Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What’s happening with wild lions?

20 minutes

Find Out: Threats to wild lions

25 minutes

Take Action: A pitch for lion conservation

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

explore the consequences of human-induced changes to lion habitats
recognise that humans can take action to ensure the sustainability of wild lion populations.

Success criteria

Students can:

research and explain threats to wild African lions
develop and pitch ideas for lion conservation.

Tune In: What’s happening with wild lions?

Step 1

Begin by explaining that Disney is releasing a new Lion King movie called “Mufasa: The Lion King”.

Share the following trailer and synopsis.

Mufasa: The Lion King | Official Trailer (youtube.com/watch?v=SJwcDX-8Ytc)

“Mufasa: The Lion King” enlists Rafiki to relay the legend of Mufasa to young lion cub Kiara, daughter of Simba and Nala. The story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka - the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of an extraordinary group of misfits searching for their destiny, and their bonds will be tested as they work together to evade a threatening and deadly foe.

Explain that this movie is the third Lion King movie from Disney, and that Disney not only makes films about lions, but they also contribute to efforts to protect lions. Disney has worked with the Lion Recovery Fund to create the Protect the Pride Campaign.

Share the following video:

The Lion King | Protect The Pride (youtube.com/watch?v=qI0jRjMgakc)

Step 2

Ask your students, ‘Why might lions need protection? What are the threats to lions?

Invite students to share what they already know about lions, threats to lions and lion conservation, both in Africa and Asia.

The lions in the Lion King movies are African lions and there are far more of these in the wild than the Asiatic lions. It is estimated that only several hundred Asiatic lions exist in the wild (source: londonzoo.org/whats-here/animals/asiatic-lion) while there are around 20,000 wild African lions (source: lionrecoveryfund.org/distribution-status/).

Your students might also be aware that what we call African Lions (Panthera leo) were previously present in Europe before human expansion caused their extinction and that a previous species, often called cave lions (Panthera spelaea), went extinct around 13,000 years ago likely due to a mixture of a warming climate and human impact.

Record student answers on the board.

Find Out: Threats to wild lions

Step 1

Share this Visual Explainer with your students and talk through the following points:

Local impacts - cropping, livestock, poaching, lion hunting
Continental impacts - population growth, political instability
Global impacts - climate change

Use the last slide to emphasise to your students that lions are not without hope. While there is a long list of threatening processes, the good news is that they are all created by humans, which means humans are the key to addressing these threats.

Step 2

Show your students the following video:

Reformed - Samson Moyo (NEW Pitch Film) - 2022 - (youtube.com/watch?v=oZ2Uz2k99Aw)

This film has depictions of hunting, shows firearms and tells the story of the accidental death of Kapanda’s younger brother. We advise you to watch the clip before sharing it with your class.

Have your students conduct a Think, Pair, Share using the questions on the student worksheet.

Why did Kapanda start poaching?
What do you think his environmental worldview was at this time?
What impact did his actions have on the environment? What was the indirect impact on lion populations?
What do you think Kapanda’s environmental worldview is now?
How do you think Kapanda’s story affects other people living in the area?
Has the root cause of Kapanda’s poaching been resolved? Why or why not?

Step 3

Have students form groups of 3 or 4, and assign them one of the below case studies

The Lion Guardians	lionguardians.org/
Conservation South Luangwa	cslzambia.org/
Warrior Watch	ewasolions.org/conservation/warrior-watch/
Akashinga	akashinga.org/
Big Life	biglife.org/
Lion Recovery Fund	lionrecoveryfund.org/

Have students conduct online research to answer the questions on the Student Worksheet.

Step 3

Once the students have completed their research, break them into groups with a student from each case study in each group. Have them share their findings with the group and identify

where their different case studies align
where their case studies use different methods to target the same problem.

Take Action: A pitch for lion conservation

Step 1

Students will stay in their groups and, using their new research, develop and propose a strategy for improving lion conservation outcomes. They will need to identify:

the target issue
their target audience
their audience’s current environmental worldview and stance on lion conservation
how they want their audience’s environmental worldview to change
what action they want their audience to take
how they will get this message out.

For example:

the target issue: bushmeat being taken for international trade.
their target audience: international tourists travelling to Africa
their audience’s current environmental worldview and stance on lion conservation: they travelled to Africa to appreciate the culture, environment and wildlife, but aren’t aware of details about conservation.
how they want their audience’s environmental worldview to change: we want people to know that bushmeat is illegal and is having a huge negative impact on the environment and wildlife.
what action they want their audience to take: be aware that they may be offered illegal bushmeat and that they can report it.
how they will get the message out: we will design a flyer that can be given to tourists when they travel through customs at the airport.

Each group needs to develop a pitch that they will deliver to the class to share their proposed strategy.

Learning support: Have students target their local community as their audience and choose one of the actions from the Circle of Life to share with their community.

Step 2

Have students share their pitch with the class.

Reflection

Finally, invite students to work independently to respond to the following question (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What lessons can we take from this research in lion conservation to wildlife conservation in our own neighbourhoods?

Hope For Lions

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Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

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