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Bullen's African Lion Safari in Warragamba in Australia

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Bullen's African Lion Safari in Warragamba, located at Warragamba and Wallacia, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia , was founded in 1968. Bullen's African Lion Safari in Warragamba closed down in 1991.

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Vanishing lions – a 75% decline in Africa’s iconic predators in just five decades

Africa’s disappearing lions have been the subject of animated discussion for years, but just how dire is the situation?

Scientists now believe they have the answer: in five decades, the continent’s lion populations have declined by 75%. This according to research recently published by the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU). The authors set out to establish a baseline lion population estimate and examine historic landscape connectivity for 1970 as a comparison point to assess the conservation of the species. They explain that conservation is subject to what has been termed a “shifting baseline syndrome”. In other words, current conservation efforts are often centred around present-day geographical ranges and population estimates. However, underestimating historical declines or trends could, in turn, underestimate extinction risk.

Disappearing habitats, dwindling lions

Habitat loss and fragmentation due to human population growth and agricultural expansion are among the most significant threats facing most terrestrial vertebrate families. Species surviving in fragmented and poorly connected habitats are more vulnerable to loss of genetic diversity, inbreeding depression, disease and stochastic events (such as drought). Lions are considered an umbrella species, meaning that conservation efforts aimed at their protection indirectly confer protection on other sympatric (co-occurring) species. They are also a charismatic representative of the range collapse experienced by many of Africa’s large mammals. Once widespread across Africa, previous research indicates that lions have experienced an 85% reduction in range since the early 16th century.

Reconstructing historical populations and distributions is a challenge facing many large-mammal scientists, as records are often scant and generalised. The authors selected the period around 1970 for their baseline for several reasons, including the existence of credible and detailed sources of information on lion ranges and populations. Furthermore, human population and development have burgeoned during the 50-year-period between 1970 and the present day, with the sub-Saharan human population doubling between 1975 and 2001. Using available information to construct a population density map of lion distribution, they derived an estimated population of 92,054 lions across the continent in 1970. At last count in 2016, the total surviving lion population was estimated at around 23,000 individuals (though experts believe it may now be under 20,000). This equates to a decline of 70,000 individuals – approximately 1,400 lions per year over five decades.

Disconnected lions

The researchers also examined lion subpopulations by area. Those in the Congo Basin have suffered most severely, and this subpopulation has been all but extirpated. From an estimated 1,600 lions in 1970, around 211 individuals remain – a decline of 93%. Similarly, the West and Central African subpopulations have declined by 87% (from 1,600 to fewer than 200). (The plight of the West African lion was recognised on the IUCN Red List in 2015 when they were listed as Critically Endangered.) Southern and East African subpopulations have fared slightly better but still declined by 73% and 65%, respectively. Southern populations declined from 36,000 to around 9,800, and East African from 31,000 to approximately 11,000.

Remaining lion habitats are important but understanding the landscape connectivity between these is a vital aspect of lion conservation. The researchers analysed the landscapes within lion range in terms of resistance to animal movement, accounting for various environmental and anthropogenic variables (such as rivers, towns, farms and roads). This information was used to calculate the relative probability of animal movement to compare connectivity in 1970 to the present day.

In 1970, much of the existing lion habitat was well connected, apart from already fragmented habitats in the West and Central regions. For the most part, lion range was contiguous, with the potential for a high degree of dispersal movement across the landscape. Today, lions occupy just 13% of their maximum historical range (66% of the 1970 range), with the most severe range loss having occurred in the Congo Basin and the West and Central region. These regions have experienced a “catastrophic collapse in range and habitat connectivity in the last 50 years” – with fewer, smaller, and more widely isolated patches of core and non-core lion habitat. Loss of connectivity was less severe in southern and Eastern African regions but significant – around 50% of previously connected habitat was lost in the intervening five decades. The remaining core areas of habitat are centred around larger protected areas.

The future of lion conservation

What implications does such research have for the future of lion conservation, given that human population expansion is inevitable? The authors emphasise that even if core protected areas are secure, a lack of connectivity will result in a decline in the genetic diversity of remaining lion populations. The protection of existing wildlife corridors is critical. They also suggest that intensive meta-population (as practised in smaller wildlife areas in South Africa) may be appropriate for irretrievably isolated habitats, such as those in West and Central Africa.

Though the damage done to the lions of Africa may never be fully recoverable, the researchers suggest that it is not too late to secure wildlife corridors “through integrated land use planning exercises, implementation of human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies and enhancement of sustainable, wildlife-based livelihoods”. “Habitat conversion and burgeoning human populations are fragmenting natural habitat across Africa,” says lead author Professor Andrew Loveridge. “Our work on African lions shows that this process of fragmentation and population decline has accelerated over the last 50 years and provides a baseline against which to measure population recovery or decline. Our future conservation efforts need to halt habitat loss and work to preserve the remaining habitat corridors linking core populations.”

References and further reading

Loveridge A.J., Sousa L.L., Cushman S., Kaszta Ż., Macdonald D.W. (2022) “ Where Have All the Lions Gone? Establishing Realistic Baselines to Assess Decline and Recovery of African Lions ,” Diversity and Distributions

For more on how scientists used ancient ivory to analyse elephant population loss, read this: Of ivory, elephants, shipwrecks and slaughter

On the loss of lion genetic diversity as a consequence of population declines: Lion populations show significant loss of genetic diversity, say researchers

For a detailed explanation of the challenges involved in estimating lion populations: Counting lions: new study shows the importance of good counts for lion conservation

To support the conservation of lions in Africa, view more about the following projects: – Desert Lion Conservation Trust – Lion Landscapes – Wild Entrust – Mara Predator Conservation Programme

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10 safari horror stories that will chill you to the bone

Going on safari can be a thrilling and remarkable experience. But in the midst of all the excitement, guides are quick to point out that safaris are not vacations in which you can safely sit idly by.

The purpose of many wildlife preserves and safaris is to raise awareness for the receding natural habitat of some of the world’s most beautiful and fascinating plants and animals. But sometimes, as we encroach too much on these natural predators' homes, the results can quickly turn tragic.

Read on for 10 safari horror stories.

In 2018, a 22-year-old woman was mauled to death by a lion.

While on vacation in a game reserve outside Pretoria in South Africa , a 22-year-old woman was attacked and killed by a lion as she took photos outside the fenced area of a camp. A lioness was charging after an Impala (an antelope), but encountered the young woman instead.

The victim was not staying at the camp, and instead was a guest of a friend and was intending to interview the camp’s manager before tragedy struck.

A gorilla pushed a woman to the ground as it charged past in Rwanda.

In video footage captured in March 2016, a new husband happened to film his wife as a gorilla ran past her, pushing her to the ground.

Gemma Cosgriff was on her honeymoon in Rwanda when the incident took place, and together with her husband, had been observing animals at Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, according to The Mirror. And although the fall seemed to be quite terrifying, Cosgriff was not seriously injured.

A former "Game of Thrones" editor was mauled to death by a lion in South Africa.

In 2015, 29-year-old Katherine Chappell was being driven through a lion park in South Africa when a lioness took hold of the graphic effects creator. Witnesses noted that Chappell had her windows down and was taking photographs of her surroundings just moments before the lioness attacked, according to Express.

Chappell was not in Johannesburg simply to see the sights — rather, the film editor was on a volunteer mission with the aim of protecting wildlife throughout the country.

An elephant charged at a billionaire tourist and his guide in Tanzania.

Nearly 10 years ago, billionaire Tom Siebel, the founder and CEO of C3 IoT , was on a walking tour with a guide in Tanzania.

Near a watering hole, Siebel and his guide spotted a 6-ton elephant, which proceeded to charge the group. The animal attacked Siebel, shattering his leg and causing the iPhone in his pocket to explode into 200 pieces, according to Forbes. Siebel has since undergone 16 surgeries to save his leg, but he’s one of the lucky few who have survived such a massive attack.

A leopard attacked a safari guide by jumping into the open-top jeep in South Africa.

In 2015, safari guide Curtis Plumb was leading a tour in an open-top 4x4 jeep when a leopard jumped into the vehicle. Plumb was on a routine safari route in South Africa's Kruger National Park when he spotted the animal, and stopped the car so that tourists could get a closer look, according to Mirror. At this point, the big cat suddenly attacked.

Tourists in Plumb’s jeep attempted to help the guide fight off the predator, but were unsuccessful in their efforts. Ultimately, it was Plumb himself who managed to pry himself loose. Luckily, he lived to tell the tale, despite serious injuries. The animal was put down following the incident.

Two tourists were trampled to death by elephants after getting too close in Zambia.

Last year, a 57-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man were trampled to death by elephants at the Maramba River Lodge in Livingstone, Zambia. Zambian Police Service spokesperson Danny Mwale told Express that the Belgium and Netherlands nationals were killed after coming too close to the wildlife in attempts to take photos.

The woman, identified later as Sabine Goossens, had been living in Africa for 10 years, and had invited her friend Wim Van Griensven to visit. Reports suggested that Griensven died when he attempted to rescue Goossens from the charging elephant.

A 75-year-old grandmother was killed by a hippo while on safari in Tanzania.

Last August, a 75-year-old businesswoman named Carol Sue Kirken was killed by a hippopotamus while on a family vacation in Tanzania, according to The Daily Mail. Described as an avid world traveler and local philanthropist, Kirken was on safari with her son Robert, and the duo were observing hippos when the attack took place.

Details around her death were unclear , but hippos are largely considered some of the most dangerous animals in the world, responsible for around 500 human deaths every year. They’re capable of outrunning a human, and have extremely sharp teeth.

A family was attacked by lions while in a UK safari park but lived to tell the tale.

A few years ago, writer Glenys Newton shared a terrifying experience from her childhood with the Guardian . Then 5, Newton went on vacation with her family to Longleat, a safari park in the UK. The group found themselves immediately next to a lion, but unfortunately, the young Newton thought it would be advisable to roll down her window and pat the lion on its head.

Needless to say, the lion did not take kindly to the gesture, roaring as the family frantically rolled up the window. This set the other lions in motion, and soon, they were climbing all over the car, leaving paw-prints as proof, according to Newton. While the car was battered and bruised (and ended up with a flat tire), the occupants of the vehicle were physically unharmed.

A tiger killed a woman on safari after she got out of her car in Beijing.

Video footage provided by NBC News captured the moment a tourist was attacked by a tiger in Badaling Wildlife Park in Beijing. While visitors are told explicitly to remain in their vehicles, the victim can be seen exiting the vehicle and walking around to the driver’s side door just before a tiger attacked her, dragging her away.

A second woman attempted to rescue her, but was killed by another tiger. The first woman sustained critical injuries, while the driver of the car and a child were unharmed.

A buffalo stampede crashed right into a car in South Africa.

Here to prove that it’s not just big cats, elephants, or hippos that are dangerous when it comes to safari, footage filmed in May 2016 and provided by MSN showed a herd of buffalo stampeding and ultimately crashing directly into a passenger car in South Africa's Kruger National Park.

The herd of cape buffalo were moving toward a waterhole when they spotted lions near their water source. This likely caused the animals to panic, and the herd suddenly ran in the opposite direction, barging into a white sedan. The car was nearly tipped over, but amazingly, no one was hurt.

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‘Lion Man’ mauled to death by his captive big cats

The owner of a tourist safari in South Africa known as “Lion Man” has been killed by his captive lions as he was fixing a broken fence.

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The owner of a tourist safari in South Africa known as “Lion Man” has been mauled to death by his captive lions in a game reserve.

Two lions and one lioness were shot and killed after they mauled to death Leon van Biljon, 70, in the Mahala View Lion Game Lodge at Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, in South Africa.

Mr van Biljon was attacked by the animals as he was fixing a broken fence inside the enclosure, with one of the lions piercing his teeth into the man’s neck, CNN reported.

Emergency services rushed to save the man, who was covered in blood, but the medical professionals weren’t able to approach him because he was surrounded by the lions.

The animals were shot to death to allow paramedics to enter the enclosure and treat the victim, but by the time they reached him, he had succumbed to his injuries.

“Leon went in to fix the fence but knows the lions well and turned his back as he was fixing the fence and one came from behind and took his neck,” said a source at the lodge, according to the Mirror. “There was nothing anyone could have done to save him.”

Mr van Biljon was known as “The Lion Man” and offered “exclusive lion lectures, feedings and game drives for guests”, according to the lodge’s website.

Despite the tragic death, animal rights activists have criticised the authorities for shooting the three lions.

“Yet another death caused by a lion raised by humans in captivity and used as an “educational tool’ for the public”, wrote Captive Wildlife Watchdog on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission

A communications error nearly led to a catastrophic incident involving four aeroplanes at JFK Airport in New York.

One visitor recalled the moment they saw a fellow tourist “taking a dump” at the popular hotspot all because it’s lacking one thing.

A 23-year-old woman has been left paralysed and fighting for life after a horror infection.

The Tiger King of Bacchus Marsh and the years of living dangerously

Lions, tigers and sawn-off shotguns — the eyes of the world boggled at Netflix's docu-series Tiger King, but 40 years ago the same brand of chaos was playing out in regional Victoria.

The Bacchus Marsh Lion and Tiger Safari was only open a decade or so during the 1970s and '80s, but in that time it experienced everything from the halcyon days of feline fever to the black depths of fatal maulings.

The park allowed visitors to drive through the big cat enclosures in their cars, many of which left short of a wing mirror.

It is a wild tale being brought to life in a documentary, told through the memories of one of the park's former keepers.

Cowboy in Africa

Ron Prendergast's boyhood dream of working with big cats was stoked by television adventure shows like Cowboy In Africa.

"I had a real interest in animals but always had a real interest in exotic animals," Mr Prendergast said.

So when at 17 he had the opportunity to work as a keeper at the safari park, he was suddenly cast as the hero in his favourite serial.

"For me as a young man stepping into this, this was Cowboy In Africa, right there in front of me: 'How cool is this?'

"I didn't give any thought at all to personal safety.

"Nobody they employed had animal skills, unless you had come out of the circus.

"Here we've got people working with large, dangerous animals that haven't got any skill, they're just learning on the ground."

'Good Lord, what an idiot'

The park had three big cat enclosures, two of which housed lions.

The prides would come down and swipe through the fence line, and it was Mr Prendergast's job to break up these scuffles — usually he would use a car to shoo them away.

"You know, because you're a gung-ho Cowboy-In-Africa teenager, you didn't always use a vehicle," he said.

"Sometimes you'd roam out into the space, armed with a shotgun; God knows what that was going to do, in hindsight, but sometimes you wouldn't even take a weapon.

"A lot of the time we just worked with short lengths of cane.

"Looking back on it, you go: 'Why would anyone step into an enclosure that might have 15 large cats in it?'

"But you look at it and you go, 'Good Lord, what an idiot'."

Bitten through the upper thigh

The keepers were often tasked with netting the cats — tranquilisers were too expensive.

"So the netting … sometimes that backfires," Mr Prendergast said.

"I was attacked twice by tigers; in fact, by the same tiger on two separate occasions.

"I got bitten right through the upper thigh, nicked the femoral artery on the way through.

"So, I had my thumb stuck in that wound to stem the blood while everyone went off to catch the tiger which had escaped from its enclosure."

In the second attack, the same animal crept up on Mr Prendergast while his back was turned.

"I was very, very lucky to escape that one; a bit more so than the first one.

"I had a lot of damage and scarring to my upper chest as it came over the top of me."

Living dangerously

Of course, the sense of danger was part of the allure, but with so few safety regulations, or ably trained staff, the vicarious danger on which visitors became giddy soon turned mortal.

Two people were killed, and more attacked, by the park's animals.

It was a professional environment the mere thought of would send a workplace health and safety inspector into conniptions.

"It's hard now for people to get their head around ... how a park like this could function," Mr Prendergast said.

"There was no workplace safety, no occupational health and safety, nothing at all.

"There was very little regulation in terms of how those animals were managed in that space.

"And then there was no real oversight in terms of gun use."

'This is just not right'

Many of the animals had come from circuses and were now fodder for tourists to gawk at through their windscreens; indeed, animal cruelty charges followed after the park was eventually closed, having fallen into disuse.

Mr Prendergast grapples with the ethics of the park, a shard in the side of his teenage memories, too young as he was to really change the situation.

"As a young man, you could see inherent problems with how animals were managed," he said.

"And you go, 'This is just not right', but you haven't got a voice, you know, in a highly commercialised place as it was.

"These were very formative years ... I did learn things here which I was able to apply in later zookeeping years.

"It's an odd thing, but you learn from every space you're in. It's not always good."

Mr Prendergast has worked in zoos all his life.

"Like in modern zoos now, there's been a big shift towards conservation and exhibiting animals with the conservation message.

"And I think that's a very, very good thing."

'I needed to make this story'

From tackling an escaped water buffalo as it ran down the motorway early one morning, to suddenly finding a lion beside him in the passenger seat, Mr Prendergast has plenty more stories from his time at the safari park.

They are being illustrated in Strange Beasts, a Screen Australia-funded documentary made by his son, Darcy.

"It was always a story that I wanted to tell but I just didn't really know how to tell it," Darcy said.

"I was actually in Mexico at the time and Dad gave me a call and had been diagnosed with cancer.

"I decided that I needed to make this story or at least sit down with a microphone and record Dad."

The film, as much a rumination on death as it is a history of the park, is due for completion early next year.

As for Netflix's Tiger King, yes, Ron Prendergast has seen it, but he needn't have — 35 years ago, he lived it.

"It's funny, because that's my life that you're seeing on screen.

"That's what I lived in the time period we're talking about, in the '70s, that's exactly it.

"It's not a surprise to me."

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