African Lion

Just 400 lions survive in Uganda. African lions are the largest and most imposing carnivore in Africa and the only true social cats, and they have special cultural significance in most countries on the continent. Unfortunately, African lion numbers have plummeted by over 40% in the last three generations due to loss of habitat and conflict with people. Three-quarters of African lion populations are in decline.

Common Name:

African Lion

Scientific Name:

Panthera leo

IUCN Red List Status:

Vulnerable

Uganda Red List Status:

Endangered

Weight: 

122-180kg/270-400lb (female); 150-260kg/330-570lb (male)

Size:

Up to 3.3m (10.8ft)

Habitats:

Savannas, plains, grasslands, dense bush and open woodlands

Continent:

Africa

GC Sites:

Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

Partners:

Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF)

Lion Global Population Size Over Time by Year and Estimated Population:

1950 — 500k

1975 — 200k

1990 — 100k

2006 — 30k

2014 — 23k-39k

2020 — <20k

Lion historical range (orange) and curent range (red). Map courtesy Panthera.

Did you know? Lions once roamed throughout most of Africa, including in north African countries like Morocco and Egypt. They also lived in southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, from Greece, through Iraq and Iran, all the way to India. Now, they mostly survive in sub-Saharan Africa, with one small population remaining in Gir National Park, India.

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African lions (Panthera leo) are the largest and most imposing carnivore in Africa. They are the only truly social cats and have special cultural significance in most countries on the continent. In Uganda, lions enjoy a reputation as ‘king of the beasts’ and are popular symbols of royalty, strength and bravery.

Lions live in a ‘fission-fusion’ society which is a fairly rare social system where groups regularly come together and split. Males are thrown out of the group at the age of 3-4 years by the dominant male(s) and will try to take over a pride when they get to 7-10 years old. Males usually hold a pride for 2-3 years before being ousted by another male or coalition of males. Females generally stay in the same area as their mothers, occasionally moving to an adjacent pride when subadult, and rear a litter of cubs every two years.

Unfortunately, African lion numbers have plummeted by over 40% in the last three generations due to loss of habitat and conflict with people, and tthey have been pushed out of 94% of their historical range. Three-quarters of African lion populations are in decline, and with only around 20,000 in the wild, they’re now officially classified as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN.

Lions once roamed across most of Africa, but are now only found in sub-Saharan Africa. They have disappeared from 12 sub-Saharan countries in recent decades, and eighty percent of remaining lions now live in the eastern or southern parts of the continent. Already near extinction in both western and central Africa, lions are on the losing side of a battle with locals, who view them as a threat to their livelihood.

Three of the five largest lion populations are in Tanzania, but one large population remains in Uganda, spread between Kidepo Valley, Queen Elizabeth, and Murchison Falls National Parks.

In Queen Elizabeth, the Ishasha lions are known for their unique behavior of climbing trees and have been branded the "Ishasha tree-climbing lions" by tourists. Lions, after mountain gorillas, are the most sought-after species by tourists visiting Uganda.

Did you know? Lions can eat up to 40kg of meat in a single meal - around a quarter of their body weight. Their tongues have sharp-pointed rasps, called papillae, which are used to scrape meat off the bones.

A WCS assessment in 2006 showed that each individual lion in Queen Elizabeth National Park generated about $13,500 USD per year for the national economy in terms of the revenue it brought into the country. An influencing factor was that tourists are willing to stay longer just to see lions. In fact, a recent WCS survey suggests that tourists would be 50 percent less likely to visit Uganda's national parks if lions were nowhere to be seen.

Lions are top predators in their environment, whether that’s grasslands, desert or open woodland. It means they play a crucial role in keeping a healthy balance of numbers among other animals, especially herbivores like zebra and wildebeest – which in turn influences the condition of grasslands and forests. Ecologically, lions play an important role in maintaining ecosystem health and balance by predating on herbivores, controlling diseases by targeting sick individuals and disposing of carcasses.

By protecting a lion’s landscape, we’re helping the whole area to thrive, which doesn’t just benefit wildlife but the people who rely on local natural resources too.

Threats

One of the reasons for the lion's decline in Africa is poisoning by local ranchers, whose livestock are frequently killed by lions, as well as other human-related conflicts.

In 2018, for example, three lionesses and eight cubs were found dead near Hamukungu fishing village inside Queen Elizabeth National Park, and are suspected to have been poisoned. This is not a new phenomenon: Between May 2006 and July 2007, 15 lions were killed in the area in attacks blamed on landless herdsmen defending their cattle. In May 2010, five lions were killed in the park in another possible poisoning case.

Habitat loss is another significant threat. African lions have been reduced to living on only 8% of the land they once occupied, as their habitats are destroyed for agriculture and development. This means that some lion populations have become small and isolated, creating genetic bottlenecks that threaten the population's health.

Lions are also poached for their bones: Lion bones have become increasingly in-demand in recent times, especially as an ingredient in traditional Asian medicine, sometimes serving as a substitute for even-rarer tiger bones.

Researchers from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland analyzed the density and population distribution of the African lion in three of Uganda's national parks.

In two of the parks surveyed — Queen Elizabeth National Park and Murchison Falls National Park — lion populations have decreased by 30 and 60 percent, respectively, over the past 10 years. These significant declines can largely be attributed to accidental snaring in traps set for antelopes and conflict with communities neighboring the parks.

Only in Kidepo Valley National Park, in the northeastern part of Uganda, was the number of lions found to be increasing, climbing from 58 to 132 in the last decade.

"Conservation areas, such as Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls, which formerly contained the highest biomass of mammals on Earth, depend on the delicate balance between predators and prey," James Deutsch, executive director of WCS' Africa Program, said in a statement. "Their loss would permanently alter two of Africa's great ecosystems."

But the lion population declines in Uganda reflect a larger conservation challenge extending across the entire African continent: In the past two decades, the number of lions in Africa has declined by as much as 30 percent, and researchers believe there may be as few as 20,000 of the big cats left on the continent.

A lion injured by a snare wound across the chest in Murchison Falls National Park. Lions are also threatened by snares, which are indiscriminate killers. Though poachers who set snares usually aim to catch edible species, lions are often killed as bycatch. This lion was treated for its wound and released back into the wild.

Conservation Action

Since 2018, Global Conservation has been supporting the work of the Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF) and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to restore wildlife and tourism numbers in Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP), Uganda.

Murchison Falls was once the most-visited park in Africa and home to the highest megaherbivore biomass on that continent. During the late 1970s to the year 2000, the park suffered extreme poaching, with elephant numbers dropping from 16,000 to under 500. The impact of poaching on other herbivores and the carnivores was just as dramatic – a complete collapse.

Since the turn of the millennium, the core tourism area of MFNP has stabilized, resulting in a steady recovery in tourist numbers. Outside of the core area, poaching remained extreme. Since the gazettement of the protected area, no investment had been made to expand UWA’s ability to manage the park as a whole. As a consequence, vast areas remained vulnerable to poaching for decades, never allowing wildlife to distribute across the landscape.

By 2012 the “Recovery of Murchison Falls” (RMF) program was established by Michael Keigwin, Founding Trustee of UCF. RMF is a mixture of adaptive management to arising situations and establishing foundations for long term management of the whole of the park.

RMF has built twelve ranger posts in strategically important landscapes. This has expanded UWA’s permanent anti-poaching presence from 5% of the park to 70%.

In 2018, Global Conservation began to support Murchison Falls National Park, moving these initiatives further forward and helping to establish the basic foundation that any national park needs to succeed. As of 2019, Murchison Falls still had no communications network and no means of coordinating any form of park operations. GC helped to secure satellite phones, which were deployed into remote areas in case of a problem.

Did you know? Lions hunt more during storms as the noise and wind make it harder for prey to see and hear them.

Reducing Illegal Traps

Preliminary results of the WCS lion study in MFNP show that most mortality (71%) in adult lions is a result of human-related incidences, mainly snares and other traps. In two years, five lions were killed in illegal traps (three in wire snares & two in wheel traps), six lions were seriously injured (two by wheel traps & four by wire snares) and required veterinary intervention (three lost their limbs).

Efforts are ongoing to reduce illegal traps in the park. Using GIS and UWA ranger patrol data, snare-prone areas on the northern bank have been identified and zoned according to the type of traps.

This was followed by a snare removal exercise in part of the 550 square km snare-prone area. So far over 2,000 wire snares, 60 spears and 15 elephant traps have been collected and 38 animals rescued from wire snares.

Working with the UWA community conservation department, WCS trains and enables ex-poachers to retrieve wheel-traps at homes and in the park. We also paid for the destruction and disposal of all wire snares held at MFNP stores in case of theft.

The snare removal exercises need to continue as more than 80% of the snare zone has yet to be surveyed. In order to do this, WCS and UWA need more resources to pay for the basic supplies the removal team requires in order to conduct frequent snare removal exercises of the entire wire snare zone. Continued monitoring of the lion population is vital to understand the severity of these threats and their impact on the population.

Construction of a Law Enforcement Center

It was imperative to bring Murchison's network of resources and capabilities together into a coordinated and well-managed system. Consequently, Murchison Falls Law Enforcement and Operations Centre (LEOC) was designed and built to integrate a Joint Operations Command Centre (JOCC), Armory, police station and cell block, guard room, storage facility, radio and internet towers, and operational assets and supplies.

The LEOC was designed and built to ensure the facility supports the UWA Law Enforcement and Security Strategy, integrating UWA Law Enforcement departments and inter-agency partnerships (e.g. with police).

Snares line the foundation of the LEOC, covered in concrete so they can never be used again.

The LEOC is the first of its kind in Africa, integrating all relevant departments and providing for interagency requirements.

• Solar power facilities, including transmission to other ranger posts.

• Two Radio Towers and repeaters.

• Digital radio distribution to all ranger posts, marine ranger stations, cars, and patrols.

• Internet in Park HQ.

• Thuraya Satellite phone deployment to areas of little to no communications coverage.

The JOCC also supports the UCF sponsored UWA Vet Response Unit saving the lions, Rothschild giraffe and elephants trapped in snares.

Rangers at work in the newly constructed LEOC.

Community Development Program

In 2019, 100 youth from the north of the park were selected to undertake vocational college courses. All of the youth came from different families, but each came from families who interact with the park – e.g. some from serious poaching communities, and others who experience high levels of elephant crop raiding.

Courses included hydraform brick making, industrial painting, tractor operations, installation of water tanks and guttering, fencing, tree nursery set-up and tree management.

Carnivore & Scavenger Program

The UCF Carnivore & Scavenger Program is another important initiative that is integrated into the programmes UCF/UWA runs in Murchison. Working where there are no roads, and where they have no knowledge of the landscape and lions, is tough on time, resources and vehicles. However, the teams are finding lions.

Very little was known about the population dynamics or threats to lions in MFNP until the start of the WCS lion-monitoring project in 2009. WCS is monitoring four lion prides on the northern back on Murchison Falls, looking at ranging and foraging habits using GPS and GSM enabled collars.

All satellite collars put on are registered on the EarthRanger system, so we can always monitor where the lions are and how they are using the habitat. If the collar stays static for a while, an alert will be made to deploy to see what has happened to the lion. Photo courtesy UCF.

The team is currently tracking six lions that have left the park in the north – and into communities that may poison them. We know nothing about the home ranges of these lions – we need to learn, and fast.

Did you know? Lions scent mark their territory, creating a border with their urine.

Ranger training

UWA/UCF have been leading the countrywide ranger training program. This involves US and UK military, as well as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In addition to basic training, many specialized courses have been offered, from boat operations to 4WD driving and use of winches to wildlife poisoning management. UWA rangers are also being trained to assess the health and demographics of lions from their foot patrols. WCS shares the positions of the collared lions with UWA to help them to respond faster and more accurately to incidences of lions moving into community land. This has positively impacted the human-lion conflict.

Future Goals

• Develop operational capacity through training and acquiring additional communications equipment.

• Register satellite collars on lions and other wildlife to increase real-time ecological monitoring.

• Install final two radio towers and repeaters, along with solar power.

• Acquire and deploy GSM camera traps.

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