Africa's lion numbers plummet, study finds

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Nickson Parmisa / Wildlife DirectThis lioness was killed on June 20, 2012, along with her sister and four cubs in Sholinge, Kenya, just outside Nairobi National Park. The lionesses had gone into a cattle area to teach the cubs to hunt. By Miguel Llanos, NBC NewsAfrica's lions are running out of habitat and some populations, especially those in West Africa, are running toward extinction, according to a study published Tuesday.

Using new satellite data, a research team at Duke University found that about 75 percent of Africa's savannahs were fragmented by farmers and other development in the last 50 years.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld "Only 25 percent remains of an ecosystem that once was a third larger than the continental United States," co-author Stuart Pimm, a Duke conservation ecology professor, said in a statement issued with the study.

"The situation in West Africa is particularly dire," the experts wrote, noting that human populations have doubled there over the last three decades. Fewer than 500 lions remain in West Africa, the study estimated.

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