World Lion Day is an annual occurrence celebrated on August 10^th of every year. This time was not the UN which adopted a resolution to protect this endangered animal, but instead the WWF acted for his preservation.

It is worth noting that just over a century ago in Africa there were more than 200,000 wild lions, but today their number dramatically fell to only about 20,000. According to the evidences of naturalists who has studied this species “Lions are extinct in 26 African countries and have vanished from over 95 percent of their historic range”. This situation has urged the WWF to act for their preservation.

Since the commercialization of livestock ranching and agriculture in Africa, lions have undergone a catastrophic decline in part also due to the shrinking of their habitat, and to a lesser extent, also by unsustainable trophy hunting. They are now only secure in a handful of and are on the brink of extinction. The only hope resides in the largest and best-managed protected areas.

In West Africa, lions are now classified as “critical endangered”. Lions for too many years have been mostly and significantly impacted by illegal bushmeat hunting and body part trade, conflict with local people due to livestock depredation. Another cause of their reduction was habitat loss and fragmentation.