CML lion research on Kenyan television

CML-researcher Hans de Iongh during collaring of a lion

Researchers from the Department of Conservation Biology of CML have assisted Kenya Wildlife Service during the past four years with the collaring of lions in Amboseli national park as part of a collaborative project between KWS and the Institute of Environmental Sciences of Leiden University.

Objective of the project is to manage lion-livestock conflicts and prevent retaliatory killing of lions by Maasai communities around the park. The project has resulted in a significant lower mortality of lions after 2007, compared to the period before 2007. Collaring operations have been financially supported by WWF-INNO and Prins Bernhard Natuurfonds.

The collars used contain a VHF radio transmitter, a GPS and a mobile phone unit, in order to transfer GPS location data to a webiste of African Wildlife Tracking, accessible for the researchers.

A team consisting of PhD student Tuqa Jirmo,  Hans de Iongh of CML, PauL Funston of Tshwane University of Technology (Pretoria, SA) and Peter Hamling (independent consultant) have assisted in several collarings during 2007-2011. A total of five lions have been collared at any time and some of these lions have been monitored over the full four year period.

This YouTube film of NTV-Kenya shows the way the collaring takes place and also some of the constraints during fieldwork.