“Perseverance” - African Lion
Acrylic on Canvas, 24" x 30" x 1.5"
Original Painting: $3,500.00
Ready-to-Hang, Limited Edition Archival Metal Print: $1,000.00
Time to Completion: 3 Months
Ounces of Paint: 56
Custom sizes and materials available for prints. Inquire here.
Human Impacts Resulting in Protected Status:
Prey Depletion:
The African Lion primarily feeds on large, wild herbivores, which are increasingly rare, due to an unsustainable and growing bushmeat trade. The decrease in prey for the African Lion results in livestock raiding, which costs about $300/year for livestock ranchers in Kenya. The tremendous financial burden results in indiscriminate African Lion killing, usually by placing poisoned carcasses around the ranch properties.
Commodification:
According to a survey conducted in Yankari National Park, Nigeria, over 22 different parts of the African Lion are used for medicinal purposes. The illegal trade of African Lion body parts is a threat in Africa and India. African Lion bones, fat, and skin are commonly used in West and Central Africa, especially Benin.
It is suspected that legal international trade of captive African Lion bone might serve as a cover for illegal wild African Lion bone trade. The widespread use of fake medicinals could perpetuate the illegal trade of African Lion parts when consumers seek to find the real thing.
There is a growing demand for African Lion bone in China, Vietnam, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic for the making of medicinal wines.
Trophy Hunting:
Trophy hunting can be a great tool for conservation efforts, or it can be a threat, depending on how it is regulated and managed. Currently, 1 male African Lion per 2,000km^2 is the accepted sustainable kill level. If resources are short, the oversight for this kill level will suffer. Depending on how regulatory measures are implemented, it is cautioned that they could have negative effects on the use of wild lands, poaching, and tolerance of African Lion presence outside of protected areas.
Conservation Efforts:
Tourism & Protection:
The African Lion has a number of large and well-managed protected areas throughout Africa. Most protected areas in Eastern and Southern Africa have infrastructure that supports wildlife tourism. This tourism helps to generate finances for conservation efforts by park management and local communities.
Taxonomy:
There has been scientific study that challenges the current taxonomic split in the African Lion subpopulations of Asia and Africa. There has been work to propose different taxonomic splits between the the African Lions of Asia, West, Central and North Africa and African Lions from South and East Africa. These taxonomic classifications recognize unique sets of DNA and are a great tool to further conservation efforts, based on scientific DNA evidence. If the research is approved, there will be new populations of African Lion that will be recognized and protected.
Profits:
Profits will go to Living with Lions, a conservation research group of 7 scientists and 34 Maasai warriors working in unprotected areas of Kenya to save the remaining wild African Lions. They work in devising lion conservation strategies, ways to protect livestock from predators and help to ensure that the local people are able to gain economically from the presence of African Lions in order to offset the cost of living side-by-side.
Source[s]:
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 2016
Living with Lions, 2017