Lions in South-Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia

[Duco Ndona]

I can get the desire to help an animal in need. Its very commendable. 
Though I wonder if it really helps those animals. 


Were these animals ever in danger? Mothers and cubs are perfectly capable to finding eachother on their own. Sometimes the mothers even abandon their cubs for a little bit to distract predators from them.
Just like its recommended to leave young puppies or kittens alone for a few hours after finding them. The same probably counts for their bigger cousins. 

It also raises the question of who gets saved and who doesnt. Can we set up criteria for this? Or will the lion fandom just demand to save every doomed runt regardless of circumstance?
Is it moral to save a struggling young coalition of lions. When its this struggling that learns them to shape up or eliminates the surplus weaker males in a territory? 
If we see two lions attacking eachother, how do we determine who should win? Wouldnt the excess amount of lions also cause more takeovers and cubkillings by rival males and prides? 

And lets say we do help the lions and their numbers explode. Lions are still vicious carnivores. What about all the cheetah and leopards they will kill? Will we then intervene in favor of those and cull lions? Will people stand up for the much less popular hyena or will it become survival of the cutest? What about the prey animals? Or the lions fleeing the overpopulation into populated areas? 

I think we ultimately would just raise issues that nature has solved eons ago. So let nature deal with the individuals and us focus on giving nature the space it needs for that. 
The money and energy is much better spend on anti poaching. Increasing the size of the reserves or education anyway. Reply