Safari hunting in Africa has serious impact on social structure and population density of lions
October 2011. Recent PhD research at Leiden University by the Beninese researcher Etotépé Sogbohossou has demonstrated that safari hunting may have serious impact on lion social structure and lion densities.
Etotépé did four years of field research in the Pendjari Biosphere reserve (North Benin) under the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University.
Impact on sex ratio
Her research showed that lion densities inside hunting zones were significantly lower (1.3 lions per 100 sq km) than the densities in the national park (2 lions per 100 sq km). Also the average group size of lions in the hunting zones was significantly lower (2.2) compared with the lion group size inside the national park ( 2.7) en the sex ration inside hunting zones ( one male to 0.8 females) was also significantly different compared with the national park (one male 1.4 females).
The results of this research confirm that safari hunting in Africa may have a serious impact on lion populations.
Cameroon
A recent article in the Journal of Biological Conservation, written by Barbara Croes and colleagues from Leiden university, covering the impact of safari hunting in Cameroon, demonstrated that lion densities inside hunting zones were also significantly lower compared with national parks . In this research the densities' of other predators like leopard and hyena and of large herbivores did not differ significantly.
The researchers from Leiden University concluded that a combination of indiscriminate shooting of often young male and female lions by safari hunters (Benin) in combination with the high quota and take of lions (Cameroon) have caused these significant differences.
Recommendations for governments - Moratorium on lion hunts
A recommendation has been prepared to the Ministers responsible for fauna management to consider a moratorium on lion hunting.
West African lions in danger of extinction
Lions in West and Central Africa are genetically different from lions of East and Southern Africa and are threatened with extinction according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/west-african-lions.html#cr
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!