The most dangerous threat to lions and other carnivores is man.

In the ‘70s there were 200 000 lions in the world. Now, there are only in the region of 25 000 of them left. That means the lion population has decreased by 90% within a few decades. The situation is worse with the African wild dog. This amazing predator is one of the most threatened with extinction on the African continent. There are only 3500-5000 of them in in Africa.

Dead lion, dead cheetah.
Many predators end up like them, shot or poisoned by farmers.

The worst tragedy is that we are mainly responsible for their rapid decline. Countless wild animals fall prey to the conflict between farmers and predators. When a predator leaves the protected area and moves into agricultural lands, a farmer is in many situations allowed to shoot it, legally.

Financial losses suffered because of killed cattle are the main argument to support the farmers’ case. A lion or a wild dog can simply be hungry and not notice the difference between “legal” and “illegal” trophies. The researchers from SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund, a German nature protection organization, which support several species protected in Botswana, can confirm that the conflict has largely escalated over the last few years. That is not only because of the increasing numbers of cattle – at present, there is 3 million within a country of only 2 million people. There are only few buffer zones between protected areas and farms. Therefore, the chances are increasing that predators will encounter cattle during their search for food.

The researchers from SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund suspect, that presently an unknown but significantly high percentage of lions and wild dogs are not dying from natural causes rather, they are shot and poisoned.
It was only recently that SAVE researchers found several farmers who has shot many lions and wild dogs in only a couple of weeks. These are horrific numbers considering the fact that the farmers have destroyed maybe as much as 15% of the regions total number of wild dogs in such a short time. It is a catastrophe not only for biological diversity, but also for the rapidly developing safari tourism. The value of one lion on safari has been estimated to be worth about 20 000 Euros. The mean value of a cow is just EUR 500. In some cases the damage the predator attacks have inflicted on cattle are relatively minor and yes predators still get wipped out.

SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund wishes to take control of this issue by introducing immediate assistance. The members of the SAVE research team in Botswana have been communicating with farmers and some are willing to look at solutions other than killing predators immediately and on sight. Other of course are not but SAVE wants to work with farmers looking for solutions.
A bit of hope is offered by those farmers who are ready to negotiate on developing new methods and reaching new solutions to substitute shooting the animals. In those conversations, the researchers from SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund become a partner who offers to help farmers find solutions to live with predators and as a last resort even move wild dogs to compensate for their damage done.

However, it is generally a race against time. If even only a few farmers work with the SAVE, many carnivores can be saved.