South Africa's captive lion industry sells cubs, hunts and bones
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
South Africa had 519 captive lion facilities holding about 7,400 lions in 2023, against an estimated 3,000 to 3,500 wild lions. Cub-raising programmes, trophy hunts and bone exports sustain the captive trade.
- Captive lion breeding facilities — a lion sold for hunting fetches about 150,000 rand and its bones about 100,000 rand Mail & Guardian
- Volunteers who paid to help raise cubs — paid to help raise cubs that were later sold to hunters Yale e360
- 638 captive-bred lions — shot in trophy hunts in 2015 Yale e360
What happened
Mail & Guardian reported in July 2023 that 519 facilities held about 7,400 lions, and that a lion sold for hunting fetched about 150,000 rand while its bones fetched about 100,000 rand.
Yale e360 reported that 638 lions shot in trophy hunts in 2015 were almost all captive-bred, at prices of 25,000 to 40,000 dollars each.
Yale e360 reported that volunteers paid to help raise cubs, tourists had their photographs taken with them, and the grown lions were sold to hunters.
Yale e360 reported that bones were sent to Asia as tiger bone from 2008, and that a court halted the export of lion bone in 2019.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
Insurers
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: a Blood Lions summary cites about 1,000 dollars a week, a figure that was not checked.
- None on record Not found: an independent result showing that captive-bred lions can be released to the wild; breeders cite their own studies, and Blood Lions argues that no hand-reared lion has been successfully released.
- Insufficient Not verified: the 2024 roadmap figures (7,838 lions across 342 facilities, and a two-year hunting option) have no opened source.
- Not disclosed Reported but not verified: a 2026 ban on new lion facilities passed parliament but was not published, and it does not close existing facilities.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Press and investigations
- Lion owners in talks to exit industryMail & Guardian · 2023-07-13
- South Africa's captive lions (Yale e360 feature)Yale e360 · 2023-08-24