JUNGLE KING DISAPPEARS

Leela Hazzah, still a teenager, as his father used to do when he was young, climbed the roof of her house at her home country, Egypt, when it was night already and waited patiently to listen to the roars of the lions in the forests around. But she has never been able to repeat her father’s experience, because the lions had disappeared of her country.

Leela, today a beautiful 30-year-old woman, repeat the childhood experience in her ecological house in the middle of Masai tribes’ villages, at the south of Kenya. And at this time, with luck, some roar crosses the African night. Today Leela fights to save the last African lions, converting the warriors Masai, who used to be proud of the number of lions they killed, into their protectors.

In the last 20 years, 85% of the lion’s population in the wild in Africa disappeared. They used to be 200 thousand and now are a little bit more than 20 thousand. In 10 years it is possible that they do not exist anymore. The Jungle King, the majestic feline of the universe, has been extinguished by the biggest predator ever: Man.

Leela Hazzah, who is a biologist and an ecologist, still fights to save the species. At least the warriors Masai had already been converted in protectors and help her in her search for lions at African savannahs, aiming to protect the small groups scattered.

It’s everyone’s duty to fight for this species so it won’t be extinct, just like the cause of the great primates. Panthera leo, scientific name of the Jungle King, deserves a better destiny. It’s on our hands the mission of avoid its disappearance, including in our country.

Pedro A. Ynterian
President, GAP Project International