The Behavior And Economic Importance Of Lions:The Case Of Sidist Kilo Lions?�? Zoo, Addis Ababa

Abstract

The study of behavior and economic benefits of Sidist Kilo Lion’s Zoo was carried out from March toJune,2017 atSidistKilo animal Zoo of Addis Ababa. The main objective of the study was to assess certain behavioral characteristics, and its economic contributions of captive lions in Sidist Kilo LionsZoo forAddisAbaba and national economy by large. Hence, the onsite observation, semi structured questionnaires, interview and secondary documents of the zoo were used as a source of data. theprovision of contraceptives for the lions leads them to the declining of lion’s population. For that matter the expansion of the zoo declines, as well as the revenue earned from foreign and domestic tourists decline. Moreover, lions have behaviorally 105 day’s gestation period, male lions took long resting hours than females. In contrast, female lions took much more water than malesthe resting time for male lions were 52% and for female lions were 48%. Thus, male lions took more resting time than females; average walking hours were 6.3and respectively. 7.4 For male and female lions and some conservation measures crowdedness due to small habitat needs to be solved, which had already started recently, nutritionally, lions should be provided with additional feed such as calcium phosphate, environmental disturbance such as sound pollution can be also minimized by using No sound symbols or cautions.Even if lions naturally need undisturbed space to survive, they are top of the food chain and their distribution is fundamentally linked to that of their various prey species butregarding to Sidist Kilo Lions Zoo the researcherobserved different informal behaviors of captive lions with in the confined spacesuch as restlessness, desire to attack human and rubbing their body to the wall of the cage.The obtained result revealed that poor handling of the lions due to lack of trained veterinarian and care givers, exposed these captive lions for different diseases. Based on these finding s recommendationswere made, stake holdersshould work cooperatively to encourage the development of opportunities for economic and social benefits of the society from responsibly captive lion populations in Sidist Kilo Lions Zoo and to maintain the population of lions in the zoo. Accidents that happen by sudden attack of lions should be minimized through trainings to keep the safety of care givers. Likewise,feeding trends was also contributed to the existing problems that lions in Sidist Kilo Zoo suffered with. Because,they feed with only meat every day that was not supported by additional diets such as calcium phosphate.