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.

For more than two months the Lion Rangers have been working overtime to monitor the movements of these elusive lions, while keeping local farmers informed of the lion’s movements. The farmers are to be commended for their tolerance, living very close to this previously uncollared pride of unfamiliar lions. The Lion Rangers careful tracking has yielded interesting behavioral insights. Among these has been clear evidence of coordinated hunting by the group, making particular use of specific landscape features, such as kopjes and riverbeds to funnel zebra towards other members of the pride. Near the Okazorongua farming area, the Lion Rangers and Research Team were able to re-create one successful hunt of a zebra, whereby the pride female chased the zebra through a riverbed and towards the waiting subadults, lying in wait on a nearby sunken road. Two of the three subadults succeeded in taking down and killing the zebra, who was seen being consumed by the pride some hours later. The following night, while monitoring the lions, the Research Team witnessed another similar hunt, with the pride female and subadults taking up similar positions. In this case the zebra escaped. These important observations support previous research by Dr. Stander in Etosha of lions engaged in coordinated hunting.

As part of supporting the local communities, the Lion Rangers Research Team, in partnership with MEFT veterinarian Dr. Sandra Shikumba, successfully deployed GPS/satellite collars to three of the four lions. These collars provide lion location data to MEFT staff and researchers and geofence alerts to the Lion Rangers and local farmers, to help keep the community informed of the lions’ movements. This is an important part of keeping humans, livestock, and lions safe and limiting human-lion conflict.

Thanks to the local communities for supporting our work and to MEFT for overseeing and facilitating this work.