Lions (Panthera leo) that kill livestock around the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park have been persecuted for decades. The impact of this on the population ecology and long-term survival probability of this population has been unknown. This was largely due to a lack of basic population information. The results of a three-year intensive study from 1998 to 2001 into the population characteristics of Kgalagadi lions are presented. Kgalagadi lions exhibit similar population characteristics to most other lion populations and show little to no effect of anthropogenic mortality. Differences from other populations include exceptionally large home ranges (1462 ± 388 km2), which are however related to prey biomass. The adult sex ratio was more biased towards females than is typical, which is possibly a product of both ecological and anthropogenic influences. Cub survival is related to rainfall conditions and the number of adult lionesses in groups with cubs, but not to the number of adult males defending each pride. Owing to low prey abundance prides form stable subgroups typically containing two adult lionesses for long periods once cubs have reached one year of age. Kgalagadi lions show similar dispersal patterns to other lion populations with resident prey. Subadults in boundary prides suffer high mortality levels in response to livestock depredation. Males are more likely to become habitual livestock raiders,which ultimately leads to them being killed.

Population characteristics of lions ( Panthera leo ) in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park : research article

African lions (Panthera leo) and spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta) play key roles in savanna ecosystems. Habitat change, overharvesting and retaliatory killing may threaten the persistence of some populations. Climate may cause further disturbance that accentuate negative effects. Droughts weaken the ability of prey to avoid predators resulting in larger carnivore populations. We thus expected populations of African lions and spotted hyaenas to increase during a drought in Kruger National Park (Kruger). Prey that is easier to hunt during droughts may also influence age and sex structures through impacts on survival and fecundity schedules. We tested these predictions by collating information from previous studies and conducting a field call-up survey in Kruger. A severe drought in Kruger during the summer of 2015/2016 allowed pre- and post-drought comparisons. Before the drought, lion and spotted hyaena numbers increased in response to increasing prey biomass. During the drought, lions maintained their numbers, while spotted hyaena numbers increased further. There were substantially more subadult male lions after than before the drought. The abundant subadult males may induce higher incidences of human–carnivore conflict through more dispersing males in future. Our analyses highlighted immediate and lag effects of carnivores in response to droughts. 

African Large Carnivore Population Changes in Response to a Drought

Habitat loss is one of largest threats to the persistence of large carnivore populations. However, because most large carnivores are long‐lived, cryptic and wide‐ranging, few studies examine the demographic consequences of habitat loss, and the resultant crowding that ensues, on these species. We used long‐term data to examine the demographic responses of an African lion (Panthera leo) population to flooding‐induced habitat loss in a seasonal wetland, the Okavango Delta, during a transition from low to high annual flooding patterns. We found that intraspecific competition reduced cub survival and that this effect was exacerbated by habitat loss and consequent crowding. The proportion of cubs recorded in the population also declined as crowding increased, and both the survival of cubs and proportion of cubs recorded declined as prey abundance decreased. Apparent sub‐adult survival declined with increasing pride size, but this likely reflects emigration rather than mortality. Adult survival remained relatively constant throughout the study period, a population response which is important in buffering populations against short‐term fluctuations in ecological conditions. As many large carnivore populations face future habitat loss, it is important that we understand the demographic consequences of habitat loss in order to better mitigate its effects in the future.

Demographic consequences of habitat loss and crowding in large carnivores: A natural experiment

Large carnivores are experiencing range contraction and population declines globally. Prey depletion due to illegal offtake is considered a major contributor, but the effects of prey depletion on large carnivore demography are rarely tested. We measured African lion density and tested the factors that affect survival using mark-recapture models fit to six years of data from known individuals in Kafue National Park (KNP), Zambia. KNP is affected by prey depletion, particularly for large herbivores that were preferred prey for KNP lions a half-century ago. This provides a unique opportunity to test whether variables that explain local prey density also affect lion survival. Average lion density within our study area was 3.43 individuals/100 km2 (95% CI, 2.79-4.23), which was much lower than lion density reported for another miombo ecosystem with similar vegetation structure and rainfall that was less affected by prey depletion. Despite this, comparison to other lion populations showed that age- and sex-specific survival rates for KNP lions were generally good, and factors known to correlate with local prey density had small effects on lion survival. In contrast, recruitment of cubs was poor and average pride size was small. In particular, the proportion of the population comprised of second-year cubs was low, indicating that few cubs are recruited into the subadult age class. Our findings suggest that low recruitment might be a better signal of low prey density than survival. Thus, describing a lion population's age structure in addition to average pride size may be a simple and effective method of initially evaluating whether a lion population is affected by prey depletion. These dynamics should be evaluated for other lion populations and other large carnivore species. Increased resource protection and reducing the underlying drivers of prey depletion are urgent conservation needs for lions and other large carnivores as their conservation is increasingly threatened by range contraction and population declines.

Response of lion demography and dynamics to the loss of preferred larger prey.

Lion (Panthera leo) demographics in the south‐western Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

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Lion (Panthera leo) demographics in the south‐western Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park