ABSTRACT
Colonial occupation magnified the consequences for wildlife of European penetration of Africa. The desire of colonising countries to make their African possessions pay, through the development of settlement and cash crop agriculture, reduced habitat available to wildlife. Ungulates were seen as competitors with livestock or sources of disease, and were exterminated and excluded from areas of cultivation. They were also used as a source of meat and hides to consume or sell, tiding settlers over until their crops could be marketed. Lions were treated both as vermin and a quarry for sports hunters. The combination of wildlife habitat loss and depletion, and the very direct persecution of lions had a significant and lasting effect. This was mirrored in India, where lion ranges across northern and western areas were reduced to a single, small population.
