Tracking down lost lions

Thursday 12th Sep 2024, 10.00am

Lion populations have declined by 75% since the 1970s. Previous research has shown this was largely due to habitat loss through land conversion, retaliatory killings for livestock losses, and a decline in available prey driven by human activities. But could climate change also have played a part?

Lions used to roam far across the Northern Hemisphere, when the human footprint on Earth was much smaller. But native lion subspecies are no longer found in Europe and North America. What happened to them?

Tom Pavey, from WildCRU, is studying climate change on geological timescales and mapping these events on to the historic ranges of lions (known from the fossil record) to establish where they lived and ultimately, why they are no longer there. Unravelling these processes could provide key information on whether lions today are threatened by climate change.

Writer: Charlotte Bird

Editor: James Lee-Warner