PREVIEW

AssetID: 35109341

Headline: World Lion Day: Wildlife Photographer's Gallery

Caption: "On World Lion Day this cat’s numbers are dwindling at an alarming level across Africa," says wildlife photographer and guide Paul Goldstein. ‘However there is no reason to give up hope on the King of the Jungle." "Lion numbers are still growing in a few carefully manged Conservancies where properly audited money benefits all stakeholders and by default the lions themselves. If this tawny predator becomes a meal ticket for many rather than just a few corrupt few, they will survive. It is a similar story for other endangered predators like tigers and cheetahs." "A few years ago the shooting of Cecil the lion by an American bible-belt backwater dentist grabbed a lot of headlines but this bypassed the much bigger insidious dangers of land encroachment, cattle, disease and poaching to say nothing of corruption. There is spurious talk of hunting lions generating sufficient funds for their survival but until all the money from this is properly audited I just don’t believe it. Also I find it astonishing that shooting a lion by rifle with telescopic sights or indeed crossbow in a small enclosure is actually called sport. These so-called hunters must be awfully brave. "In the Mara Conservancies, where lion numbers are growing I cannot remember a night where I have not been woken by their raucous calls, a sound that can be heard four miles away. Each morning I see familiar faces as they pad across these fabled plains. There are few sights in nature more evocative or indeed precious than these noble beasts that need our and our politicians protection more than ever." Paul Goldstein co-owns Kicheche Camps in Kenya and guides for Exodus Travels.

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