Hwange Lion Research Project

The Hwange Lion Research Project was launched in 1999. It has become one of the longest-running studies of lions as well as the longest running conservation research project in Africa. The project is under the auspices of WildCRU, which is an offshoot of the Zoology Department of Oxford University. It is no longer confined to Hwange and now supports lion conservation studies across a substantial part of the five countries making up the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.

The project has two main thrusts, firstly, understanding and maintaining the health of lion populations and secondly, mitigating human-lion conflict.

Understanding Lion Populations

Increasing human influence on natural ecosystems requires regular monitoring of animal populations in order to be able to detect and react to threatening changes. It is particularly important to understand African lions as a vital apex predator in many African ecosystems. A minimum of 50 to 100 prides with no limits to dispersal is required to maintain long-term genetic diversity in lion populations. Very few remnant populations in Africa provide anything near this number of prides. Dispersal among the populations in protected areas of KAZA is therefore critical to maintain long-term genetic health of regional lion populations.

The life histories of over 50 prides and over 40 male coalitions in and around Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe have been monitored over 25 years. In addition the project has surveyed Mana Pools, Matusadona, Zambezi, Chizarira, Chirisa Safari Area, Matetsi Safari Area and Bubye Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe. Since 2013 surveying has been extended to a number of areas in north-eastern Botswana. The project has, therefore, an extensive ID database for lions in western Zimbabwe and north-eastern Botswana, which includes over 1,200 individually identified animals. Individuals are darted so that they can be fitted with an electronic collar that provides continual information about where the lion is via satellite. While the animal is unconscious a close study is made of their vital statistics (height, weight, teeth, etc.) and health status and the information goes into the data base.

Tracking of collared lions has revealed hitherto unknown information on lion spatial movement (with certain individuals going on walkabout for hundreds and even thousands of kilometres in the region) as well as social behaviour and pride demographics, lion-prey relationships and intra-guild competition with other large carnivores.

This material has lead to crucial new understanding of lion population management and predator-prey dynamics, human impact on population dynamics and the impact of trophy hunting on lion populations and the conservation of the species.

Mitigating human-lion conflict (and increasing food security)

Wilderness conversion to agricultural areas represents one of the main drivers for the fragmentation of natural habitat and African lions are therefore at increasing risk of exposure to threats posed by contact with humans. In particular depredation of livestock frequently results in retaliatory killings of lions, contributing to lion population decline.

A vital consequence of the Lion Research Project is the formation of the Long Shields Lion Guardian Programme in Zimbabwe and the Community Guardian Programme in Botswana.  Local men and women are employed and trained as Guardians, warning villagers when lions are in the vicinity and even actively driving lions away by getting together vuvuzela-playing groups (which cause most lions to sneak off, offended by the noise).

A common factor in many conflict incidents is that domestic animals are left straying at night or are poorly protected during the day. In Zimbabwe, lion prides situated on Hwange National Park boundaries are closely monitored with GPS satellite collars that feed into an early warning system through a WhatsApp group that alerts the local Guardian who in turn gets community to move their livestock into safety in, for example, a mobile boma.

Mobile bomas consist of a great length of locally acquired tough, opaque PVC sheet supported to create the “walls” of an enclosure where communities are encouraged to gather their cattle together overnight. Lions will not jump over an obstacle if they cannot see what they are getting into on the other side so though they can smell and hear the cattle in the boma and are physically capable of leaping over the wall they will not jump, because the wall is opaque (whereas the traditional brushwood boma did not provide this level of protection because the lion could see through the wall).

An auxiliary benefit of the boma is that the concentrated supply of dung and urine from all the community’s livestock penned for a few nights creates an area of high fertility that shows benefits for several growing seasons. (Unlike traditional kraals, mobile bomas can further be placed in crop fields to selectively improve soil fertility and improve food security.) Communities are increasingly enthusiastic about having a boma set up in their area for a few nights just for the soil fertility benefits, apart from the protection from lions.

The mobile boma, therefore, provides several benefits: (1) protection of livestock from predators at night, (2) improved food security and (3) indirect reduction of lion killings in retaliation for livestock loss.

Since the start of the programme in Zimbabwe, an increase in crop yields of 30% has been recorded, while livestock predation incidents have decreased by 50% and significantly fewer lions were killed in retaliation. Results further suggest a continuous significant increase in plant size, indicating a potential long-term positive effect on crop yields.

The Hwange Lion Research Project (and its subsequent incarnations in Botswana and KAZA) continues to gather richly informative data about every aspect of lion physiology and social relations and about health of a significant number of lion populations in Zimbabwe and Botswana. At the same time it is making an important contribution to reducing human-lion conflict and simultaneously improving food security.

Source

WildCRU website and personal communications from Jane Hunt