This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: An estimated 8,000 lions are held in captivity in South Africa in about 350 places, ranging from zoos to tourism venues where people can interact up close with the big cats. Lions are also bred for live trade, trade in body parts and captive hunts.
Along with other predators, captive lions are held in conditions that vary from small enclosures of 250 square meters (2,700 square feet) to larger enclosures of 5,000 square meters (54,000 square feet) with more naturalistic features. Cubs, however, are often kept in crates or small pens. South Africa's commercial captive predator industry has been contentious for many years.
The main concerns are the animals' welfare, regulation, links to the international wildlife trade, health and safety risks to staff and tourists, and potential implications for the country's tourism and conservation reputation. We are researchers studying conservation, wildlife trade and animal welfare. In our latest study, using covert observation, we investigated commercial tourism venues for three years with a team of wildlife and animal welfare experts from the NGOs Blood Lions and World Animal Protection, and visited 34 commercial captive lion venues in South Africa's Gauteng, Limpopo, North West and Free State provinces.
Our aim was to understand what kind of living conditions exist in this sector of the commercial captive predator industry. Different provincial and national laws apply to the captive lion sector. This results in a lack of coordination of legislation and policy.
Provincial nature conservation authorities also don't have the capacity to visit each facility to see if they are complying with the terms of their permits. We believed that many captive facilities weren't complying with the laws around keeping lions, and that's why we investigated these commercial venues. We focused only on commercial venues open to the public for tourism activities, including viewing animals in captivity, petting and bottle-feeding cubs, and walking with young adult lions.
We also observed 607 individuals of other mammal species and found that tigers, leopards, servals and caracals were among the species most commonly kept for the same purposes. We observed 69 tiger cubs being used for interactions. We scored the living conditions based on enclosure sizes, shelter, anything done to prevent boredom, quality of food, animal care and management, the frequency and intensity of tourist activities, social interaction with other lions, cleanliness of the enclosures, noise levels and naturalness of the lions' immediate environment.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
