Lion confirmed in region of Chad after two-decade absence

A trail camera has captured an image of a lion in a national park in Chad where the animals haven’t been seen in roughly two decades. Conservationists with the Government of Chad and the Wildlife Conservation Society released the photo of the female adult lion (Pantera leo) taken in the Sena Oura National Park. Organized poaching drove the lions to extirpation in the park, which lies in the larger transnational Bouba N’djida-Sena Oura Landscape between Chad and Cameroon, more than a decade ago. But the governments of both Cameroon and Chad have since committed to stronger conservation measures, which have improved the landscape for species like lions. In the Bouba N’djida National Park in Cameroon, which borders the Chadian park, the lions have been slowly recolonizing parts of their former range due to these protections. Regardless, lions in western and central Africa are still highly fragmented, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a press release.

Read more at the Wildlife Conservation Society.