Protect Our Prides
Lion Guards & GPS-Satellite collars keep Lions Alive and
farmers, with their livestock, Safe…
The Lion is uniquely a social cat, typically forming Prides comprising of 2-4 adult males, several adult females and a number of sub-adults and cubs. The Lion Prides of Namibia’s North West may only have 1 or 2 females and their offspring, that occasionally meet up with a territorial or nomadic male. Lion numbers fluctuate depending on available natural prey, oftentimes in conflict with farmers when livestock present an easy option, especially when they are not herded and protected at night in predator-proof ‘bomas’.
To read more about our Predator-Proof ‘Bomas’, please follow the link below.
The Namibia Large Carnivore Atlas (Ministry of Environment & Tourism, 2012) estimates the Namibian Lion population to consist of ca 1113 – 1644 lion in three density distribution categories: low, medium and high.
The Kunene and Etosha sub-populations are isolated from the Caprivi/Khaudom gene-pool. The Hobatere Concession Area (hereafter referred to as Hobatere) lies adjacent to western Etosha, with the Hobatere lion population falling within the Etosha sub-population and in the medium to high density category.
To date, Namibia has done well in
keeping its lion numbers stable...
However, unsustainable trophy hunting and poaching for the Illegal Wildlife Trade, still present challenges. In addition, most lion are killed in Human-Wildlife Conflict. The persistent drought and increased temperatures escalate tensions between farmers and lion; also, the expansion of farmlands and settlements, overgrazing by livestock in competition with indigenous grazers such as Oryx and Zebra, and bushmeat harvest, result in lion and other large predators opportunistically taking easier prey. This naturally brings them closer to human habitation. Since the lion instinctively follows prey species and is seldom restricted by boundaries, they may roam from Protected Areas onto communal farmland in search of food.
Please note that not all trophy hunting is unsustainable.
Interestingly, a number of lion and other large carnivores live outside of Protected Areas on communal Conservancy farmland; thus these predators, farmers and their livestock may share the same habitat. This makes it all the more important to be able to co-exist.
When large carnivores attack domestic stock, they are often hunted down in retaliation; this response by communities to such wildlife incidents is often as a result of fear, frustration and a lack of alternative solutions but to destroy the perpetrator. A negative perception of the lion as well as the other so-called ‘conflict species’, contributes to an aggressive attitude toward these animals.
Loss of habitat, lack of natural prey and revenge killings are the main reasons for lion endangerment.
In order to mitigate and reduce the intensified conflict between human and lion, the Namibian Lion Trust sets out to educate, guide and advise the farming community, on communal and free-hold farmland, at the same time protecting, monitoring and studying lion and their behaviour.