By Brian Courtenay | Chairman
Collaring six prides and one male coalition in Pilanesberg and Marakele National Parks during 2023 completed phase one of our Game of Thrones Lion Project. We then shifted our focus to Kruger National Park in 2024 where our team’s initial task was to count lions and identify all the prides south of the Olifants River – a massive effort. Once we had a good grip on pride whereabouts, we set to work getting a collar onto one adult female individual per pride. In this, we have partnered with the State Veterinary Services, Contemplate Wild, and SANPARKS Wildlife veterinary services to deploy 25 collars over pre-identified focus areas in the southern part of Kruger National Park. The bonus of this partnership is that the data is not only used for research but each collared lion also serves as a sentinel assisting SANPARKS with their anti-poaching efforts. Two types of collars are used. We deploy SigFox in areas where reception is particularly suited to these collars, and the SACT-sponsored AWT Satellite Collars in areas without SigFox reception. Genetic samples from all lions collared will be used to assess the population’s genetic status and for the experiments regarding the effect of relatedness on pride rivalry. Special thanks and recognition must go to all our sponsors, whose support drives this vital work on behalf of Africa’s remaining wild lion populations.
Severe drought ravaged Zimbabwe during much of last year, and conditions are expected to reach into the year ahead. In Hwange National Park this makes finding lions even more difficult than usual since these cats take refuge from the unrelenting heat using dense undergrowth. Consequently, only two of our five donated collars have thus far been deployed. Africa Geographic’s three recently sponsored collars – donated in the names of their 2024 photographic competition winners – have already been allocated for fitment to three lions identified by the WildCRU/Oxford University team as needing monitoring. The search for these three lions continues but, given the current conditions, collaring is now only likely to happen in the months ahead. Our two other sponsored collars in Hwange have been deployed on problem lions Hangano and Chifamba. Jane Hunt of the Wildcat Trust has provided us with a brief report on the conflict lioness Hangano: AWT 7537. Nervous after her capture and collaring, Hangano continues to evade physical sightings, but the video segment on this page shows us her movement from June to November 2024.
By Brian Courtenay | Chairman
By Brian Courtenay | Chairman
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