Conservation Efforts Might Encourage Some to Hunt Lions

Aug. 5, 2013 — Conventional wisdom holds that East Africa's Maasai pastoralists hunt lions for two distinct reasons: to retaliate against lions that kill livestock or to engage in a cultural rite of passage. But that view reflects mistranslations of Maasai terms and a simplification of their cultural traditions and their relationship with wildlife, a team of researchers led by a University of Colorado Boulder geographer has concluded.

Further, some conservation initiatives including those designed to save lions from being hunted have either failed to work or in some cases appear to have incited Maasai to hunt more lions as a form of political protest, the researchers report.

Such nuances are important, because it's harder to control the hunting of lions unless society knows precisely why lions are hunted, the researchers contend.

Many populations of Panthera leo -- African lions -- are falling, and the species is classified as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' Red List.

Lion hunting is outlawed in Kenya and in Tanzania is limited to mostly tourists hunting with permits, unless the hunt is to eliminate a lion in defense of life or livestock. Still, lion hunting regularly occurs in both countries, usually without the hunters' following the law.

Continued