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Lions in Kaffa rainforest

The African lion is almost always found in savannah or dry forests, but recent photos by the Germany-based Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) document lions in Ethiopian rainforests, according Mongabay.com, an environmental science and conservation news site. Taken in the Kaffa Biosphere Reserve and published in the website, the photos show a female lion hiding out in thick montane jungle.
“Long known to locals, the lions are actually thought not to be permanent residents, but possibly passing through Kaffa Biosphere Reserve in the dry season,” the site said.
Kaffa Biosphere Reserve covers 760,000 hectares of montane rainforest and preserves the last place on earth where wild coffee (Coffea arabica) still grows naturally. The reserve is home to at least 106 woody plants, 100 birds, and 48 mammals, Mongabay reported.
Though not mentioned in this particular website, the BBC documentary film makers also recently filmed a lion population in the Harenna Forest of the Bale Mountains National Park.
The threat of extinction to lions is real.Habitat loss, prey depletion, hunting, poisonings, and conflict with humans have decimated Africa’s lions. Twenty years ago there were 200,000 lions in Africa. Now there are only 25,000-30,000 in the entire continent, of which an estimated 1,000 live in Ethiopia.
Read more about the project at Nabu’s website, entitled “Protecting the Last Cloud Forests of Ethiopia”