Are Lions Endangered? Lion Population and Threats Today

What “Vulnerable” means for lions

The IUCN Red List places species in categories according to their risk of extinction in the wild. Vulnerable means a high risk of extinction, Endangered a very high risk and Critically Endangered an extremely high risk. The lion was most recently reassessed in 2025 and remains Vulnerable.

The species-wide category hides big regional differences. Lions are doing relatively well in parts of Southern Africa but are declining fast in West, Central and much of East Africa. The West African lion population, isolated from all others, was assessed separately as Critically Endangered in 2015, and India’s Asiatic lions, all living in one region, have long been considered at high risk because of their small range.

How many lions are left?

Lions are hard to count because they range widely, rest in cover and live at low density in many areas. Estimates therefore vary, but most recent figures put the total wild population at roughly 20,000–25,000 lions, almost all of them in Africa.

The decline is long term. In the 1970s, lions in Africa were roughly estimated at 200,000 or fewer, and the range has shrunk dramatically: lions are now gone from North Africa and much of West and Central Africa, and they occupy only a small fraction of their historic range.

The main threats to lions

Habitat loss. As farms, settlements and roads spread across savanna, lion habitat is broken into smaller, isolated pieces. Small populations cut off from others are more vulnerable to inbreeding, disease and local extinction.

Conflict with herders. When lions kill cattle, goats or sheep, people sometimes kill lions in return, by poisoning carcasses, spearing or shooting them. This retaliation is one of the biggest causes of lion deaths outside protected areas.

Loss of prey. The bushmeat trade, often using wire snares, removes the antelopes, zebras and buffalo lions depend on. Lions are also caught and killed in snares set for other animals. With less wild prey, lions are more likely to attack livestock, which leads to more conflict. See What do lions eat? for their main prey.

Trade in body parts. Lion bones, teeth and claws are sought for traditional medicine and ornaments, sometimes as substitutes for tiger parts, which encourages poaching.

Poorly managed trophy hunting. Where quotas are too high or young males are killed, trophy hunting can harm local populations. Its role is debated: where well regulated, hunting fees help fund large wildlife areas, but badly managed hunting has contributed to declines.

Disease. Outbreaks of canine distemper, spread from domestic dogs, killed a large share of the Serengeti’s lions in 1994, and bovine tuberculosis affects lions in Kruger. Small populations are especially at risk.

Where lions are doing better

Not all the news is bad. A large 2015 study found that lion numbers were stable or increasing in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, in intensively managed and often fenced reserves, while declining elsewhere. Big, well-funded protected areas such as Kruger, the Serengeti ecosystem and the Okavango Delta still hold healthy populations.

India offers the clearest success story. Asiatic lions numbered only about 180 in 1974. With strict protection, compensation for livestock losses and support from local communities, their population grew to 674 in 2020 and 891 in a 2025 survey. Many now live outside Gir National Park in farmland and coastal areas, which brings new conflict but shows the population is expanding.

What helps lions survive

Conservation groups and governments focus on several proven measures:

• Protecting and connecting habitat, including corridors that let lions move between parks.
• Predator-proof livestock enclosures, often called bomas, which sharply reduce night-time attacks on cattle and the revenge killings that follow.
• Compensation and community programs, so that people living with lions benefit from them rather than bearing only the costs.
• Anti-snaring and anti-poaching patrols that protect both lions and their prey.
• Wildlife tourism, which brings money to parks and local communities and gives living lions a clear value.

Lions are also listed under CITES, which controls international trade: lions in India are in Appendix I, the strictest level, and African lions in Appendix II.

Are lions in danger of extinction?

Lions are unlikely to vanish completely in the near future, but they are disappearing from country after country, and many remaining populations are small and isolated. Their long-term survival depends on a network of large, well-managed protected areas and on making it possible for people and lions to share the land. For comparison, tigers are listed as Endangered; our lion vs tiger guide compares the two cats.