Hooded, immobilized lioness during collaring, April 2023.
The Lion Rangers are responsible for monitoring the movements of lions across northwest Namibia. This population is dynamic and includes occasional influxes of lions from neighboring Etosha National Park. Over the recent weeks, the Lion Rangers of Orupupa, Omatendeka, and Ehi-rovipuka, have been partnering with staff from the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) to monitor a group of four lions that have come from Etosha to the communal lands. These four lions, one adult female and three subadults (two males, one female) were formerly residents of Etosha’s Dolomite area. Starting in late January they have expanded their home range to include the mountainous communal areas bordering the park.
During the past week all 49 Lion Rangers and the Leadership Team came together for our annual training. Building on the success of last year’s Law Enforcement and SMART training, this year we focused on Lion Ranger life outcomes as well as skills development.
Lions have long inhabited Namibia’s Etosha National Park. Over the past half-century their numbers have fluctuated greatly. Gail Thomson, of the Namibian Chamber of the Environment‘s publication Conservation Namibia, recently published a blogpost distilling much of the history of lions in Etosha. This post recaps a recent paper co-authored by Lion Rangers’ Research Director John Heydinger, along with Craig Packer and Paul Funston, which was published in 2022 by the Namibian Journal of Environment. You can view the whole paper here. Thanks to the Namibian Chamber of Environment for highlighting this research.
Desert-adapted lioness near Ganamub river, November 2022.
A recent paper, co-authored by conservationists at the Namibian Chamber of Environment, examines human-wildlife conflict at a national level. This interesting mapping and analysis shines a light on some of the unique challenges of human-lion conflict – in particular the need for locally-based approaches to mitigate, manage, and prevent human-lion conflict. The exercise sought to identify whether certain environmental variables could meaningfully predict when and where human-lion conflict would take place. In the results Tavolaro et al. write “no predictor variable was found to have a significant effect on number of annual reports of livestock depredation by lion[.]” They continue in the discussion, “[n]one of the predictors for livestock depredation [for all carnivore species] were statistically significant, which could be because impacts are so pervasive and widespread across such diverse landscapes and farm management systems…that no variable or set of variables can explain the spatial variability patterns…This suggests that drivers of livestock depredation need to be explored at a finer scale (i.e., regional or conservancy level) for an improved understanding and subsequent mitigation.”
These findings underscore the importance of a locally-based approach to limiting human-lion conflict. With no predictable environmental patterns to draw-upon, lion movements, livestock movements, and human-lion conflict require eyes and boots on-the-ground. This is the approach of the Lion Rangers program.
How lions are perceived by the communities living alongside them is critical to implementing successful lion conservation. In a recently released article, “Seeing Lions in a Different Light,” John Heydinger provides insight into the challenges conservancy farmers face living alongside lions. This short article, which can be found in the Namibia Chamber of Environment‘s annual publication, Conservation and the Environment in Namibia, is based on intensive social surveys among conservancy members within the core range of Namibia’s desert-adapted lions. Most revealing, conservancy members contextualize lion numbers and human-lion conflict in certain ways, linked to the region’s history and environmental politics. A more thorough treatment of the topic is currently being published by Cambridge University Press. A draft is available here, on the Lion Rangers site.
Late 19th century colonial map of northwest Namibia. Namibia National Archives.
Environment and History has just published an article by Lion Rangers Program founder Dr. John Heydinger on the history of livestock ownership in northwest Namibia. This and other research emanating from the Lion Rangers program undergirds our historically-informed perspective . This includes our commitment to addressing human-lion conflict and lion conservation in northwest Namibia as a series of challenges taking place within a human landscape. Please read and circulate any and all of our research to those who may find it interesting.
NPL-34 and NPL-35 with two uncollared lions, Anabeb Conservancy, December 2022.
After nearly sixty days in the field, the Northwest Lion Population Survey completed this past week. Teams of Lion Rangers and MEFT staff have been working incredibly hard and it has paid off. More than 22,000 sq km have been covered by foot and vehicle. Every known lion in Kunene was observed and photographed, as well as some unexpected encounters. Lion Rangers from across the different conservancies partnered together, with many showing-off their tracking skills in areas they have not previously visited. Preliminary results indicate that the lion population of northwest Namibia is fairing well, even in the face of diminished prey numbers. Individuals and groups appear healthy, many lions were observed at recent kills, and we are heartened by the number of young cubs and conspicuously pregnant females. In the coming months lead researchers Uakendisa Muzuma and Dr. John Heydinger will be performing analysis and write-up of survey results, to be submitted to MEFT management. Watch this space for more information.
Video of desert-adapted cubs and lionesses, Etendeka Concession, December 2022.
Teams from the Northwest Lion Population Survey continued working to identify as many lions as possible across the Kunene Region. During week 8 our teams focused on the farming areas of eastern Anabeb Conservancy, where groups of lions have been splitting and re-forming recently. Further east Lion Rangers performed extensive foot patrols across the vast spaces of Ehi-rovipuka and Omatendeka conservancies. While no known lions were thought to be in these areas, our approach focused on landscape coverage to minimize the likelihood of unknown and unnoticed individuals. Over the Christmas and New Years holidays to Lion Rangers and MEFT staff worked tirelessly to complete this operation, with some great initial results. Particularly within Anabeb numerous collared and uncollared lions were observed and photographed.
Lion Rangers Matarakuni “Lorrie” Kavetu and Esau Tjeundo
The Lion Rangers are please to announce that Ehi-rovipuka Lion Rangers, Matarakuni “Lorrie” Kavetu and Esau Tjeundo have been selected as Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism Assistant Rangers.
We begin the eastern portion of the Northwest Lion Population Survey focusing on the conservancies of ≠Khoadi-//Hoas, Omatendeka, and Orupupa. For these remaining weeks, three teams are responsible for different areas along the escarpment and bordering Etosha National Park. In recent years this has been the main area of human-lion conflict in the northwest, as well as containing the majority of lions in Kunene. During this first week we observed and photographed lions across the area – the groups appear to be thriving.
