More bad news now it is the US thinking about the African Lion being added endangered list

Borrowed this from another forum, sounds like we need some good data sent from the folks who really know the status of African Lion, that would be the folks in Africa, Louis better get mine heading home. But seems like a 12 month review but with current POS Obama I can see this going the bad for US hunters. you cannot respond by email or fax, you have to search by doc number as well to see the full report

Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:57:09 -0500
Subject: Publication of a 90-day finding on a petition to list the African lion as endangered under the ESA



I am writing to inform you that today, November 27, 2012, we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 90-day finding on a petition to list the African lion (*Panthera leo leo*) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Based on our review, we find that the petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing this subspecies may be warranted.
Therefore, with the publication of this notice, we are initiating a review of the status of the subspecies to determine if listing the African lion as endangered is warranted. To ensure that this status review is comprehensive, we are requesting scientific and commercial data and other information regarding this subspecies. Based on the status review, we will issue a 12-month finding on the petition, which will address whether the petitioned action is warranted, as provided in section 4(b)(3)(B) of the Act. Please visit Regulations.gov, *Docket No. FWS-R9-ES-2012-0025 to view the 90-day finding, or **
Maintenance

Under the Act, a species may be determined to be an endangered or threatened species due to one or more of the following five factors: (a) the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of the species habitat or range; (b) overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; (c) disease or predation; (d) the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms, and (e) other natural or manmade factors affecting the continued existence of the species.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at Amy_Brisendine@fws.gov.

--

Amy Brisendine, Biologist
Branch of Foreign Species
Endangered Species Program
U.S. Fish and Wildilfe Service
Arlington, VA 22203
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/...-activities.html>

This will ruin import into the US, and will cause a major loss of income for outfitters that base their companies exclusively in the states...

My best

Good day gentleman

I have been in contact with numerous friends who breed lion and as far as we know lions or the hunting of them would not be closing however US Fish and Wildlife will no doubt stop issuing cities permits making it illegal to export lion in to the US. This is not likely to happen next year but I do expect US Fish and Wildlife to stop issuing cities permits on lion within the next two years.

This will no doubt be to the detriment of our lion populations none will be effected more so than our wild lion populations plus not being able to export lion to the US will defiantly cause South Africa to cut back on the breeding of lions. The lion bone trade is a very real threat to ALL LIONS! With a constant supply of captive bread lion bones being possibly cut in have at the very least (please note that I do not agree with the lion bone trade nor do I support it but I am afraid it does exist and there is a big market for these bones, we have to be real about it) all the pressure will fall on our wild lion populations. We would no doubt see a lot of lions being pouched all over Africa in Nature Reserves and Game Management Area's!

It is a simply questions of supply and demand, the demand is currently there and having less lion bones around will no doubt raise the price of the supply making it worth while for poachers to take the big risk of pouching in our National Parks and other wild areas?

To add to the problem poachers do not pouch according to a quota, nor do they care if the animal is mature or not, they would also use methods like snaring, poison and other forms of trapping since they are a bunch of scared spineless idiots!

This will also help insure that other animals also get snared, trapped or poisoned just as an example leopards but don't worry those bones will be exported to Asia as well?

It is funny how we have had the discussion hunting wild vs captive bread lions for years now. The majority of us could never agree on the topic the irony is, look where we are heading now thanks to standing divided on the topic, lion hunting will no doubt close for our US clients at the very least and the lion populations of Africa will be under pressure more than ever!

I am afraid the fact that we as hunters can not even tolerate or respect each others choices has left the door open for the greenies to ensure the the King of Africa will be nothing more than a tame zoo animal and a great memory for the few who were ever fortunate enough to experience hunting a lion be it wild or captive bread?

This is very very sad news for hunters and the lion populations all over Africa!

This is a very sad story indeed. Our Lions will end up the same way as our Rhinos.

one poisoned carcass, one pride gone with all the other scavengers included. that wont take long to eradicate lions and a lot of other animals. shame these arsehol.s sitting at their desks dont seem to realise this.

This should be a BIG wake up call for all of us as hunters whether your hunting fenced land or an open conservancy we must all stand together an protect the future of wildlife and our hunting heritage!

Best Regards
Louis van Bergen

Sub-species Classification

Although modern lions genetically differ from leopards and tigers by 13.8% and 19.8%, respectively, differences from Holartic cave lions of 5 6% greatly exceed those among modern African lions (around 0 - 1.22%). Lions do show substantial variation within populations but only limited between population differences; like other wide-ranging large mammals.

Twenty-four sub-species classifications have been suggested for modern lions based on external morphological differences in different geographical regions, such as; body size, coat thickness and colour, mane size and colouration as well as the extent of retention of juvenile spots into adulthood. However, recent mitochondrial DNA sequence variation analysis suggests that lions across Africa are the same and sub-Saharan lions should be considered a single sub-species Panthera leo leo.

Some even question the sub-species classification of the Asiatic lion, currently classified as P.l. persica, due to the limited genetic difference (1.1%) to African lions this difference being smaller than those found between human racial groups.

The IUCN currently recognizes two extant sub-species of lion:

African lion Panthera leo leo (Linnaeus, 1758)
Asiatic lion Panthera leo persica (Meyer, 1826

It could be that in the near future if a person from the US wants to hunt Lion it will be a captive breed or a darted and photo entery only and that is sad.

what you have to remember is kenya at the last 3 or so international cites conferences has lobbied for lions to be moved to appendix one of cities. most of the southern african countries along with other countries they brought on side managed to out vote and defeat this proposal. kenya is used as the puppet and funded in this effort by some of the biggest anti hunting organisations who also have accredited NGO status. seems like their propoganda/lobbying is working.............

I am not interested in hunting Lions myself, but I am totally able to see that if the US hunters can't import Lion trophies, then this is going to be a large threat to wild Lions.
I am sure a large majority of Lions hunted are hunted by US hunters.

Not only will we get a massive increase in wild Lions poached for the bones, but we will also see many more wild Lions killed because they will have no value for the locals around in Africa anymore.
The Lions will just be a danger to their life and their domestic animals and not a source of income.