Identifying leading causes of lion mortality in East Africa

Human induced lion-mortality by pastoralists living in the periphery of protected areas in East Africa is having a great negative impact on human-lion conflict and ultimately existing carnivore populations. I summarized lion... [ view full abstract ]

Human induced lion-mortality by pastoralists living in the periphery of protected areas in East Africa is having a great negative impact on human-lion conflict and ultimately existing carnivore populations. I summarized lion population trends in the different Lion Guardian sites where lion abundance has been measured and compared to data on frequency of mortalities by humans through retaliatory attacks/cultural practices as well as competition, disease and age. I collated lion mortality records from the Lion Guardian organisation from three different sites (Amboseli, Tarangire and Ruaha National Parks) for ~6 years (2008-2014), which have been recorded by scouts within 24 hours of mortality incidences, indicating causes of death. I then compared this records with existing lion relative abundance records collected by the scouts based on spoor counts and observation, as well as other sources like KWS and TAWIRI. I further developed linear regression models under the main assumption that lion ecology was relatively similar across the sites to check the effect of the different causes on Lion numbers in the sites. Results indicate a downward trend in lion population over the period (~33 deaths); and suggest that human induced mortality through cultural practices and retaliatory killings has a statistically significant effect on the lion abundance across the three different sites (F(2.58) = 1.397, p = 0.001). I place these results in context of the rapidly growing human population and concomitant impacts of habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, and cultural practices. In this talk, I shall examine the main causes of mortality in the three sites and propose means of mitigating the conflict.