The war-torn frontier between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has prey to support more than 900 lions, but conservationists must act soon to protect the big cats from poaching and poisoning by livestock herders, report researchers writing in the journal Oryx.
The study, which was conducted by Adrian Treves of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues from Wildlife Conservation Society and the Panthera Foundation, relied on aerial surveys of lion prey — buffalo, warthog, waterbuck and other ungulates — which were then used to estimate the region’s potential lion population. The forecasts closely matched results from earlier ground surveys in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park where lions have been relatively well-protected, though their abundance has been slipping in recent years despite growing prey numbers.
 Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) is famous for its famous tree-climbing lions, a population that spends an unusual amount of time in trees. Photo taken in QENP by Rhett A. Butler
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Outside the the park, lions face threats from pastoralists seeking to protect their livestock. Meanwhile in Congo’s Virunga National Park civil strife makes it difficult to monitor and conserve wildlife — predators and prey alike.
Still conservationists are hopeful that protective measures and outreach programs to help pastoralists reduce livestock losses to lions could turn the area into one of a “stronghold” for African lions.
“Those two protected areas that straddle the frontier could be the stronghold for lions in central Africa – the largest population,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison environmental studies professor Adrian Treves, the study’s lead author. “Therefore, (the population) is critically important, because the lion is now considered threatened throughout Africa.”
“We’re providing a vision of what could be,” he continued. “Uganda could maybe have a third of those 900-plus lions, and they’re an incredible source of tourism revenue. So we’re hoping that’s an incentive the government will respond to.”
“I don’t want to see lions disappear from Queen Elizabeth National Park the way that hyenas almost did, and the way cheetahs were eliminated from parts of Uganda. That’s a fate we need to avoid.”
Adrian Treves, Andrew J. Plumptre, Luke T.B. Hunter and Joel Ziwa. Identifying a potential lion Panthera leo stronghold in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, and Parc National des Virunga, Democratic Republic of Congo. Oryx , Volume 43, Issue 01, January 2009, pp 60-66 doi:10.1017/S003060530700124X
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