Last night, lions, bears, tigers and other dangerous animals escaped from a preserve in Zanesville, OH. The local police have warned residents to stay indoors — and remain alert.

Last year, Fresh Air ran a piece on the dangers of owning exotic animals.

Audio for Terry’s interview with Beverly and Dereck Joubert about the possibility of lions becoming extinct in the near future is now up. (Beverly’s photographs)

In 1960, there were 400,000 lions living in the wild. Today, there are just 20,000.

“That represents a 90 to 95 percent decline,” says National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dereck Joubert. “Unless we start talking about this, these lions will be extinct within the next 10 or 15 years.”

Long lens? Or photographer with nerves of steel?

A deleted scene from The Last Lions, a film by Dereck and Beverly Joubert. The documentary filmmakers will be on Fresh Air tomorrow to discuss their movie, which follows a lioness and her cubs left to fend for themselves after the father of the cubs is killed. (Another deleted scene)

The Circle of Life: Next week, we’re going to talk to National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Beverly and Dereck Joubert about their latest documentary, The Last Lions.