Recently, more than 30 circus and zoo Lions were flown from South America to a facility in the north of South Africa. this has, in some quarters, been hailed as a great success for Lion conservation. Really?

These Lions have been held over several generations in captivity, and as a result are not good specimens, nor can they ever be released into the wild. Perhaps, yes, they will have more comfortable quarters, be better fed but in the long run would it not have been better to euthanize these cats and use the money for real Lion conservation in the wild state? There are said to be well over 3,000 lions held under captive conditions in the Free State, South Africa, in part for the disgraceful 'canned hunting' trade, now also to supply bones for the pseudo-medicinal Asian trade. 

Neither of these 'projects' have any conservation benefits for Lion. The African Lion is in dire straits in the wild, almost wiped out in West Africa, greatly reduced or extirpated elsewhere, except in a handful of large savanna conservation ares. They need help, ex-circus Lions would be best put out of their misery.