Help Protect Free Roaming Lions in Southern Africa

Overview:

As mentioned in our previous report, much of our collaring efforts have shifted from Hwange NP in Zimbabwe to parks in South Africa.  This has been in part, due to some administrative issues making it more challenging to conduct this project in Hwange. 

SACT has provided three sat collars and has been working with Prof Jan A. Venter, Wildlife Ecology Lab – Nelson Mandela University, in conjunction with Marakele National Park (SANParks). The three satellite collars sponsored by SACT have been essential for maintaining continuity in long-term monitoring of pride dynamics in Marakele National Park. This collaring work directly supports the core objectives of the project, understanding how lions respond behaviorally and spatially in small, fenced systems, an information gap identified in a project proposal aligned with SACT’s mission to support research that strengthens lion conservation across southern Africa.

Purpose of Collar Replacements

Two resident prides in Marakele NP—the Kingfisher Pride and the Eastern Pride—held collars originally purchased under my NRF grant. Both collars showed rapidly declining battery life, risking data loss and compromised monitoring. Maintaining uninterrupted tracking is essential for:

• Mapping core and peripheral territories

• Detecting boundary shifts and contest events

• Understanding the dynamics of breakaway groups

• Supporting SANParks/Marataba in proactive management responses should lions approach boundary areas

This is fully aligned with the SACT collar-sponsorship model, which emphasizes replacing aging collars to preserve behavioral and conflict-prevention datasets

Importance of These Collars to the Research Program

The three SACT-sponsored collars are strategically placed to:

• Maintain continuous monitoring in two key prides where territory boundaries, overlap patterns, and group cohesion are under active study.
• Track a newly emerging breakaway group, which provides rare and valuable data on pride fission in fenced parks, one of the least understood behavioral processes affecting population stability.
• Serve as reference animals for upcoming playback experiments and stress analyses
• Support Marakele NP’s management needs, particularly early-warning of any pride or coalition movement toward boundary areas.

Next Steps

• Complete final collar replacement (SAT10760) once terrain access allows.

• Begin the next phase of spatial modelling using the new high-resolution GPS data streams.

• Provide the first quarterly movement summary to SACT once all three collars are active.

• Continue to integrate data with the broader A Game of Thrones multi-site comparative study.

• SACT - Marakele collaring report (PDF)