{"id":56074,"date":"2025-10-27T08:56:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T08:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/malawi-administers-contraceptives-to-lions-to-curb-growing-population\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T08:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T08:58:11","slug":"malawi-administers-contraceptives-to-lions-to-curb-growing-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/malawi-administers-contraceptives-to-lions-to-curb-growing-population\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi administers contraceptives to lions to curb growing population"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The initiative was first introduced and implemented at Majete Wildlife Reserve, located about 70 km south of the commercial city of Blantyre.<\/p>\n<p>Brighton Kumchedwa, director of the DNPW, told Xinhua in a phone interview Friday that the lion population at Majete and Liwonde wildlife reserves has increased significantly.<\/p>\n<p>He said the reserves&#8217; carrying capacity is being exceeded, with lions frequently breaking through the fence and entering surrounding communities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This has negatively impacted biodiversity, causing a decline in antelope populations due to increased predation. The contraceptives are seen as a temporary measure to manage the population surge,&#8221; said Kumchedwa.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the effects of the contraceptives are expected to last for about five years, after which the lions&#8217; reproductive systems will return to active mode. Alternative solutions are being explored for the long-term management of the lion population.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi has recorded a significant number of human-wildlife conflicts, involving animals such as hippos, crocodiles, buffaloes, and hyenas, which have resulted in the deaths of 19 people and left several others injured between January and October 2025.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-96793\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/ma-8.jpg\" alt=\"Malawi has administered contraceptives to lions to curb growing population.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malawi&#8217;s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), in partnership with African Parks, a non-profit conservation organization, has taken steps to control the booming lion population in two of the country&#8217;s wildlife reserves by administering contraceptives to lions of reproductive age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000096792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[235],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-xinhua"],"bylines":[{"id":235,"name":"Xinhua","slug":"xinhua","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":80}],"contributors":[{"id":235,"name":"Xinhua","slug":"xinhua","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":80}],"featured_image":{"id":2000096792,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/d5e8391847b14acbadd8b1b4a237357c.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/d5e8391847b14acbadd8b1b4a237357c.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/d5e8391847b14acbadd8b1b4a237357c.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/d5e8391847b14acbadd8b1b4a237357c.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/d5e8391847b14acbadd8b1b4a237357c.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/d5e8391847b14acbadd8b1b4a237357c.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000096792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56074"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56074"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}