Grants made to the Desert Lion Project by the Predator Conservation Trust
Progress reports: 19th June 2003 10th July 2003 25th July 2003 6th October 2003 13th October 2003 26th October 2003
7th February 2004 20th February 2004 16th March 2004 14th November 2004
The Kunene lion study is now in its fourth year, and forty five individual lions have been identified, with 22 of these having been fitted with radio collars. Many of the radio collars are now approaching the end of their life and need replacing either with conventional radio collars, or GPS collars. GPS collars are considerably more expensive that normal radio collars but they can be programmed to record the position of the lion every hour day or night, and the batteries should last for around a year. With the current radio collars, the animals are only tracked and located during day time as it is unsafe to fly at night to locate them, and the remoteness of the area means that the lions are only located a few times each year. This means that the GPS collars will be able to provide far more information than has been available previously, which will aid in achieving the aims of the project - better understanding of the lions behaviour, where they travel and how fast they travel will help improve the chances of predicting where they can be found - vital if an eco-tourism venture is to succeed.
When the project started, there was only one adult male lion identified in the area (XPL1), which meant the population was extremely vulnerable in the event of the adult males death. There are now a number of male lions in the area - eight sons of XPL1 have now been fitted with radio collars.
Lise Hanssen
Flip and Patrick and I have just returned from a trip to the Kunene region. After flying there in the Africat aircraft, we drove north to the Hoanib River as there have been reports that lions have been seen hanging around a new waterhole there. We didn’t see any and so we drove east through the river bed till we reached Sesfontein. We stopped and chatted with the MET guy there who was really nice and was a bit taken aback at our cavalry in the middle of nowhere. We heard that some lions had killed a goat and a donkey about 50 km south, but as the sun was setting we ended up camping in the Khowarib Schlucht. It was full moon and it was breathtaking to see the mountains lit up at night.
The next morning, we drove a circuitous route back to camp and took off to carry out some aerial tracking. We located a lion that we needed to re-collar and then landed and packed the gear and drove hell for leather to get there before dark as the terrain makes driving at night too dangerous. This lion was first collared when he was a large cub and he now weighs about 200 kg with canine teeth over 5 cm long. It was quite a sight. We camped near the darting site and the next morning got back to camp.
Three of the lions have moved into the commercial farmlands towards Kamanjab and Flip is going to organise a helicopter through MET for us to go and dart them as we cannot land with an aircraft and there are no roads close by to get to them by vehicle. The darting is required as the collar on one female has stopped working, and the males collar is getting too tight so needs adjusting.
As an indication of the type of terrain in the Kunene region and the difficulties it causes, during the whole trip we had 7 flat tyres, the URI’s front wheel bearing broke and the aircraft had a flat battery which we ended up jump starting from the car.
Lise Hanssen
On 5th July we left Windhoek for the Kunene
region to meet up with a environmental studies student group from Emory
University (Atlanta, USA). The students are doing a month long trip through
Namibia and Botswana with New African Frontiers, a Namibian safari company.
Meed Mbidzo, a researcher from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET),
and I travelled by road and were supposed to meet Flip at Palmwag airstrip as he
was flying in from Windhoek. The land cruiser got a flat tyre 60 km east of
Kamanjab, which delayed us by about an hour, as the cruiser slipped off the jack
making tyre changing somewhat of a nightmare.
Photo
courtesy of Marianne Walker
We ended up negotiating the Grootberg Pass, a steep mountain pass just east of
Palmwag, in the dark. At the bottom of the pass we got another flat and after
once again struggling with the jack, this time in the dark, we ended up getting
to Palmwag after 20:00 PM. We did not know that while we were having problems on
the road, Flip was having aircraft problems back in Windhoek and had been unable
to depart.
We rolled our bedrolls out at Save the Rhino Trust base and the following
morning met Flip at the airstrip. The Emory group arrived at around the same
time and we departed for our base camp near the Orinendes river.
The trip to the camp was extremely slow and we arrived just before sunset so the
night was spent at camp. A 40 knot east wind picked up at about 5:00 AM making
takeoff from the airstrip impossible. The morning was spent at the camp where we
gave a talk to the students about the lions and the project. At around 11:00 AM
we drove to some of the springs to see if there was any sign of lion spoor. We
found fresh spoor at the Orinendes spring and decided to set up bait in case
these were new lions that we had not yet marked. On returning to base, the wind
had died down considerably and Flip aerial tracked and located some of the
collared animals including XPL-8 - one of the lions that needed to have his
radio collar changed as it was about to expire. He was in the Uniab River so we
packed up camp and drove south.
Photo
courtesy of Marianne Walker
After loading off the students about 1 km from the lion’s location, Flip, Meed
and I drove down the river with bait dragging behind the car. It was almost dark
and difficult to see anything, but the lion was easily tempted and jumped onto
the bait while we were still driving. We stopped the car and he tugged on the
carcass almost pulling the cruiser backwards. We darted him easily and he was
sound asleep in 10 minutes. We drove to the camping area to get the students
that were camping down river and piled them on the vehicles to transport them to
the sleeping lion. By the time we reached him, he was snoring rather loudly.
We replaced his collar and took blood samples and then measured him and took photographs of his teeth. It was the first time that the students had been so close to a lion and were able to see how large and powerful they are first hand. An adult male lion is a spectacular creature and they couldn’t get over his luxurious mane, massive canines and sharp claws.
After a group photo of the Emory group and the lion was taken we retreated to
the camping spot. That night we formed a lager of the vehicles in case the lion
decided to wander down river.
The east wind continued to howl making tracking extremely difficult. The bait at
the Orinendes spring had only been visited by spotted hyenas, but no lions.
The following night was spent at another spring, but was uneventful. The Emory
group made a donation to the Predator Conservation Trust that will be used to
purchase radio collars for the lion project in Kunene.
Aerial tracking revealed that a group of sub-adult lions have moved so far east
that they are inaccessible by road or aircraft. We are arranging to dart them
from a helicopter within the next couple of weeks.
Due to additional flat tyre problems, Meed and I made slow progress back to
Windhoek. Once again the Grootberg pass was negotiated rather late in the day
and we spent the night in Kamanjab before returning to Windhoek on the 10 July.
Lise Hanssen
Three lions have ventured out of the Kunene region and have moved to an area that is inaccessible by road and
fixed wing aircraft. As these lions had been radio collared when they were quite
young, their collars needed extending. The only way to get to them was with a
helicopter.
On Friday 25th July, Richard Henckert from MET drove JET – A1 helicopter fuel in
the land cruiser up to Palmwag lodge in the Kunene region. He slept at Save the
Rhino Trust to wait for the airborne crew to arrive. Leon Carstens and Annie
Newton left Windhoek by helicopter and Flip and Patrick flew in the MET Maule to
meet up with Richard.
On arriving in the area, Flip and Patrick immediately radio tracked the wayward
lions in the Maule and found the two males approximately 16 km from Hobatere
Lodge which borders on the western side of Etosha National Park. They flew back
to Palmwag where Flip jumped into the helicopter with Leon to dart the lions. By
the time they got to Hobatere it was getting dark so they returned to Palmwag
for the night.
The following morning the chopper was airborne at first light. They found the
two male lions quickly and darted them from the hovering chopper. They were
given new collars and Flip and Leon were back at Palmwag by 08:30 am. After
breakfast, the whole team departed for Windhoek. We suspect
that the lioness is still in the Kunene region and will be located and
re-collared on our next trip to the area
Lise Hanssen
The latest research report on the Kunene Lion project is now available in our library section.
The BBC are in the process of working on a
new series called “Planet Earth” and we were asked if we would be willing to
accompany their “recce” team into the Kunene Region as they are interested in
including the lions in their episode on Deserts of the world.
On 9th October Patrick De Goede and Richard Henckert left Windhoek for Kunene
and met up with Paul and Hugh at Palmwag. The following morning they drove into
the camp and we flew in from Windhoek and joined them there.
Flip and Patrick tracked the lions and discovered that the males that had walked
all the way to Hobatere, had now walked all the way back again and were right
within the Palmwag Concession. The group of lions that we were targeting were
nowhere to be found so it was decided that we would travel up to the Hoaruseb
River and try and catch Xpl-10 and her cubs, which to date had not yet been
marked.
As the drive is anything between 7 and 9 hours, we packed the vehicle and the
aircraft immediately and set off with a plan to sleep somewhere en route. We
ended up camping at the Hunkab strip and the following morning Hugh, Paul,
Richard and myself drove north to the Hoanib River and then travelled east in
order to meet up with Flip and Patrick at Mowe Bay in the Skeleton Coast Park.
We had great elephant and giraffe sightings as we drove down the Hoanib and made
it through the gruelling Hoanib floodplain and sand dunes of the Namib coming
out on the coast without any problems. In the meantime, Flip and Patrick had
tracked Xpl-10 and found her and her cubs at the Hoaruseb mouth right at the
coast.
Radio Tracking from the air along the skeleton coast
John Patterson, Chief Control Warden of the Skeleton Coast Park and his wife Barbara joined us for the evenings lion work. The first cub, which turned out to be a female, was darted and collared, but the second cub was a bit skittish and we retreated back to makeshift campsite near the beach. A few hours later we returned and the second cub, also a female, was collared.
Lion Collaring, taking blood samples and the associated paperwork is often
done by torchlight or, as here by the light from vehicle headlamps.
It was the most fantastic sight to see lions back at the Skeleton Coast after so
many years and these two cubs are true coastal lions having been born in the
area.
Lion Spoor clearly visible in the sand by the coast
The following morning Patrick and Richard departed by vehicle and Flip and I
departed by aircraft in order to track the missing lions from the previous day.
We were to meet up at camp back at Urinendes later that day. We flew south along
the coast tracking the desert and coastal area, but heard no signals. We then
tracked south of Palmwag and found that the lions had travelled south of the
Uniab River and were now in the Springbok River.
We landed just before sunset and found that Patrick and Richard had made it back
to camp after driving for 10 hours. That night be made a huge campfire and ate a
massive supper and then hit our bedrolls for a good night’s sleep.
While in the area we also found that all the other known lionesses and their
cubs as well as Xpl-1 were in one group of twenty one lions at the Aub Canyon.
During the following morning’s tracking session we heard Steve Brain, the owner
of Hobatere Lodge, over the aircraft radio while he was flying in the north. He
asked if we would be willing to come to Hobatere, which borders Etosha on the
western side, as they had seen a cheetah with an injured foot. They were
concerned as she had three cubs and the injury seemed to be getting worse
leaving her unable to hunt.
We packed up camp and Patrick and Richard departed for Windhoek in the cruiser.
Flip and I took off in the aircraft and headed for Hobatere arriving about half
an hour later. Some of the lions from our previous study in western Etosha
National Park had also moved into Hobatere and this would be the ideal
opportunity to change their radio collars for future monitoring.
We drove around Hobatere, but could not locate the cheetahs anywhere, although
their spoors were everywhere. We then drove to a dam close to the lodge and
attracted the lions to a bait. They appeared rather nervous so we decided to go
back to the lodge and come back a while later while they were distracted by
food. We returned after dark to a mass of lions including a number of young
cubs. We successfully darted one female and changed her collar, but the two
other collared lions ducked and dived around the bushes making it impossible to
catch them.
We departed for Windhoek the following day planning on returning to Kunene in a
week. In the meantime, Steve will keep a look out for the cheetah and let us
know if we should pop in at Hobatere while in the Kunene Region.
Lise Hanssen
On 20th September we flew to Palmwag Lodge and met up with a film crew from
String Productions. They were to accompany us into the field in order to film
our work for a documentary entitled “Desert Lions” for the South African
journalism programme “Carte Blanche”
During the trip we were hoping to recapture two male lions whose collars needed
extending as well as collar an unmarked female all within the same group. We
located the group at Kai Kams spring in the Agab River, but one of the males was
missing and despite intensive flying, we were unable to find him.
Both vehicles as well as the aircraft assembled on the banks of the Agab River.
We had planned on luring the lions to a bait, but our plan fell through when we
discovered that the lions had killed an Oryx, which would keep them busy for
many hours. We camped in the Agab River and the following morning set out to
locate the missing lion. After some time we heard a very weak signal and found
that he had travelled some 70 km across the desert and was lying at a small
spring about 30 km from the coast.
We drove west, passing the gravel plains and vast sand dunes of the Namib and reached the coast in the late afternoon. After a quick paddle in the sea, we drove back into the desert to set up bait before dark. The lion kept us waiting in the darkness for three hours before venturing out of the brush. We quickly darted him and waited some twenty minutes before approaching him. We replaced his radio collar and took samples and photos before leaving him in peace to recover..
The
area where Xpl 16 was located - a harsh environment for any animal to survive in
The next group of lions on our list were miles away in the upper Barab River so
after radio tracking we set out to try and get there before dark. Unfortunately
the cars got separated and the time everyone regrouped, it was too late to make
the difficult journey in the dark. As we were close to the Palmwag/Sesfontein
Road, we decided to get petrol and spoil ourselves with a meal.
After cheeseburgers and steaks we ventured back into the concession and decided
to sleep en route to the Agab. The following morning we drove back to Kai Kams
spring to capture the other male lion and the unmarked female. We were setup
well before sunset, which allowed for excellent filming of the lions. The female
was darted quickly and collared for the first time, but the male was not that
accommodating. His collar appeared to be fine so we decided to delay capturing
him for a few more months.
While radio tracking the following morning, we discovered that the Barab group
of lions had split up making it impossible to work on them that evening. As we
only had one night remaining with no lion work to be done, we decided to pack up
camp and leave for Windhoek a day early.
The documentary is scheduled to be aired on South African Television in
December.
Lise Hanssen
Xpl-8, the lion that we collared with the group from Emory last year, has been killed by a trophy hunter. The bullet also hit the battery pack of the collar so it’s history, even though it had only been used for 7 months or so. I have just heard from MET in Outjo that the community around Sesfontein shot Xpl-21 for killing livestock. Her collar was handed in at the MET office. She is the cub of Xpl-2 and was the missing female that we tried to locate with the chopper. It seems her collar must have died prematurely and that is why we have been unable to locate her.
Lise Hanssen
A number of earlier reports on the Kunene Lion project have been added to our new Library section
In February we received word
that one of the male lions in our Kunene Project had been trophy hunted. Xpl-8
was part of a group of three lions that spent most of their time in the south of
the Palmwag concession and intermittently ventured into the Torra Conservancy
where many communal farmers are dependant on livestock farming. Losses of
livestock over a period of months resulted in the community applying for a
permit to trophy hunt one lion.
The Professional hunter was extremely helpful in supplying us with information
like skull and body measurements as well as activities that had taken place
leading up to the hunt. The radio collar was returned to us, but was
unfortunately damaged. All information that we had about Xpl-8 was compiled and
sent to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, the professional hunter and the
conservancy.
The Torra Conservancy will receive trophy hunting fees from the professional
hunter which will compensate for livestock losses suffered by the community and
promote increased tolerance of the lions living in and around the conservancy.
While gathering information on this trophy hunt, it came to our attention that
another lion had been shot in the region. After many phone calls we heard that a
lion had been shot in October 2003 and the radio collar had been handed in at
Outjo MET office. The collar frequency was given to us on the phone and our
records indicated that the lion was Xpl-21, a female that we had been searching
for for many months. She had been shot as a problem animal by a community close
to Sesfontein. We will be investigating this incident further.
Unfortunately, sometime between 15th August and 24th October, a large number of items were stolen from our base camp in the Kunene region.
The camp is in an area that is restricted to a few tourists (mainly led by guides), and conservation officials. Despite this, equipment and supplies were stolen including 700 litres petrol, 400 litres Avgas, several gas bottles, a freezer, branding irons, a jack, ropes and cables and cooking/eating supplies.
© Predator Conservation Trust.
