Zambia bans hunting of lions and leopards 10 January 2013 Last updated at 13:16 Zambia has banned the hunting of lions and leopards due to the rapid decline in its numbers of big cats. Zambia's tourism minister said there was more value in game-viewing tourism than blood sport, which brought in just $3m (£1.9m) last year. Sylvia Masebo said the country did not have enough cats for hunting purposes. "Tourists come to Zambia to see the lion and if we lose the lion we will be killing our tourism industry," she told Reuters. While lions are found in all of Zambia's major parks, their numbers are limited. There are thought to be no more than about 4,500 lions in the whole country, while the leopard population is unknown. Neighbouring Botswana is banning all sport hunting from 2014, while Kenya halted hunting for sport decades ago.