World Lion Day was declared in 2013 by Big Cat Rescue, to celebrate and raise awareness of the conservation as well as sustainable solutions to protect and save global wild lion populations from extinction.
African Lions face multiple threats including habitat loss, trophy hunting, human-wildlife conflict, particularly in areas of human population growth. Lions are the second-largest cat in the world, weighing up to 550 pounds.
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, lions are a “vulnerable”, though recent years have shown a catastrophic decline in both range and populations. In 2020, researchers estimated total population had dropped to as few as 20,000 indviduals. Lions originally roamed all over Africa, North America and the Eurasian supercontinent, but their range is now reduced primarily to Africa and isolated parts of Asia.
