African Lions at Risk

When we traveled to Africa to conduct research for Travels with Gannon & Wyatt Botswana, we came across lions everyday in the Okavango Delta — an old, distinguished male covered in scares from a lifetime of battles, a band of brothers lying around in the shade, a mother resting while and her cubs wrestled nearby, a solo male feasting on a cape buffalo.It was breathtaking to see these magnificent creatures in the wild. Literally, I couldn’t breathe the first time we encountered a pride of lions at close distance. Based on all the lions we came across in Botswana, I would have guessed the species was doing just fine. Truth is, lions are in trouble.