Lion bones masquerade as tiger bones in China.
Wikimedia commons
South Africa has the biggest captive big cat industry in the world and it is largely unregulated.
Sirabi was the real backbone of Pride Rock.
Alexander Braczkowski
Lions don’t generally have armies of hyenas, but not every aspect of The Lion King is inaccurate.
Around 1,000 tigers are kept at this facility in China.
World Animal Protection
New report reveals big cats are kept in awful conditions. But the link to poaching in the wild is not clear cut.
A male lion with a porcupine quill lodged in his cheek.
WOLF AVNI/Shutterstock
The team found evidence of about 50 lions that had been injured or killed by porcupines since the 17th century.
Once cubs in captivity get too big to be stroked and cuddled by tourists, they’re sold into the canned hunting and Asian bone trade industries.
Shutterstock
While the international conservation community unites against the captive breeding of big cats in South Africa, the government stalls.
Elephants in Namibia.
Niki Rust
Few people could argue that hunting wildlife for trophies is moral, but conservationists have bigger fish to fry to reverse biodiversity loss
Lionesses with cubs in Etosha National Park.
Niki Rust
The life-or-death drama of the lion pride will captivate viewers, but the show may not go on without funding to conserve these species.
There’s a need to secure Africa’s 282 massive “lionscapes”.
Shutterstock
A billion dollars a year would secure Africa’s lions and its landscapes as well as millions of people living nearby.
A young bull sees off a cow at a watering hole.
Flickr/Vernon Swanepoel
Conflict between people and animals has been on the increase in Tsavo, Kenya.
Most lion bones in South Africa come from captive-bred lions.
Author supplied
Captive breeding takes place in South Africa and no other country is permitted to export lion bones.
Cecil the Lion shortly before he was killed.
Vince O'Sullivan/Flickr
The Cecil movement didn’t lead to any deep-seated changes as trophy hunting persists in many parts of Africa.
Some studies show that female lions prefer darker coloured manes to bigger manes.
Flickr/Eric Kilby
People used to think that boy lions had big shaggy manes to protect their necks from being bitten or scratched during fights. But scientists soon realised this idea didn’t make much sense.
Wikimedia Commons
From its origin in the early 19th century, lion taming has elicited both awe and horror.
Whoosa vicious helpful predator? You are! Yes you are!
Sean Riley/Flickr
Dingoes increase cattle yields, mountain lions reduce car crashes and vultures eat organic waste: like them or not, predators help humans.
Male mandrills may venture out further than previously thought.
Shutterstock
Camera traps in the Batéké Plateau National Park in Gabon are showing some interesting finds.
USFWS
The Trump administration is considering requests from hunters to import wildlife trophies (body parts) on a case-by-case basis. Does this approach promote conservation or threaten endangered species?
Land reform is thought to have caused the cheetah numbers to fall by 85% in Zimbabwe.
Sam Williams
The land reform programme in Zimbabwe has come at the cost of wildlife and opens up the debate on people versus nature. But there is a way forward.
Some megafauna species are dangerous and costly for humans to live with.
Shutterstock
Africa prioritises and makes more of an effort for large mammal conservation than any other region in the world.
The Parties to CITES (CoP17), rejected a proposal from nine African nations to upgrade the status of lions.
Shutterstock
A stronger ban on lion trade by CITES would have helped to lessen some of the threats lions face but it would have not have protected the animals from sport hunting.
African lions were all considered to belong to a single subspecies but new research refutes that.
Laura Bertola
African lions were initially thought to belong to a single subspecies but new research shows that there is more diversity on the African continent.