BLANTYRE, Malawi ― African lions are declining due to the decrease in their herbivore prey, necessitating the need for increased prey protection measures to reverse this trend, a study says.

According to the study published in the Conservation Science and Practice journal, preventing prey depletion can improve the lion’s reproduction and population growth in ecosystems affected by poaching for bushmeat.

Large carnivores, including lions, the authors say, are declining throughout Africa, and conservation initiatives targeted at halting and reversing the collapse of large herbivore prey are likely to reduce bushmeat poaching even in vast, unfenced habitats that are strongholds of most of the lions (Panthera leo).

Panthera, an international nonprofit organization whose work contributed to the findings of the study, says that lions, as well as leopards, sit at the top of the food chain and serve as “umbrella species.” When their populations thrive and become plentiful, it leads to the protection of a range of species that make up the ecological community of their habitats and allows ecosystems to thrive.

“Combining improved protection with improved programs for community conservation and coexistence in and around the communities living with these populations should substantially improve the prospects for lion conservation,” the study says.

The study lists prey depletion alongside trafficking of skins and parts, habitat loss and conflict with humans and livestock as reasons for the decline of the apex carnivores. Currently, the IUCN Red List classifies the African lion as vulnerable, with an estimated 36% decline in the species in the last 21 years, according to the global conservation authority’s February 2023 assessment.

The study says that poaching for bushmeat is among the key drivers of prey decline as communities near protected areas seek to address food insecurity, poverty and unemployment.

Scott Creel, the study’s co-author and a conservation biologist with the Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP), says that when ZCP began working in the Kafue Ecosystem in 2013, prey populations were much lower than expected.

“Therefore, we began collecting data to confirm that prey populations were depleted, and to confirm that bushmeat poaching was the cause,” Creel tells Mongabay.

The study says that lion population density is directly linked to prey availability and that increased herbivore protection from poachers could reverse the decline.

In this study, researchers set out to determine whether improved protection of large herbivore prey is sufficient to turn around the collapse of the big cats’ population even in large, open habitats such as the Greater Kafue Ecosystem where this study was conducted.

The 66,000-square-kilometer (25,500-square-mile) ecosystem is home to Zambia’s second-largest population of lions, wild dogs, leopards and spotted hyenas. It also hosts the country’s largest number of cheetahs.

Using GPS and very high-frequency collared lions, the researchers monitored 358 cats across 8,000 km2 (3,088 mi2) in the northern and central section of the ecosystem between 2013 and 2021.

The data collected proved that the lion population was low because of low prey availability and direct killing by snares. Other carnivores such as leopards and African wild dogs faced the same challenge.

The researchers found that female lions residing in regions with stringent protective measures had greater productivity than their counterparts in areas where bushmeat poaching was prevalent. Additionally, it was observed that lions in well-protected zones experienced a significantly higher survival rate compared with those in less protected environments.

“In areas with high protection, the annual probability of population growth was 89.3%, but in areas with low protection the probability of growth was only 30.2%,” the study reads.

Recovery from prey depletion can rise rapidly in areas with concentrated protection with the potential to double within 10 years, the study finds. In vast, unfenced areas, recovery can be slow with a doubling time of 50 years, unless investment is increased and protection accelerated.

“Huge, unfenced ecosystems have the greatest potential for conservation, but they are also harder to conserve than smaller and/or fenced ecosystems. If it works in Kafue, it can be done anywhere [in Africa],” says Creel, who is also a distinguished professor in the Department of Ecology at Montana State University in the U.S.

He emphasizes the need for improved wildlife protection and opportunities for people near national parks, highlighting the ecological and economic value of lions in the wild: “The herbivores evolved on a landscape with predators, and in the absence of carnivores, the ecological balance is altered. This in turn affects the plant community, and virtually everything changes through a ‘trophic cascade’.

“Lions are also of great economic value through the tourism sector of the economy,” he adds.

Phillip Muruthi, vice president for species conservation at the African Wildlife Foundation, who was not involved in the research, says the study strengthens the need for conservation programs to treat surrounding communities as key allies in species protection.

“We need to make people understand how they benefit when they safeguard protected areas. For example, they are securing sources of water that they use. They are promoting tourism from which they can benefit.

“Conservation planning and practice should enhance these objectives. They should function equally for both people and species,” he says.

Muruthi hopes for follow-up studies to evaluate whether the stabilization and growth of the lion population in Kafue is benefiting people or has led to the escalation of conflict.

Banner image : lions in South Africa. Image by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

Citation:

Creel, S., Becker, M. S., Goodheart, B., Kusler, A., Banda, K., Banda, K., … Reid, C. (2024). Changes in African lion demography and population growth with increased protection in a large, prey‐depleted ecosystem. Conservation Science and Practice, 7(1). doi:10.1111/csp2.13256

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