Lioness Sighting in National Park Ends 20-Year Extinction Worries in Chad

The 20-year extinction concerns of wildlife conservationists have been allayed by the recent discovery of a healthy lioness in a national park in Chad.

Sena Oura National Park in Chad has seen a lion for the first time in nearly twenty years.

Beautiful, Healthy Lioness in Her Prime

On Thursday, a photo depicting what they described as a stunning lioness who was in her prime and obviously in excellent health was released by a group of conservationists from the Chadian government and the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) based in New York City.

The WCS claimed that the image, taken on February 22 this year, was captured by a camera trap stationed in Chad's Sena Oura National Park, where lion sightings haven't occurred since 2004.

If the lioness was by herself, it was not made definite by the picture.

Lions, especially females, typically live in family groups known as "pride," unlike other big cat species.

According to Lion Alert, a pride of lions typically consists of 13 to 30 members, including parents, children, siblings, aunts, uncles, and even distant cousins.

However, these lions do not always remain together.

When in search of food or water, lone lions or small groups frequently spend days apart from the pride.

Members of a pride are very playful and usually very affectionate with one another, even though they can be aggressive toward lions they don't know.

They greet each other by licking and rubbing their heads together. Male lions rub so hard that they sometimes knock each other over.

Stephen Sautner, a spokesman for WCS, and his group think there are other lions out there.

Life of a Lioness

According to Lion Alert, lionesses have a lot of work because, in addition to caring for their cubs, they must also go out in search of food to feed the whole pride.

They lack a mane that would make them easy to identify and are smaller and faster than the males.

Another lioness in the pride will watch over the mother's cubs when she must leave them to go hunting.

This behavior is known as a crèche.

Also Read: King of Serengeti Lion Bob Jr. Killed by Younger Lions

Lions in Africa

On the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, lions are categorized as "vulnerable" overall.

Lion populations in West and Central Africa have decreased by about 66% since the early 1990s, making them "critically endangered."

According to the WCS, they are genetically distinct from the stronger lion populations in South and Eastern Africa.

In Sena Oura National Park in Chad, a protected area of about 182,000 acres that is close to Bouba N'djida National Park, Cameroon's much larger park where the big cats are now growing and seem to be recolonizing parts of their former range, including Sena Oura, lions are technically considered extinct.

The region experienced a period of merciless and organized poaching more than ten years ago, but since then, the governments of Cameroon and Chad have shown a very strong commitment to conservation.

Better national park protection has resulted from this, and wildlife populations are now beginning to recover, ABC News reported.