Lioness

Photo credit: VukaNow Description: Lions play a key role in the food chain by helping to control populations of herbivores and smaller carnivores, and also have an important economic role to play, as tourists travel from all over the world to see these big cats in the wild - a lion’s roar is one of the most iconic sounds of the African bush and can be heard up to 8 km away. But the continent has lost approximately half of its wild lion population in the last 25 years. The future of these big cats will depend on conservation action, like the work being supported through VukaNow in response to threats posed by poaching, snaring, and deliberate poisoning to harvest body parts valued in traditional medicine.