By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Mystical beliefs fuel Senegal’s illegal big cat trade and threaten lion’s survival in West Africa
preview.jpg
Ousmane Sambou, a sergeant with Senegal's Direction of National Parks, holds up a confiscated leopard skin at the DPN headquarters in Tambacounda, Senegal on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. - photo by AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag
NIOKOLO-KOBA NATIONAL PARK, Senegal (AP) — The morning sun slants through the canopy of Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park as Sgt. Abdou Diouf and his brigade of rangers march in single file, guns at the ready. They scan the brush for signs of poachers, but today, it seems, the only hunters are the lions themselves, their fresh tracks pressed into the sand.