雅思阅读精选：旷野的屈服非洲狮数量锐减_雅思英语阅读

雅思阅读精选：旷野的屈服非洲狮数量锐减

　　The king of the African savannah is in serious trouble because people are taking over the continents last patches of wilderness on unprecedented scale, according to a detailed study released this week.

　　A male lion feeds in South Africas Kruger National Park. The Kruger Park area is one of only ten strongholds left for lions in Africa. National Geographic photo by James P. Blair.

　　The most comprehensive assessment of lion numbers to date determined that Africas once-thriving savannahs are undergoing massive land-use conversion and burgeoning human population growth. The decline has had a significant impact on the lions that make their home in these savannahs; their numbers have dropped to as low as 32,000, down from hundreds of thousands estimated just 50 years ago.

　　The study, funded in part by the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative, was published online in this weeks journalBiodiversity and Conservation.

　　Some 24,000 of the continents remaining lions are primarily in 10 strongholds: 4 in East Africa and 6 in southern Africa, the researchers determined. Over 6,000 of the remaining lions are in populations of doubtful long-term viability. Lion populations in West and central Africa are the most acutely threatened, with many recent local extinctions, even in nominally protected areas.

　　Population size classes of all lion areas. Figure used in the research study ,courtesy of Stuart Pimm and other authors/Biodiversity and Conservation journal.