AFRICAT UK UPDATES

Lions (Panthera leo) are synonymous with the wild across Africa and parts of Asia. Yet few people realize that lions have undergone a catastrophic range reduction and that only about 20,000 lions remain in the wild.

World Lion Day is celebrated every year on 10 August. The day is observed around the world to raise awareness about lions and the urgent need to work towards its conservation.

Since 1997, the Namibian Lion Trust’s (formerly AfriCat North) primary activity is to mitigate Human-Wildlife Conflict, reducing livestock predation thereby minimising the need for retaliatory killing of large carnivores, especially lion. Conflict between farmer and predators is rife along the borders of the Etosha National Park.

 The Namibian Lion Trust Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation programmes apply practical, researched solutions to enable communities, livestock and lions (as well as other predators) to coexist. These solutions include ongoing Research, fitting GPS-Satellite collars on select lion to monitor movement patterns and establish home ranges, Education & Awareness, predator-proof ‘boma’ building, encouraging arid-adaptive rangeland management and the employment of local Lion Guards. Data gathered from the collars provides real-time location of individuals or groups of lion in relation to settlements, livestock herds or the ‘bomas’; the Early-Warning Systems alert the Lion Guards and farmers via text messages, enabling prevention rather than retaliation.

The Lion Guards form the Rapid Response teams that help reduce livestock predation and subsequent conflict. The cost of living with predators, elephant and others is high, yet the Conservancy model attracts eco-Tourism which holds the key to the protection of free-ranging wildlife in a natural habitat.