A rise in human disturbance in Comoé National Park (CNP) has led to lion (Panthera leo) extirpation. After the crisis, there have been numerous efforts to restore this ecosystem and CNP's management authority is considering reintroducing lions. This ideally requires an understanding of the earlier process of lion extirpation. We assessed the causes of lion extirpation through semi-structured questionnaires to 307 volunteer participants in surrounding 23 villages. Respondents reported that lions were extirpated two decades ago (19.75 years ± 8.15). Bouna was the sector that lions seem to have disappeared first (mean = 23.61 years ± 9.14) and recently on Nassian and Téhini sectors (mean = 18.43 years ± 8.17 and 18.74 years ± 6.74 respectively). People identified civil war from 2002 as the main facilitator of lion extirpation (85%; n = 261), which led to the abandonment of CNP, and opened the way for all forms of anthropogenic pressures including illegal hunting and prey depletion (70%; n = 216), illegal gold mining (74%; n = 227), direct lion killing due to transhumance and human-wildlife conflict (15%; n = 45), and wildfires (23%; n = 72). Historically, prey density curves show a progressive decrease with a drastic drop during the civil war period before a post-crisis recovery from 2016 to 2022. We recommend intensifying CNP monitoring and local measures to limit anthropogenic disturbances and improve indigenous communities' involvement to ensure the success of potential lion reintroduction.

中文翻译：

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社区对科特迪瓦科莫埃国家公园狮子 Panthera leo 灭绝因素的了解（西非）

科莫埃国家公园 (CNP) 的人类干扰加剧导致狮子 ( Panthera leo ) 灭绝。危机过后，人们为恢复这一生态系统做出了许多努力，CNP 的管理当局正在考虑重新引入狮子。理想情况下，这需要了解狮子灭绝的早期过程。我们通过半结构化问卷向周围 23 个村庄的 307 名志愿者参与者评估了狮子灭绝的原因。受访者报告说，狮子在二十年前就被灭绝了（19.75 年±8.15 年）。布纳 (Bouna) 是狮子最先消失的地区（平均 = 23.61 年 ± 9.14 岁），最近在纳西安 (Nassian) 和泰希尼 (Téhini) 地区消失（平均分别 = 18.43 年 ± 8.17 岁和 18.74 年 ± 6.74 岁）。人们认为 2002 年以来的内战是狮子灭绝的主要推动者（85%；n  = 261），这导致了 CNP 的废弃，并为各种形式的人为压力开辟了道路，包括非法狩猎和猎物耗尽（70%；n = 261）。n  = 216）、非法金矿开采（74%；n  = 227）、因放牧和人类与野生动物冲突而直接猎杀狮子（15%；n  = 45）和野火（23%；n  = 72）。从历史上看，猎物密度曲线显示，2016年至2022年的内战时期，在危机后恢复之前，猎物密度逐渐下降，急剧下降。我们建议加强CNP监测和当地措施，限制人为干扰，提高土著社区的参与度，以确保潜在狮子重新引入的成功。