Prized for their rarity, many white lions were moved from the wild for a documented 6 decades, and put into captive breeding, hunting programs or event sent to zoos. The frequency of occurrence of white lions in the region was increasing in the 1980s, with 12 recorded sightings in 9 different prides. However, following further forced removals, the last documented birth of a white lion was in 1991, after which a period of a decade and a half passed without further recorded reoccurrences. Thanks to the Global White Lion Protection Trust work, white cubs started being born in the wild again since 2006.