| Summary: | 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.
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