Captive lions taken from Africa’s wild habitats are raised in captivity and slaughtered for tourists’ pleasure, particularly from Western countries, with the US a major contributor. Lion Day is celebrated on August 10.
Thousands of captive lions, who spend their lives entertaining tourists behind bars, await the day they’ll be killed under the guise of hunting events. Wild lions struggle to survive in Africa’s diminishing savannas, having lost the majority of their population and habitats due to human activity over the last century.
The lion population has fallen by 43% since 2001. Estimates from the Oxford University Wildlife Conservation Research Unit suggest there were about 200,000 lions in the wild at the last century’s start.
By the century’s end, the population dwindled to 33,000 due to hunting and human factors, further decreasing by 43% since 2001. Today, only about 23,000 lions remain in the wild.
Having lost nearly 95% of their natural habitats, lions now live mainly in protected national parks in Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Research only includes wild lions in global population estimates. Captive lions, raised on special farms for commercial purposes, are excluded. These lions, removed from their natural habitats, lack hunting skills and can’t adapt to the wild due to their fearlessness of humans.
South Africa, with one of the largest lion populations, has about 3,500 wild lions. It’s also a leading country with the largest captive lion population, housing about 8,000 lions across 366 farms, as per a 2024 report by the World Animal Protection Society.
The captive lion industry, generating over $40 million annually for the South African economy, is a significant tourism sector part. Lions in private reserves and farms are displayed to tourists for a fee.
Tourists visiting these facilities, where entrance fees range from $10 to $15, can pay extra to pet and take photos with lions separated from their families. A popular tourist activity is watching captive lions being fed by caretakers. However, as these lions age, they’re often killed for sport by Western tourists.
Captive lion hunting is legal in South Africa with a special permit, making it a leading lion hunting center worldwide. According to a 2022 report by Humane Society International, about 4,000 captive lions were hunted by foreigners in South Africa between 2014 and 2018.
Over half were hunted by American tourists, followed by Spaniards, Russians, Danes, Canadians, and Germans. Tours, costing from $4,000 to $60,000, are conducted as safaris lasting seven to 10 days, primarily in North West and Limpopo provinces. Hunts, known as “canned hunts,” involve killing lions with rifles from a safe distance.
