野生的狮子有多少只?

野生的狮子有多少只?

Lions are one of the most iconic animals on the planet. They play starring roles in the art of hundreds of cultures, in literature from history books to fairy tales and are, of course, are one of the biggest draws of tourists to the African continent.

狮子是地球上最具标志性的动物之一。他们在数百种文化的艺术中扮演着主角，在从历史书籍到童话故事的文学作品中，当然，他们也是非洲大陆最大的游客群体之一。

However, they are disappearing from the wild at an astonishingly rapid rate.

然而，它们正以惊人的速度从野外消失。

According to Panthera, lions have disappeared from 95% of their historic range due to habitat loss, hunting and poaching, retaliatory killings by livestock owners, loss of prey and other factors. "Just over a century ago, there were more than 200,000 wild lions living in Africa. Today, there are only about 20,000; lions are extinct in 26 African countries."

根据Panthera的数据，由于栖息地的丧失、狩猎和偷猎、家畜主人的报复性杀戮、猎物的损失以及其他因素，狮子已经从95%的历史范围内消失了。“就在一个多世纪以前，非洲有20多万只野生狮子。今天，只有2万左右;26个非洲国家的狮子已经灭绝。”

The population count from the IUCN Red List is slightly more optimistic, but not much: They estimate there are 23,000 to 39,000 lions left in the wild.

IUCN红色名单上的狮子数量稍微乐观一些，但也不是很多:他们估计野生狮子的数量在23,000到39,000头之间。

Though lions are such a big part of the human consciousness across the planet, we are at risk of the species entirely disappearing from the grasslands where they roam. This fact surprises many people, including those who love lions. These big cats are part of a much bigger ecosystem, one in which humans play a significant role. That role can be shifted from one that is causing lion populations to dwindle toward extinction, to one that creates strategies for coexisting with and protecting this important and magnificent predator.

尽管狮子在整个地球上的人类意识中占据如此重要的一部分，但我们正面临着这个物种从它们所漫步的草原上完全消失的风险。这一事实让很多人感到惊讶，包括那些热爱狮子的人。这些大型猫科动物是一个更大的生态系统的一部分，在这个生态系统中，人类扮演着重要的角色。这一角色可以从导致狮子数量逐渐减少到濒临灭绝，转变为创造与这种重要而壮观的食肉动物共存并保护它们的策略。