“…their range continues to shrink rapidly and is now confined to just sub-Saharan Africa and a small, isolated pocket in the Gir Forest in India. This particular Asiatic community — of around 650 animals including cubs — confined, in-bred and with no-where to go, is both poignantly and pointedly symbolic of the future lions in Africa might also face…”
(獅子)活動的範圍，在非洲已經限縮至撒哈拉沙漠以南，而在亞洲則只剩下印度的吉爾森林保護區少少的650頭亞洲獅，苦於近親繁殖而且無處可去，非常可能是非洲獅子未來令人傷心欲絕的象徵寫照。
“..it is extremely difficult for anyone to know how many lions there really are left in the wild. …It is incredibly challenging for censuses to give accurate numbers…The most widely accepted figure is an estimated 20,000 lions left — substantially less than the estimated 30,000 rhinos and 400,000 elephants — which shocks many…”
很難確知在野外現在還有多少頭獅子。根據比較可靠的估計數字，約共有20,000頭，比犀牛的30,000頭和大象的400,000頭都要少得非常多，令人感到十分震驚。
“The truth is, that is estimated ten times more lions are now killed every year through conflict with humans than through hunting. With most half of Africa’s remaining lion range falling outside of protected areas, habitat loss is actually the biggest threat facing lions…”
(娛樂的狩獵，固然減少了獅子的數量，)而事實上，因為和人類的活動範圍有衝突而被殺的獅子數量，則十倍於因為娛樂狩獵死亡的。有獅子的區域，泰半在保護區之外。因為人類造成的棲息地消失，成為獅子生存的最主要的威脅。
“The problem of the lion is that it needs large tracts of real estate and water, the same things that man covets. Lion are not alone in being under siege. Cats large and small are threatened by the burgeoning human population leading to loss of habitat and natural prey, increasingly bringing them into conflict with humans and livestock.”
獅子需要大片的土地及充足的水源，人類也是一樣。獅子並不是唯一面臨生存困境的，在貓科之中大大小小的動物，都受到人類人口成長侵佔棲地及獵物的影響，它們和人類及牲口的衝突，日漸加遽。
“Lions are unique among cats in that they are social and live in groups called prides. At the heart of pride are several generations of female and their cubs, accompany by fewer, unrelated breeding males…”
在貓科中，獅子很特別是生活在獅群的緊密社交關係之中。獅群的核心，是由幾代的母獅和她們繁衍的後代所組成的，偶有少數沒有血緣關係的雄獅混雜其中。
“Success in life for both sexes depends on forming close bonds with one another. Two or three adult males usually accompany a pride and are often related, though single males will try to join forces with non-relatives during the nomadic phase of life…Females on the other hand will try to stay their natal pride for life, but with food and den sites at a premium, groups of younger females are sometimes forced to find a territory of their own.”
獅子不管雌雄，彼此建立緊密關係，對於它們的生存是很重要的。在獅群中，一般有二、三頭雄獅，而且它們一般是有血緣關係的。
在遷徙期，單身的雄獅會離群去加入沒有血緣關係的獅群。
至於母獅，會儘量一直待在母系的獅群中，只有當食物或獅窩地點不足的時候，有些年輕的母獅才會離群另覓其他地方成立新的獅群。
“A female lion has her first little of cubs by around four years of age, breeding for the majority of her life. Gestation is around 110 days…”
母獅在四歲大時，可以開始生第一胎，然後一輩子都可以不斷生育。妊娠懷胎期，大約是110天。
“A lion cub is born completely helpless and blind…mortality is high(up to 50 per cent) …due to starvation and threats such as hyenas through buffalos.”
小獅子出生時是全盲的，完全需要母獅的照料。小獅子的死亡率很高，高於百分之50，往往死於飢餓，或者是小自鬣狗大至水牛的威脅。
“Killing of cubs by new males — known as infanticide — is another major concern…Mothers do everything within their power however to protect their cribs, at times risking their lives…Females will often mated with more than one male within their pride to ensure that all the pride males accept the cubs as their own…Females are in estrus for four to five days, during which they mate with pride males every 10 to 30 minutes — up to 100 times a day — it is exhausting. Mating is fierce, primal and painful for the lioness, though this doesn’t seem to stop her.”
新入主獅群的雄獅，會殺死原來其他雄獅留下的後代小獅子，這是一個嚴重的問題。母獅會傾盡全力保護小獅子，有時還冒著生命的危險。
母獅會刻意跟不只一隻雄獅交配，那麼弄不淸楚的雄獅們就會把生下來的小獅子視同己出。
母獅的發情期約4到5天，會和獅群內的雄獅交配，每次10到30分鐘，每天高達100次，是很累的。交配的過程對母獅而言是激烈、原始而且痛苦的，但是她並不因此而有絲毫的退卻。
“…By two months of age, cubs will have tasted meat and at three to four months they are regularly brought to kills. At six or seven months they are fully weaned and at 11 months may contribute to hunts…”
2個月大的時候，小獅子會開始嚐到肉的味道，而到了3到4個月大的時候，它們會被帶到獵物的地方。6或7個月大的時候斷奶，而從11月大它們就開始參與狩獵的活動。
“…Females initiate most hunts, but males…are often most crucial when a pride tackle larger prey…However the key role of a male is to protect the pride by roaring, scent marking and patrolling to deter intruders.”
大多的狩獵是母獅所發動的，雄獅只有在碰到較大的獵物時才會參與。雄獅主要的任務是保護獅群，它們發出警告意味的咆哮、在勢力範圍留下自己的氣味，並在領域內巡視然後阻止任何入侵者。
“Sub-adult males are forced out of their natal pride at two to three years of age to prevent in-breeding…”
公的獅子在成年之前的2至3歲，會被迫離開母系的獅群，以避免群內的近親繁殖。
“…Most male lions eventually die a lonely and violent death, killed or injured in fights over territory, with 14 years being deemed a long life. Protected by the pride, lionesses however, can live up to 18 years.”
大部分的雄獅都孤獨地慘死，死傷於爭奪領地的爭鬥，能活到14歲就算是高壽的了。而母獅一般是活在獅群的保護之下，可以活到高達18歲。
“I spent time within rural villages and started to recognize the true cost of living along with big cats. I hated seeing the desperation in someone’s eyes after a lion had killed one of their few cattle,…It was terrible hearing the grief and desolation from people whose relatives had been killed by lions while doing nothing more than walking home through the bush…Conservation was largely seen as something alien, exclusive and imposed by rich outsiders…it seemed impossible that with Africa’s rapidly growing human populations, there would be any long-term conservation without true buy-in from people living alongside big cats.”
我花很多時間待在地方上的村落，然後開始明白住在獅子活動的範圍內的真正代價。我不願意見到，對村民極為珍貴的牲口被獅子獵殺時，他所露出來的絕望表情。
只是穿過灌木林回家，就被獅子咬死，他的家人們發出的極度悲傷的嚎哭，也真是令人不忍卒聽。
對當地人而言，主張保育獅子的有若外星人，只是那些有錢的局外人發起的運動。在非洲人口急速增長的時候，如果當地跟獅子生活在一起的人，對於獅子的保育觀念不認同，那麼長期的保育活動終將無法落地生根。
“…I see the future of Africa’s humanity, an increasing affluent and urbanized one, in which people abandoned remote and often impoverished rural areas to seek better prospects for themselves and their children in cities. Elsewhere around the globe, rural depopulation and the nature-loving constituency that emerges in urban populations has created space for the recovery of wildness and the large carnivores that rely on it…”
(從這張獅子看著大城市的照片，)我看到了慈悲在非洲的可能。
逐漸變得更富裕和城市化，人們紛紛離開偏遠貧窮的鄉下地方，住到大城市裏為他們自己和孩子謀求一個更好的未來。
從世界其他地方先前的經驗看來，一旦鄉下人口減少而城市中抱持愛自然想法的人增加的時候，將會為野外的生物的復元和繁𧗠提供更大的生存空間，而最終也會有益於依賴這樣的生態環境的大型肉食動物…..
*：Editor: Lorna Dockerill,”Remembering Lions,”2021, Remembering Wildlife Ltd.
2023/8/21 Remembering Lions Damakey
