First the Eastern Cougar... now Lions?

The eastern cougar, a subspecies of North America's largest cat, was declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on March 2, 2011.



The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday declared the eastern cougar to be extinct, confirming a widely held belief among wildlife biologists that native populations of the big cat were wiped out by man a century ago.

After a lengthy review, federal officials concluded there are no breeding populations of cougars — also known as pumas, panthers, mountain lions and catamounts — in the eastern United States. Researchers believe the eastern cougar subspecies has probably been extinct since the 1930s.

Wednesday's declaration paves the way for the eastern cougar to be removed from the endangered species list, where it was placed in 1973. The agency's decision to declare the eastern cougar extinct does not affect the status of the Florida panther, another endangered wildcat.


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Without Intervention, Lions Heading For Extinction



In 1960, there were 400,000 lions living in the wild. Today, there are just 20,000.

"That represents a 90 to 95 percent decline," says National Geographic explorer-in-residence Dereck Joubert. "Unless we start talking about this, these lions will be extinct within the next 10 or 15 years."



Read more here: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/133999157/without-intervention-lions-heading-for-extinction?sc=fb&cc=fp

This is not good...

Carol wrote:

In 1960, there were 400,000 lions living in the wild. Today, there are just 20,000.

"That represents a 90 to 95 percent decline," says National Geographic explorer-in-residence Dereck Joubert. "Unless we start talking about this, these lions will be extinct within the next 10 or 15 years."



Read more here: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/133999157/without-intervention-lions-heading-for-extinction?sc=fb&cc=fp

This is not good...

This makes me want to cry. That first picture you posted, Carol, is just gorgeous. What a beautiful creature. SO sad to think it is now extinct.

We only could pray for it is not true!

Vanesa.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
This IS not good!

A great documentary to see:



Fifty years ago there were close to half-a-million lions in Africa. Today there are around 20,000. To make matters worse, lions, unlike elephants, which are far more numerous, have virtually no protection under government mandate or through international accords. This is the jumping-off point for a disturbing, well-researched and beautifully made cri de coeur from husband and wife team Dereck and Beverly Joubert, award-winning filmmakers from Botswana who have been Explorers-in-Residence at National Geographic for more than four years. Pointing to poaching as a primary threat while noting the lion's pride of place on the list for eco-tourists-an industry that brings in 200 billion dollars per year worldwide-the Jouberts build a solid case for both the moral duty we have to protect lions (as well as other threatened "big cats," tigers among them) and the economic sense such protection would make.

*If the narrator's voice sounded familiar to you, it's because it is Jeremy Irons who voiced the famous "Scar" from The Lion King