our programs
Pride in our Prides
our programs
Lion Conservation
We take pride in our prides. We’re proud to report a decrease in lions being killed—thanks to the leadership and commitment of local communities.
On the African savannas, people have lived with wildlife since the dawn of time. However, in the last 25 years over 50% of African lions have disappeared due to conflict with people! As human populations expand, the range of lions and their prey has declined, leaving remnant, isolated populations of lions, often in closer proximity to human populations.
In southern Africa, one large continuous population still roams across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), an area which expands across five countries and multiple land-use systems. This is where we work.
Northern Botswana is located at the heart of KAZA, where lion populations show resilience in the face of high persecution.
Though lions are present, that does not mean that they are safe. Historically, communities that have experienced high levels of conflict with predators have retaliated for livestock losses (their livelihood!) by actively killing lions to “prevent” future losses. We’re working to shift that.
In 2013 for instance, villagers set poison to indiscriminately kill all area lions including juveniles and cubs. As a result, half the regional lion population was killed in a single year and these poisoned baits often kill spotted hyenas, jackals, vultures and other species. Merely reporting people for poison use will not stop the problem. We needed to work with the community to identify the root of the problem, and work together to secure safe communities and stable wildlife populations.
The problem? Livestock losses, and fear of livestock losses; herding is critical to their survival and way of life. And so we began a herding program to protect local cattle (with people, guardian animals and “boma” livestock enclosures) and provide veterinary care and better health. In exchange, participating farmers agreed not to kill predators.
Additionally, we needed to know more about where lions ranged and where conflict issues might occur.
Lion Alert System
To save cattle to save lions, we used technology. You’ve likely heard of collaring lions to get insight on where they move (which we do!). We decided to also collar cattle—and receive notifications for when the two are going to intersect, to prevent a possible conflict.
Though our community partners may live in homes made of mud and thatch, they often have cell phones. With colleagues from the University of Siegen, Germany, we also developed a first-of-its kind automated, adaptable Lion Alert System. When collared lions approach a village, villagers receive real-time warning messages via their cell phone. The alerts are linked to our determined virtual fences, called geofences, and have a radius of 5 km from the village center, a 3 km radius from a cattle post, respectively, and are automatically activated once a collared lion passes a geofence.
Currently, we have over 200 livestock owners that receive messages to their specific preferences (text or voice message) and language (Setswana or English) including the name and distance of the specific lion to a respective village or cattle post. Each livestock owner represents a homestead of 5 people, so this system directly services over 1000 people across 5 villages.
In our pilot study (see Weise et al. 2019), we found that more than 90% of the lion alert recipients perceived messages beneficial. Also, we found that through this system, villagers who heeded the warnings have reduced their conflict by 50%. Since the system became fully automated in 2019, more than 20,000 alerts have been sent. As of today, six lions are collared (4 males, 2 females) each representing a different social group.
Our work is working
Our efforts in the community have led to unprecedented stability in the prides—no known lion killing in recent years!
And what we know about local lion populations continues to grow! Support our radio collars, Lion Alerts, camera trapping and more.
