African Lion Rehabilitation and Release into the Wild
Program
Operated
by Lion Encounter in partnership with ALERT - the African Lion &
Environmental Research Trust.
In 1975 over 200,000 lions used to roam the African continent.
Estimates made in 2002 put the number of lions between 23,000 and
39,000, representing an 80 – 90% decline in less than 30 years.
The IUCN states that “the causes of this reduction are not well
understood, are unlikely to have ceased, and may not be reversible”.
Given
the recent, rapid reduction in lion populations across Africa it is
ALERT’s opinion that habitat protection methods implemented at the cost
of hundreds of millions of dollars over the last 30 to 40 years have so
far failed the lion and many other species.
ALERT fully believes in habitat protection for the long term
sustainability of the species, and there have been some success stories
to applaud, but given we are clearly failing the lion we believe that a
range of solutions must be found before the lion becomes critically
endangered.
New ideas are necessary if we are to have any real long term success
in habitat protection. ALERT, through the ALERT Communities Trust
program, supports the notion that only through local community
involvement can the lion, and other species in Africa, survive.
In
order to overcome the current view that wildlife should be killed to
avoid the conflict over resources with humans we believe that the
livelihoods of communities bordering conservation areas should be
intrinsically linked to the health of that environment such that the
community will have reason to protect it, motivated by Africans to the
benefit of Africans.
But can the lion wait for us to effect the necessary major cultural
shift at all levels of society to achieve this long-lasting solution to
habitat protection?
Will the numbers of lions be so low; populations so fragmented and
genetic diversity so narrowed during this long and difficult process
leaving the species in crisis?
We, as well as many others believe there is a very real possibility
of this nightmare scenario.
ALERT therefore feels it is our responsibility to provide a solution
to the problem of how to reintroduce lion into areas that need them when
that need arrives; and we feel that we should work on that solution now
before it is too late. But where will these lions come from?
There is a current belief that the protected areas in many African
countries can either be re-colonized by remnant lion populations that
still manage to exist, or can be augmented by translocation of wild
lions from other areas. We believe that this is highly hopeful and
considerably misguided.

- First, recovery from a small population of lions to re-colonize
large areas will be slow and susceptible to many chance events.
- Second, given their drastic decline, there are few areas
remaining that might be considered as sources for new colonists.
- And third, many wild lion populations are infected with diseases
such as tuberculosis that would preclude involvement in
reintroduction or reinforcement programs. Therefore, we are of the
opinion that the captive bred lions can be a viable option.
There are many complications and potential dangers inherent in
reintroducing lions back into the wild however; most notably the likely
conflicts with humans and their livestock following release; this may be
especially true of captive bred lions that might not have learned human
avoidance characteristics of some wild lions. There are several reasons
that have been put forward to explain why past predator releases have
had limited success (Sharma 2005):
- the animals were not given pre-release training;
- their dependence on humans was not curtailed;
- they were released as individuals with no natural social system;
- and that they had no experience of predatory or competitive
species.
The Lion Rehabilitation & Release into the Wild Program seeks to find
a solution to these problems by using a four-stage program.
The intention is to rehabilitate captive bred lions into a limited
number of fenced wild environments (stage three), free of any human
contact. These lions will give birth to cubs that will be raised within
a pride social group in a natural environment such that they will have
natural skills comparable to any wild born lion and can therefore be
reintroduced into appropriate National Parks and reserves identified for
their protection.

There are those who believe that Africa has no future destinations
for such lions. This is far from the truth. Angola, Mozambique, Zambia
and Malawi are resurrecting their protected areas with a diversity of
aid programs after years of civil strife and economic instability.
Rural communities in those countries were often reduced to starvation
unless they could utilize wildlife resources.
As a result, there are now massive areas available for carefully
planned wildlife reintroduction and eco-system revitalization programs.
Such incentives will include the eventual reintroduction of major
predators such as lions.
Alongside this, our holistic approach to conservation will seek to
ensure the sustainability of those reintroduced populations by
understanding their environment and ecology better whilst generating
support from local communities to protect them.
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