The morning sun slants through the canopy of Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park as Sgt. Abdou Diouf and his brigade of rangers march in single file, guns at the ready. They scan the brush for signs of poachers, but today, it seems, the only hunters are the lions themselves, their fresh tracks pressed into the sand.
As the sun climbs, a guttural call reverberates across the forest. The rangers pause. “Lions,” Diouf says.
