I invite all to sign this global petition to save the Sacred White Lions: need 100,000 signatures
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/To_list_the_WHITE_LION_Panthera_leo_tsau_as_a_PROTECTED_ANIMAL_due_to_its_CULTURAL_and_CONSERVATIONAL_importance/
Today, it is still legal to kill a White Lion in the wilds of their natural habitat – and captive in a cage.
The White Lion (Panthera leo tsau) is a critically endangered animal, originating from one endemic habitat: South Africa’s greater Timbavati region in the heart of the UN-declared Kruger to Canyons Biosphere. Carrying a unique genetic trait (so-called “genetic marker”), this rare phenotype has key cultural and conservation significance. As apex predators in their natural ecosystem, White Lions make a unique contribution to the biodiversity of this bushveld conservation area, the 3rd largest biosphere in the world.
However, while revered as sacred animals by indigenous communities, White Lions are hunted as trophies in the wild of their ancestral homelands, and in captivity (a malpractice known as “Canned Lion Hunting”, now legalized in South Africa). Over the past 5 decades, they were forcibly removed from their natural habitat, and sent to zoos and circuses around the globe, and worse, speed-bred in commercial captive breeding operations where they are petted as cubs, then shot as tame adults.
The Global White Lion Protection Trust (WLT) is a registered non-profit organization, founded in 2002 by conservationist and author Linda Tucker, who has dedicated her life to the protection of the White Lions.
The organization’s founding objectives are:
1) To protect the White Lions as a global living heritage for future generations, and
2) To protect the indigenous knowledge that upholds these animals as sacred.
http://www.whitelions.org
While on the brink of extinction, the conservation importance of these rare animals for this natural ecosystem is confirmed by the natural re-occurrence of White Lions in the private nature reserves of Timbavati, Klaserie and APNR, despite the commercial trophy hunting of lions taking place in this region.
