FENCING LIONS IN FOR PROTECTION CREATES MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES|圍籬圈養方式惹議 非洲獅面臨保育難題

In other news, measures taken in South Africa to protect its lion population are backfiring, according to a renowned lion keeper. Here's a closer look. A man motions with his arms for the lion to come closer, calling it softly and affectionately as a pet owner would call a domestic cat. Kevin Richardson, known widely as "the lion whisperer", lives with his 31 lions on a game farm north of the South African capital, Pretoria. As human populations expand and fences are erected to prevent conflict with animals, Richardson is worried that lions across Africa are under threat. ==KEVIN RICHARDSON Lion Behaviourist== We have round about 20,000 odd rhino, white rhino, in South Africa. Okay, we only have between 15 and 20,000 lions in the whole of Africa, so you know put that into the pipe and smoke it, lions need protection, they need awareness. Many of the lions that Richardson cares for were rescued from being sold to trophy hunters. Sadly, they will never be let free into the wild as they were bred in captivity. Unlike certain parks in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique, South Africa's wildlife reserves are fenced to keep poachers and illegal hunters out of the parks and to prevent conflict with surrounding communities. While offering more security, the system creates management challenges ==KEVIN RICHARDSON Lion Behaviourist== In South Africa our wild lion population is pretty stable, so is that a success story? I would say pretty much so, yes, but what humans don't really want to deal with is the problems that the management faces, these things such as culling, hunting, selling off surplus, euthanasia, you know… contraception. Besides management problems, lions in South Africa are facing multiple challenges. The breeding of lions for the hunting industry, the petting of lion cubs and the phenomenon known as canned lion hunting, where the animals are placed in a confined enclosure and shot by hunters. In addition, inbreeding problems also exist on smaller game reserves. ==PETER CALDWELL Wildlife Veterinarian== With the game reserve becoming smaller and smaller, because of the valuable game they are fencing off areas, you need to keep the population under control. One of the ways is to relocate them from one reserve to another. We call it a meta-population study or a biological biosphere where you move animals from one reserve to the other to prevent inbreeding and ensure genetic diversity. Conservationists believe that treating all the lions like one population is fundamental for a good management system. Cooperation between managers of different reserves and provincial conservation authorities are required to maintain the lion population across South Africa. TRANSLATED BY：ARIEL HSIEH