In March of 2011, Born Free USA, along with partner organizations, filed a petition with the Department of the Interior to list African lions as Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). More than four years later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced its final decision today, listing the African lion as Endangered in Western and Central Africa and Threatened in Eastern and Southern Africa, with a special rule pending that would require certain conditions to be met for importation of any lion trophies from countries with a threatened population.
While the USFWS was delaying action, a minimum of 2,232 African lions were killed and imported into the U.S. over the past four years—including Cecil, who made headlines this year when he was killed in Zimbabwe by an American trophy hunter. Born Free USA hopes that the ruling will spare other lions such a cruel, barbaric fate.
Over the past three decades, the number of African lions has declined by more than 50% as a result of retaliatory killings, loss of habitat and prey species, over-exploitation by recreational trophy hunters and commercial trade, disease, and other human-caused and natural factors.
Today, experts believe there are fewer than 20,000 lions remaining, living in a fragmented 8% of their historic natural range. Due to the dire situation facing the African lion, both Australia and France banned the import of lion trophies this year.
Despite the significant and continued declines in population and range, the number of lion trophies imported to the U.S. is increasing. In 2014, trophy imports to the U.S. were greater than any other year in the preceding decade and more than twice the number it was in 2005.