The Last Lions

Get an intimate look at the lives of lions in this wildlife photography coffee table book featuring 275 breathtaking photos!

Lion experts and conservationists issue a hopeful call to save one of the animal kingdom's most remarkable creatures.

Lions are majestic, fierce, and dying at an alarming rate. The estimated population of 500,000 wild lions that lived in Africa in the 1950s has plummeted to around 20,000 today. The Last Lions is a powerful rallying cry voiced by scientists and conservationists to save the lions before it's too late, with stunning wildlife photography.

Alongside 275 extraordinary images that capture the lions' distinctive beauty and strength, the book offers a sweeping exploration of the biology and behavior of lions, and the urgent work to protect them, including:

• Impacts of the lion trade, lion farming, cub petting, canned hunting, and the lion bone trade

• Past and present distribution and geography

• Rare white lions

• Frontline conservation efforts

• Dynamics and behaviors

• Paleontological history

• The future of lions

With wildlife photography that allows readers to peer intimately into the lives of lions and their prides--including ferociously taking down their prey, napping in trees, and nuzzling each other--the stunning photography inspires advocacy. Chapters from lion experts, including a foreword from nature writer David Quammen, share personal experiences witnessing and working with them, reckon with the continual threats to lions and the efforts to counteract them, and explore the relationship between people, lions, and the land. The Last Lions is an unforgettable homage to one of the world's most magnificent animals, and an essential call to ensure their future.

Author: Don Pinnock
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
Published: 09/16/2025
Pages: 488
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 3.85lbs
Size: 10.00h x 8.40w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781588348050


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 07/01/2025 pg. 72

About the Author
DON PINNOCK is a historian, criminologist, environmental journalist, and photographer; has served as editor of the travel magazine Getaway; and is the author of eighteen books, including coauthoring The Last Elephants. He has won two Mondi Awards, the City Press Non-Fiction Award, and was shortlisted for the European Union Literary Award. COLIN BELL landed his first job as a safari guide in Botswana in 1977. He is a passionate wildlife conservationist and has coauthored two books on wildlife and the environment - Africa's Finest and The Last Elephants.