Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
25 September 2024 | 18:03 CAT

The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies lions as vulnerable. They face threats from habitat loss, climate change, and human conflict.

Counting lions in the Kruger National Park is vital for conservation. Knowing how many lions there are in a specific area is important for conservation efforts to ensure the survival of this iconic species. One way to obtain this information is to get into a jeep, drive around and count every lion you see. This is exactly what Alison Govaerts, a doctoral student in Conservation Ecology within the Wildlife Free to Roam research group at Stellenbosch University (SU), is doing.

In an interview with Radio Islam International, Govaerts explains how she identifies individual lions during a count.

Govaerts says the only way to identify lions is to focus on their whisker spots, like fingerprints. She points out that the top row of the whisker spots is unique to each individual and remains the same throughout the animal’s life. Because the spots on the left and right sides of the lion’s face are different, they are photographed using cameras with big lenses.

As each lion in this spatial capture-recapture survey is identified, Govaerts and the EWT team have the advantage that they never count a lion twice.

Govaerts, who hails from Belgium, is also the co-lead of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) ‘s lion spatial capture-recapture survey. She and the EWT team are counting lions in the central parts of Kruger National Park to estimate their numbers in the area in collaboration with South African National Parks and with financial support from the Lion Recovery Fund.

Govaerts says she and the EWT team usually set off at sunrise and drive around to find lions. She doesn’t mind spending hours spotting a lion because she loves carnivores and African wildlife. Before coming to the Kruger National Park, she studied lions in the Limpopo National Park (Mozambique) and baboons in Kasanka National Park (Zambia).

According to Govaerts, counting lions in Kruger National Park is an important step in conserving the species, which is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

She adds that there have always been estimates of the number of lions in Africa, but it is hard to know how many there are. These are estimates and not based on counts.

“The Kruger National Park is very big and there are a lot of lions there, but you have to monitor all the populations, even small, big, protected or those outside the parks to know what the situation is. Because for example, climate change, conflict with humans or habitat loss can impact populations faster than we think, and lions cannot easily bounce back from severe populations declines.”

Govaerts says that although African lion populations have declined, they still do well in some areas. The danger is that once they reach a certain threshold, they cannot recover.

Govaerts adds that once they finish the survey by the end of September, they will have a clearer picture of the distribution of lions throughout the Kruger National Park.

Listen here to the full interview on Your World Today with Muallimah Annisa Essack and  Alison Govaerts.