Wildlife Park in the city of Madian in Henan province on Thursday, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.



Ming had only been at his job for four days when the attack occurred, it said.



Yang Yang, the nine-year-old African lion, has been placed under quarantine while an investigation into the incident is conducted, the report said.



In November, police in northeast China shot dead two Siberian tigers after the animals severely mauled a worker at a wildlife park in Liaoning province, a report said at the time.



Due to a lack of customers and funding for the park, the tigers were starving

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My condolences to Ming's friends and family - Peter