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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040928/ap_on_re_af/kenya_african_lions

Kenya Pushes for Ban on Hunting Lions

Tue Sep 28, 3:15 PM ET World - AP Africa

By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya said it will push for an international ban on trade in lion trophies and skins, expressing concern Tuesday that the African lion is "under threat."

Neighboring Tanzania disagreed with the idea of a ban, citing potential loss of revenue from trophy hunters.

Kenya will press world governments to give the African lion maximum protection under an international treaty governing trade in endangered or threatened plants and animals, a Kenyan official said Tuesday.

Edward Indakwa, spokesman of the Kenya Wildlife Service, said hunting, loss of habitat and lack of prey have drastically reduced the African lion population.

"The number of lions in Africa has declined by between 30 and 50 percent in the past 30 years," he said.

For many years, African tribesmen hunted lions and ate their hearts, hoping this would give them strength and courage. Others kept claws of the big cats, believing this would keep off evil spells from witch doctors. Trophy hunters sought the animals to display their hunting prowess.

Experts estimated there were 200,000 lions across Africa in 1975, Indakwa said, adding that the number fell to an estimated 76,000 in 1980. By 2002, the number had dropped to about 39,000, he said.

Lions are found only in Africa and Asia. The European, Middle Eastern and Cape lions are extinct.

Hunting of the Asiatic lion is prohibited under the voluntary treaty, known as CITES, because only a few hundred members of the subspecies are left in the wild.

The treaty permits regulated hunting of the African lion. Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia sell lucrative hunting licenses to trophy hunters.

Kenya plans to ask the CITES meeting in Bangkok next month to list the African lion in its appendix of most endangered species.

Half the African lion population lives protected inside national parks, but the others are often short of food and are sometimes killed by villagers, Indakwa said.

"A total ban (on hunting) is a solution to this problem," Indakwa said. "Then the lion should have a chance."

But Tanzania opposed the idea.

"The ban on trade in lion trophies will hurt us a lot," said Zakia Meghji, Tanzania's minister for tourism and natural resources.

The lion's image as a strong and courageous animal may not work in its favor, Indakwa said.

"Very few guys would understand that the lion is under threat, it being a lion," he said. "It makes it a target of hunters and tourists."

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