(p. A7) In Mozambique, the number of people living inside the country’s gigantic Niassa Reserve grew to around 35,000 in 2012 from about 21,000 in 2001, and those people are increasingly clashing with the park’s lions–catching them in snares or hunting them when they attack livestock, said Alastair Nelson, the country director for New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. In a strange sense of how out-of-whack the area has become, the park’s lion population has risen because of a jump in elephant poaching for ivory that has created a multitude of carcasses for the lions to feed on, Mr. Nelson said.”
For the full story, see:
HEIDI VOGT. “Humans, Lions Struggle to Co-Exist.” The Wall Street Journal (Sat., Aug. 8, 2015): A7.
(Note: the online version of the article has the date Aug. 7, 2015, and has the title “Human-Population Boom Remains Largest Threat to Africa’s Lions in Wake of Cecil’s Killing.”)