野生的獅子有多少只?

野生的獅子有多少只?

Lions are one of the most iconic animals on the planet. They play starring roles in the art of hundreds of cultures, in literature from history books to fairy tales and are, of course, are one of the biggest draws of tourists to the African continent.

獅子是地球上最具標志性的動物之一。他們在數(shù)百種文化的藝術(shù)中扮演著主角，在從歷史書籍到童話故事的文學作品中，當然，他們也是非洲大陸最大的游客群體之一。

However, they are disappearing from the wild at an astonishingly rapid rate.

然而，它們正以驚人的速度從野外消失。

According to Panthera, lions have disappeared from 95% of their historic range due to habitat loss, hunting and poaching, retaliatory killings by livestock owners, loss of prey and other factors. "Just over a century ago, there were more than 200,000 wild lions living in Africa. Today, there are only about 20,000; lions are extinct in 26 African countries."

根據(jù)Panthera的數(shù)據(jù)，由于棲息地的喪失、狩獵和偷獵、家畜主人的報復性殺戮、獵物的損失以及其他因素，獅子已經(jīng)從95%的歷史范圍內(nèi)消失了。“就在一個多世紀以前，非洲有20多萬只野生獅子。今天，只有2萬左右;26個非洲國家的獅子已經(jīng)滅絕。”

The population count from the IUCN Red List is slightly more optimistic, but not much: They estimate there are 23,000 to 39,000 lions left in the wild.

IUCN紅色名單上的獅子數(shù)量稍微樂觀一些，但也不是很多:他們估計野生獅子的數(shù)量在23,000到39,000頭之間。

Though lions are such a big part of the human consciousness across the planet, we are at risk of the species entirely disappearing from the grasslands where they roam. This fact surprises many people, including those who love lions. These big cats are part of a much bigger ecosystem, one in which humans play a significant role. That role can be shifted from one that is causing lion populations to dwindle toward extinction, to one that creates strategies for coexisting with and protecting this important and magnificent predator.

盡管獅子在整個地球上的人類意識中占據(jù)如此重要的一部分，但我們正面臨著這個物種從它們所漫步的草原上完全消失的風險。這一事實讓很多人感到驚訝，包括那些熱愛獅子的人。這些大型貓科動物是一個更大的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的一部分，在這個生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中，人類扮演著重要的角色。這一角色可以從導致獅子數(shù)量逐漸減少到瀕臨滅絕，轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)閯?chuàng)造與這種重要而壯觀的食肉動物共存并保護它們的策略。