BRONX, NY, January 21, 2026—A new peer-reviewed study published in Conservation Letters warns that targeted poaching of African lions for their body parts is escalating rapidly and could pose an existential threat to the species without urgent action. The research documents a growing, organized trade in lion bones, claws, teeth, and skins driven by demand in African and Asian markets, and calls for urgent, coordinated action across governments, conservation organizations, and communities.

Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, African lions now occupy only about six percent of their historic range, with roughly 23,000 individuals remaining. While habitat loss, prey depletion, and human–lion conflict have long driven declines, the authors stress that a newer and poorly understood threat—targeted poaching for body parts—is now compounding those pressures.

“We are seeing both increasingly widespread and deliberate organized killing of lions for trade, and opportunistic harvesting of body parts from lions that died from other causes,” said Peter Lindsey, Director of the Lion Recovery Fund for the Wildlife Conservation Network and lead author of the study. “Poachers are increasingly using poisoned bait and snares that can wipe out entire prides in a single incident, pushing already‑vulnerable populations closer to collapse. In addition, the use of poison threatens a wide range of other carnivore and scavenger species.”

The study documents that lions are being deliberately lured with poisoned carcasses — including giraffes used as bait — a tactic that can kill entire prides in a single event while also devastating vultures and other scavengers. Recent seizures include 17 lion skulls in Zambia, more than 300 kilograms of lion body parts intercepted in Mozambique, and additional incidents in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and South Africa.

“In Uganda and across East Africa, lions are cornerstones of both ecosystems and community livelihoods, yet they are now being drawn into sophisticated illegal trade networks,” said Simon Nampindo, Country Director for WCS Uganda. “If we do not strengthen protection on the ground and work in genuine partnership with communities, this crisis will accelerate beyond our ability to contain it.”

Added Andrew Loveridge, Director of the Lion Program at Panthera. “What this research makes clear is that lion poaching is no longer a localized problem. While many of the killings are occurring in southern and eastern Africa, strong demand in West African markets — including Senegal — is helping to fuel cross-border trade networks that are putting lion populations under growing pressure across the continent.”

Researchers found that the trade is driven by a complex mix of cultural, spiritual, and commercial demand. Lion parts are used in traditional belief systems across at least 37 African countries, and are also trafficked to Southeast Asia, where they are sometimes substituted for tiger parts in medicinal products. Organized criminal networks increasingly link lion trafficking with ivory, rhino horn, and pangolin scale smuggling.

“This is a very important paper,” said Luke Hunter, Executive Director of the WCS Big Cats program and Senior Technical Advisor to the Lion Recovery Fund. “It clearly shows that trade-driven poaching is becoming a defining threat to the future of Africa’s lions. Governments, donors, and conservation organizations must act together now—just as they have to save the wild tiger from poaching—or risk losing Africa’s great cat. We cannot afford the lion to become the new tiger.”

The authors outline six priority areas for action: strengthening in-situ protection and monitoring of lions; engaging communities as conservation partners; improving understanding of illegal trade networks; disrupting trafficking routes through intelligence-led enforcement; strengthening legal and judicial systems; and reducing consumer demand for lion body parts through culturally informed behavior-change campaigns.

WCS is already advancing many of these approaches through its programs in Africa, including community-based conflict mitigation, targeted lion monitoring using the latest science, and strengthened protected area management models with which to better respond to and deter organized poaching of lions.

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Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN)
Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) brings together conservationists and supporters to advance solutions for wildlife and people to coexist and thrive. WCN is proud to send 100% of every designated donation directly to the field for maximum conservation impact. Learn more about WCN’s unique approach to saving wildlife at wildnet.org.

Panthera
Panthera, founded in 2006, is devoted to preserving wild cats and their critical role in the world’s ecosystems. Panthera’s team of leading biologists, law enforcement experts, and wild cat advocates develop innovative strategies based on the best available science to protect cheetahs, jaguars, leopards, lions, pumas, snow leopards, tigers, and the 33 small cat species and their vast landscapes. In 39 countries around the world, Panthera works with a wide variety of stakeholders to reduce or eliminate the most pressing threats to wild cats—securing their future, and ours. Visit panthera.org.