IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Frank, L. | |
| Living with Lions on African Rangelands: One Successful Model, One Work in Progress | |
| 2007 Conference Proceeding | |
The African lion is in steep decline, due primarily to direct killing by humans in response to depredation on livestock. Outside of well-protected areas, ever expanding populations of people and domestic animals reduce wild prey, inevitably leading predators to take livestock. Although ancient traditional husbandry methods effectively protect livestock, in the absence of strong economic motivation to preserve predators, it is to rural Africans' financial advantage to eliminate them. We here describe one commercial rangeland of Kenya where ranchers using traditional practices are able to minimize losses and tolerate predators, supporting a stable population of lions at a density of 0.6-0.7/km2. Tolerance is the product of both lucrative ecotourism and a strong conservation ethic, and shows that Living With Lions is not difficult if livestock producers are motivated to take the necessary measures. We describe a second Kenyan rangeland where traditional pastoralists gain neither financial nor psychological benefits from predators, and have driven lions to very low numbers, approximately 0.01/km2, in spite of a rich wild prey base. However, recent economics-based conservation initiatives show significant promise; the trend in lions numbers is strongly positive, as are expressed attitudes of the people, who are now beginning to realize financial benefits from lions. |
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