Namibia’s unique desert lions threatened by drought and human conflict

Namibia – Namibia’s unique desert-adapted lions, which eke out a living in the harsh Kunene region in the country’s northwest, have declined by up to 21 percent over the past year due to a climate-induced prey decline. drought and conflict with humans.

A survey conducted between late 2022 and early 2023 by Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) estimated the number of desert-adapted lions to be between 57 and 60 adults and 14 cubs.

Since then, between eight and twelve lions have died, some of them from conflicts with humans, according to the latest statistics.

This puts its current annual mortality rate between 10 and 21 percent.

“If this were extrapolated over a few years, (the mortalities) would be considered unsustainable,” says John Heydinger, a researcher and co-founder of Lion Rangers, a conservation group that helped with the population study.

He warns, however, that the population is not “in free fall.” Historically, the numbers have been lower.

The conflict between humans and lions appears to be due to the decline in lions’ typical prey caused by drought.

According to figures from a separate 2022 count, numbers of gemsbok, a longhorn antelope, were found to have declined by about 85 percent over the past five years; and the zebra and the gazelle by 59 and 53 percent respectively.

Kill cattle

Due to the scarcity of game, lions have been doing what they have done throughout time: hunting livestock.

Between 2021 and 2023, they killed 512 animals, including goats, sheep, cows, donkeys and even chickens and dogs, according to data collected by the Lion Rangers.

This represents significant losses for the herders of the 19,800 Otjiherero and Damara-speaking communities that share the landscape with the desert lions.

Under Namibian law, wild animals – including protected species – can be killed without legal repercussions if they pose an immediate threat to human safety or property.

But not all conflicts are between lions and shepherds. An eight-year-old male lion known to researchers as OPL-3, who had not killed any domestic animals, died last April after a group of miners took a poisoned goat for him to feed on.

“There are times when lions are killed without having done anything,” says Heydinger, whose organization trains and equips community members and livestock owners to monitor lions and limit human-lion conflicts.

Demographic fluctuations are not unusual for Kunene Desert lions. In the late 1990s only 20 were recorded.

But then about a decade of exceptionally good rains increased wild animal numbers, and the lion population rose to around 100 or more.

The latest MEFT survey is believed to be the most systematic to date. These were field teams that tracked lions, photographed individuals, and analyzed unique whisker points on a lion’s snout to avoid double counting.

New registered puppies

Rains in some areas of the Kunene region this year could lead to a rebound in prey and a slight increase in lion numbers. At least 32 cubs have been recorded that were not captured in the 2022 survey, Heydinger says.

While encouraging for the overall stability of the lion population, this surplus of young could soon bring its own complications.

Young lions recently dispersed from prides that cannot hunt for themselves effectively, or mother lionesses and their prides that need to feed their cubs, might be more likely to turn to easy prey, such as cattle.

Heydinger points out, however, that there have been people with cattle in northwest Namibia since at least 900 AD.

“Everything indicates that there have been lions there all along, so in some ways this is a sustainable system,” he says.

“If we can match the landscape needs of lions with people’s livelihoods and well-being, I think desert-adapted lions have a good chance.”