Help Protect Free Roaming Lions in Southern Africa

December 2024

SACT ''COLLAR A LION '' – PROJECT UPDATE

As the drought continues across Zimbabwe in particular in Hwange National Park, finding or spotting lions becomes even more difficult – lions take refuge from the unrelenting heat / sun, by using dense undergrowth / shade, making life challenging for our lion researchers in Hwange. I have recently returned from a trip to Hwange, and can confirm, incredibly dry and hot. So, we have not been able to deploy as yet the 3 Satellite Tracking Collars sponsored by Africa Geographic and the three AG 2024 photo competition winners. Our research team continues to search for the 3 identified lions needing to be collared and monitored – this I feel will now only happen in early 2025. The one conflict lioness, Hangano AWT 7537 we have managed to get a brief update report from Jane Hunt-Wildcat Trust on the lion project, see below, and a great link report on the daily movements of this lioness. Hangano continues to evade human detection, but the computer printout (attached) shows us her movement, we hope to have both our Kruger and Hwange lions on this system in 2025 to share with our sponsors. The attached report from Jane and the movement link are very useful and interesting, to activate, click on the right-side panel on attached – this shows movement from June to November 2024.

If anyone of our sponsors require more info, please do not hesitate to contact me on email, elephant@satib.co.za – I will gladly assist. A full report on the 7 collared Kruger Lions (the project name has changed to Kruger's Pride) and an update on the Hwange Lions early in January 2025 – watch this space. We are printing 20,000 educational comics,''VUSA The Lion Guardian'' in support of this program, the educational comics sponsored by the Briandez Legacy Trust and the Lion Recovery Fund – USA for which we thank you most sincerely.

May I take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support and wish you all a safe festive season and prosperous New Year 2025.

Brian Courtenay

Southern African Conservation Trust .

Email – elephant@satib.co.za

-------------------------------------------

Hangano Conflict Lioness – 7537 Update.

This collared lioness is moving in and out of the park. She seems to be going out of the park to raid livestock that are being pushed far into the state land around Nengasha, Tshokomela, Inyantue and Mambanje river areas. There seems to be a lot of stray livestock in these areas as reported to me by the guys who have this area on council lease from HRDC for trophy hunting. Communities are very short of grazing for their livestock due to this year’s drought. No one has seen her since her release in February 2024, but have reported seeing her spoor. Steve Alexander has a few of his APU guys deployed in this area and I have given several of her GPS location stats to be checked out and ground truthed, and find out whether they are kill sites, snare lines, den site or whatever. We are worried that if she persists in moving out in these areas that she will be snared. This is a notoriously bad area for these activities. We have lost over 20 lions in this same area over the time that the project has run, over the last 25 years, and these are just the ones we have known of.

We know she is still moving by herself, as we would expect, as lionesses nearly never join with others, from seeing just single spoor.

When she returns to the park she is using the Inyantue area to the Lukosi river system in the Sinamatela area. Luckily, at the start of November she started to move back into the park and has moved through the Inyantue and Tshompani areas and is now back east of Mandavu dam.  All points visited by The APU unit were found to be shady rest spots only, so that is good news.

• SACT_Collar_A_Lion_Project_Update_Q42024.pdf (PDF)