We are making progress: The CKGR-team achieved important goals concerning their research. Keitumetse, one of the local researchers, is an important connection between farmers and wildlife. He was able to establish good relations with local cattle farmers, which are one of the most important prerequisites for developing sustainable solutions in the farmer-predator conflict. To enable preventive actions for solving the conflict, our GPS-collars are of essential help to monitor the spatial distribution of our lion prides. They help us to gather important basic knowledge about the movements of the Boteti lions and therefore teach us a lot about Botswana’s lion population. To find out more about these animals and in order to expand the project, we urgently need more GPS-collars – please support us with a donation!

Lion researcher Keitumetse Ngaka (middle): His first meeting with the local farmers in the Boteti area went very well. Being a Motswana, Keitumtese opened the doors for better communication concerning the lion-farmer conflict.

Project goals

Protection, research and monitoring of the lions and the veterinary fence in the Boteti area.

Project background

The lion population of the Makgadikgadi is one of the most threatened populations in southern Africa (Hemson, 2003; Botswana Predator Management Strategy, 2009). Several lion populations in Botswana are being threatened by humans. Despite human persecution, the population sizes are stable, being located inside protected areas (Botswana Predator Management Strategy, 2009). In the near future, it is rather unlikely that the lion population sizes decrease to a worrying number in these regions.

Cattle outside the National Park, on the other side of the newly installed electrified cattle fence.

The smaller Makgadikgadi National Park (MNP) with an estimated population size of about 50 adult lions might not be as robust as that. The population seems prone to a decrease in numbers, which could even lead to the extinction of lions in this area (Hemson, 2003). The lions in the Boteti area are partly threatened. The most recent extension of the electrified wildlife fence along the western border of MNP in 2007 seeks to reduce the potential for conflict between predators and humans and to protect the lion population (Figure 1). However, the fence became permeable due to predator-caused holes in and under the fence and does not prevent the animals from leaving the protected area. They are still crossing the barrier looking for easy prey in the form of livestock of local cattle farmers. The lions are not safe on the outside of the fence and are shot by furious farmers when they catch them stock-raiding (Figure 2). The fact that the ancient Boteti River started flowing again in 2009 lead to further damage on the fence. However, in present days, the river itself represents a barrier between lions and cattle.

Our aims for the Makgadikgadi research project

1. Monitoring of the Boteti lion population, evaluating the degree of human persecution as well as counting resident lions in the region
2. Warning the Government as soon as the number of animals sinks to a critical level
3. Investigating the real-time movement pattern of the lions along the fence. Knowledge is needed about when and where they cross the fence and roam outside the protected area. Using real-time data we can follow their tracks. If necessary, we can alarm the Department of Wildlife and National Park to catch the lions and mitigate the conflict between stock-raiding lions and farmers.
4. Investigating the effects of the electric fence and the Boteti River on the lion population. Special attention will be paid to the effectiveness of fencing for conservation and the utilization of fencing as a tool to solve the conflict.
5. Finding more solutions to reduce the human-wildlife conflict and to sustainably protect the lion population for the long term.
6. In cooperation with local tourism operators we want to draw attention to the ineffectiveness of the fence as a barrier so far. We want to achieve maintenance efforts at the fence to reduce the number of lions that cross the fence line. Hence, we want to reduce the risk for lions being shot.

Review and progress of the last 3 months (as at April 2011)

Elephants, coming from the Delta, do not respect the new, unnatural barrier and break the fence down. They do serious damage to the fence, enabling predators to cross the Park’s border easily.

The project made good progress in the last three months. Keitumetse Ngaka started with his biological field work and is studying the lions in the Boteti area as part of his master’s thesis at the University of Botswana. The overall topic of his master’s thesis is: “How did the fence and the river influence the spatial distribution, the predatory behavior and the pride structure of lions?” Furthermore, Keitumetse is monitoring the real-time fence transgressions of individual lions. He seeks to find a more sustainable alternative to the permeable fence, in order to solve the conflict between predators and farmers.

Recent investigations are focusing on three adult lions from two different prides: The southern pride and the Meno A Kwena „Meno“ pride, both of which were collared within our project. One collared female, together with some other lions of the northern pride were shot in 2009 (see figure 6 & 7). This year, several lions have been shot as well – however, exact numbers are unknown. Therefore, the project also seeks to estimate human-caused mortality more precisely, in order to assess the potential threat to the lion population and its survival. As soon as we have more accurate numbers of lions being shot we can be proactive and crack down on the shooting of lions in the region. Anyway, since many cattle farms are situated in very close proximity to the borders of the National Park, this region has the highest level of conflict between predators and farmers in Botswana.

The yellow dots show the movements of an adult lioness in the dry season 2010, when the zebra herds were abundant in her territory. The blue dots represent her movements during the rainy season, when the zebras are not present in the region.

Movement pattern of a lioness of the northern pride outside the park. During these days, the Boteti River was dry and the zebra herds have moved back to their rainy season grazing areas. Today, the movement pattern has changed a lot due to the abundance of water.

Due to technical problems it was not possible to download the data of the „Meno“ pride collar. Therefore, we are planning to replace it with a satellite-collar, which would sort out the problems in this region concerning bad signal strength.

This picture has been taken in the Boteti region in June 2009, when the water reached the Khumaga area for the first time after 20 years. The Makgadikgadi National Park is situated on the other side of the river.

One of the southern pride’s females is equipped with a cell phone-collar, which delivers real-time information about her and the pride’s movement pattern. Since the zebra herds left the region due to their seasonal migration rhythm in December, the pride spent most of its time along the river, up to 45 km south of Khumaga village. Unfortunately, this specific region does not have cell phone coverage all the time and the reception of the collar is interrupted quite frequently. The map in figure 4 shows the movement patterns of one lioness of the southern pride between July 2010 and April 2011. Recently (13th and 14th March 2011), this lioness crossed the fence for the first time and roamed far into the adjacent cattle post area, probably with the aim to kill livestock. However, the core area of her home range still remains inside the National Park.

In 2009, researcher Glyn Maude collared the first lioness… a satellite collar that enables us to follow the lioness and her pride via the internet in real-time. Daily emails with her current location help us to document the movement pattern of the animals.

In 2009, researcher Glyn Maude collared the first lioness… a satellite collar that enables us to follow the lioness and her pride via the internet in real-time. Daily emails with her current location help us to document the movement pattern of the animals. Before the river started flowing again in June 2009, the lions of this pride preferably roamed west of the Park to hunt livestock on the cattle farms. Hence, after the river started flowing and the fence was installed, we found a very interesting change in their spatial usage of the area. However, the lions still hunt cattle and donkeys that are grazing close to the Park’s border. Most incidences happen when livestock crosses the river to graze on the Park’s side. At the same time, these are the areas where the fence is in very bad condition so that it is very easy for lions to cross it. There is still a significant, but badly documented amount of lion-farmer conflict and, at the same time, a decrease in the number of lions that live in the Boteti region.

Outlook – research in the next three months

But this lioness did not survive long – only 5 months after collaring she was shot by a farmer because she killed one of his cows.

Our main focus for the next months lies on the work of Keitumetse, who needs more data to answer the key questions of his master’s thesis. In his thesis he wants to investigate the influence of the veterinary fence on the spatial distribution of lions in his study area, on their nutrition as well as their pride structures. Therefore, it is very important to collar more pride members of the area and analyze the movements along and outside the fence. Furthermore, we want to change the collar of the “Meno A Kwena” lioness to a satellite-collar as soon as possible. Unfortunately, these lions are very shy, so that our first attempt to change the collar failed. We reckon that we will have to catch these really shy lions of the Boteti with snares. During similar research projects in Kenia, these have been proven to be very effective and not dangerous for the lions. In order to achieve the best possible results, our goal is to collar one male and one female in each of the three Boteti prides with either a radio- or a satellite-collar until December 2011.