Lion Recovery Fund

There is a new lion coalition in Botswana's Okavango Delta! Mayenga’s pride, with their 6 cubs, are being tended by 3 strapping males in the eastern part of Communities Living Among Wildlife Sustainably Conservancy's study area. Their team were able to put a tracking collar on the biggest male so that they can monitor the pride's impacts on the nearby village of Beetsha. Many more stories to come! Claws Conservancy

For the first weeks of its life, a lion cub's life includes only its mother, and likely a few siblings, in a hideaway place. Cubs are born with spots and rosettes on their golden coats that fade as they grow. Few-week-old cubs are then moved into a crèche, or a nursery of pride cubs, where they are raised side-by-side with their cousins until two years of age. Lions are the only cats to rear their young in such a manner: https://bit.ly/3GlIfEe Susan McConnell

A serene moment at Singita's Grumeti Game Reserve in Tanzania changed dramatically after one of the Plains Camp males suddenly sighted a carcass within reach which had been hoisted in a Marula tree. It soon became evident that a lion’s share is unequal and is based on size, strength - and spotting skills! Singita

Zambezi Delta Conservation has spent several years transforming the heavily poached Zambezi Delta into a landscape teeming with wildlife again. ZDC reintroduced 24 lions in 2018, and that population has jumped to nearly 70 thanks to the abundance of prey. We are proud to have recently supported conservation efforts in the area via their conservation partner Mozambique Wildlife Alliance to expand their management area and begin tackling bushmeat poaching and the illegal lion body part trade. Willem Briers-Louw

Happy New Year from all of us at the Lion Recovery Fund! We couldn't have done 2021 without you. We've achieved so much together, and we are so excited to do even more to recover lions across Africa in 2022. Will you #RoarWithUs? Suzi Eszterhas

2021 was another rollercoaster year for people around the world, but thanks to your support, the Lion Recovery Fund stayed on course, delivering funding to many highly impactful projects. Because of your investment, the LRF has bolstered both new ideas and tried and true approaches to protect lions and it is truly making a difference. All of this progress is only possible because of our donors. This year it is even easier to support lion conservationa generous supporter has ...offered to match all gifts made to the LRF between now and December 31st up to $50,000. We hope we can count on your continued investment in the LRF and in lion conservation. Support lion conservation at: https://bit.ly/32x6UHw Susan McConnell

Exciting news out of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania, where LRF grantee Kope Lion's work has paid off and resulted in having no lions lost this year to retaliatory or traditional hunts. As a result of human-lion conflict, lions have disappeared from much of their historical range within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Since 2011, Kope Lion has worked to mitigate Ngorongoro’s human-lion conflict through implementation of the Lion Guardians model which engages local community members in lion protection. Congratulations on this huge win for lions! Lemunge, a male lion in the Ngorongoro Crater by Bobby-Jo Vial, Duma Safaris

Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year. Thank you for supporting the Lion Recovery Fund this year. Steve Mandel

Lion populations have declined by half in just a quarter century. Their loss signals the loss of the wild in Africa. But, lions can return. The Lion Recovery Fund was created to invest in the most innovative projects across Africa that can recover lions and restore their landscapes. Every dollar raised is directly deployed to projects that save lions, with zero administrative fees or overhead. Much more work needs to be done to recover lions across Africa, and without the s...upport of our donors, we simply wouldn't be able to do it. Will you #RoarWithUs to recover lions? You can help by: Following our page Making a donation Signing up for our newsletter Learn more at linktr.ee/lionrecoveryfund or through the link in our bio. Susan McConnell

Livestock herders contribute immensely to the prevention of human-lion conflict in the Mara Ecosystem especially during the day, resulting in fewer losses of livestock and subsequently fewer retaliatory killings of lions. The Mara Predator Conservation Programme team recently completed trainings in 10 of its 15 Lion Ambassador zones aimed at equipping herders with knowledge on better livestock herding practices, lion behaviors and ecology, and legislations governing interaction of people and wildlife. 237 herders attended the training sessions boosting coexistence efforts in the area. Peter Lindsey & MPCP

In both size and attributes, Mozambique’s Niassa Special Reserve is one of the greatest wild places in Africa. Inside its borders, 60,000 people live alongside roughly 900 lions, one of the largest lion populations on the continent. Niassa Lion Project works across 90% of the Reserve’s 44 villages to improve human-lion coexistence. NLP also leads the Lion Coalition Project that, in collaboration with the Reserve’s management authority, brings together diverse partners to pro...tect the Reserve’s lions and their prey. With a recent grant from the Lion Recovery Fund, anti-poaching patrols in Niassa removed more than 450 snares and confiscated 300 kg of bushmeat and 2 firearms. These investments also helped to unlock hundreds of thousands of dollars in matching funding that will go towards engaging local communities as allies in conservation in the reserve. Jon McCormack