The African lion (Panthera leo, Linnaeus 1758) is in a serious decline in Africa and is listed as vulnerable with habitat loss and livestock conflict as main threats (IUCN, 2009). Lion numbers are declining rapidly in Ethiopia (Gebresenbet et al., 2009; Bruche et al., 2013), largely due to conflict with humans over livestock and habitat loss. A few hundred wild lions in few confined areas in southern Ethiopia are left today and no reliable scientific estimates yet. This indicates that immediate conservation actions are urgently needed in order to preserve the lion population in the country (Bruche et al., 2013).

There is a very limited research related to lions and research to determine the factors that lead to human-lion conflict is needed in order to design effective mitigation strategies. Reliable estimates of lion population are important for effective lion conservation and management. Abundance and density of lions will be established with calling stations (Bauer, 2007). Semi-structured interviews will be used for randomly selected 1,000 households. For random selection we will list the households and draw the numbers from the list. Questions include livestock owned, livestock management, the time of day of each attack, the carnivore species involved, the species and number of all livestock killed, location and season of attack, human attack and time of livestock depredation. For economic estimation the species, age, number, and sex of livestock losses will be recorded, quantified and values converted to US$ based on the average market price from livestock traders.