ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2012) — About 75 percent
of Africa's savannahs and more than two-thirds of the lion population once
estimated to live there have disappeared in the last 50 years, according to a
study published this week in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation.
The
study, led by Duke University researchers, estimates the number of lions now
living on the savannahs to be as low as 32,000, down from nearly 100,000 in
1960. Lion populations in West Africa have experienced the greatest declines.
"The
word savannah conjures up visions of vast open plains teeming with wildlife.
But the reality is that massive land-use change and deforestation, driven by
rapid human population growth, has fragmented or degraded much of the original
savannah. Only 25 percent remains of an ecosystem that once was a third larger
than the continental United States," said Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke
Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
Pimm
and his colleagues used high-resolution satellite imagery from Google Earth,
coupled with human population density data and estimates of local lion
populations, to map areas still favorable to the big cats' survival.
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