Tracking the aridland carnivores
Think of lions and cheetah, and most people will think of grasslands. Indeed, much of what we know about these predators comes from studies in places like the Masai Mara and the Serengeti ecosystem of East Africa. In fact, both species are far more adaptable, living in a spectrum of habitats from wooded savannah and scrub, to grasslands and deserts.
Despite their ability to live in a variety of environments, the two species don’t necessarily live in harmony with each other or the human communities they share the landscape with. Cheetah are built for speed, rather than strength so almost always lose out to larger predators, particularly lions, which often steal their prey and can kill their cubs. This might help explain why cheetah can be found in thick vegetation, which helps to conceal them. However, there are trade-offs to this strategy: the cheetah’s speed is less effective amongst dense bushes, and lions actually make the majority of their kills in this type of vegetation. More importantly, the threat from other large predators explains why most cheetah are now found outside of protected areas where lions have largely been eliminated.
Living alongside pastoralist communities
Persecution is one of the major reasons for the decline of large carnivores across the world. Lions and cheetah are amongst the hardest hit species in arid African environments, not only because of the loss of habitat and prey species, but due largely to conflict over livestock predation in these generally poor but increasingly populated places. Being outside protected areas, cheetah often come into contact with human communities and are blamed for killing goats, sheep and calves. In reality, the blame can be exaggerated – cheetah much prefer to hunt wild prey species, and the greater proportion of livestock losses are attributable to natural mortality, other predators including domestic dogs, and poor animal husbandry. Lions on the other hand tend to live inside protected areas, but are known to kill livestock during incursions into surrounding communities, particularly where reserves are subjected to high levels of wildlife poaching. However, given the choice, they also prefer to hunt wild prey species.
In essence, the problem for lion and cheetah is lack of space – most protected areas simply aren’t big enough to maintain viable populations, or accommodate them both. However, there are places such as the vast arid lands of northern Kenya that could provide enough room, if these predators can live alongside pastoralist communities.
Wildlife tourism creates positive attitudes
The good news is that in some areas, alternative forms of income such as wildlife tourism are starting to influence positive attitudes among rural communities. There are signs that people are not only tolerating lions and cheetah, but are also starting to see real value for their livelihoods. Nevertheless, we need to understand more about the status of these predators and livestock needs to be protected.
Working with local communities, the Kenya Wildlife Service and a range of partner non-governmental organisations, Marwell Field Biologist Dr.Zeke Davidson (a lion specialist by background) has set out ideas for an ambitious ecosystem level approach to monitoring lions in areas not previously surveyed. If we can find sufficient funding for this initiative, it will provide awareness raising and training to help people protect livestock from large predators without having to harm these animals, and a model for standardised community-based monitoring. Work has already begun on a smaller scale and community scouts are now collating data on predators and other wildlife by setting automatic camera traps, and by counting tracks of species found along transects which provide an index of presence and abundance.
Camera trap photos of the elusive desert cheetah
Meanwhile in the Termit-TinToumma region of Niger, our collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford, and the Sahara Conservation Fund has yielded some fascinating glimpses of the very elusive desert cheetah. Thought to be one of Africa’s rarest and most specialised hunters, very little is known about this subspecies. As a result, the ghostly photographs taken using automatic camera traps set up in remote locations are a very exciting breakthrough.