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The lion is known as one of the world’s most iconic animals. Few people realise however that illegal killing, relentless habitat loss and overhunting of wild prey by people has left this species teetering precariously on the brink of extinction.
Nearly a century ago, there were as many as 200,000 lions living in the wild in Africa. Today, the most recent surveys estimate that there may be as few as 20,000 lions living in the wild in Africa today.
Lions have vanished from over 80% of their historic range and currently exist in 28 countries in Africa and one country in Asia (India). They are extinct in 26 countries. Only 7 countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe are believed to each contain more than 1,000 lions.