Movement patterns of lions (Panthera leo) in an East African conservancy : avoiding conflict
The conflict between wildlife, particularly predators, and humans is one of the main reasons for the rapid decline of predator populations. In Kenya, lions (Panthera leo) are a major threat to livestock and humans living around the wildlife conservancies. Ol Pejeta, in Laikipia County, is such a con...
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| Formato: | H2 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
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SLU/Dept. of Animal Environment and Health (until 231231)
2017
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| Materias: |
| _version_ | 1855572136863727616 |
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| author | Haglund, Anna |
| author_browse | Haglund, Anna |
| author_facet | Haglund, Anna |
| author_sort | Haglund, Anna |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | The conflict between wildlife, particularly predators, and humans is one of the main reasons for the rapid decline of predator populations. In Kenya, lions (Panthera leo) are a major threat to livestock and humans living around the wildlife conservancies. Ol Pejeta, in Laikipia County, is such a conservancy where three wildlife corridors allows the animals to move freely between the conservancy and adjacent areas. Knowledge about when, and why, the lions move in and out of Ol Pejeta could help understanding how to better manage the population and give information to people living in the area of when the risk of lion depredation might be higher. To investigate the activity patterns of the lions in Ol Pejeta, I compared the passages at the corridors with environmental data such as rain period and moon phase. I also looked at how the lions distributed their activity during the day to see at what time they were most active. Finally I compared the number of passages with gender distribution to see if there was a difference between males and females. The results showed that there was no difference in activity between moon phases but a high significance between rain periods where there was a higher activity during the driest period. I also found that the lions were active right after sunset all the way to sunrise with a peak between 19.00 pm to 20.00 pm, and all passages out of the conservancy occurred during nighttime. There was no difference in passages between males and females. Due to these results, I suggest that the reason for the activity outside the conservancy is due to hunting and that the lions might be hunting for different types of prey during different times of the month which could further help farmers in the area, and the monitoring unit at Ol Pejeta, to know when there might be a higher risk for depredation. |
| format | H2 |
| id | RepoSLU12816 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés swe |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | SLU/Dept. of Animal Environment and Health (until 231231) |
| publisherStr | SLU/Dept. of Animal Environment and Health (until 231231) |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU128162017-10-25T06:21:24Z Movement patterns of lions (Panthera leo) in an East African conservancy : avoiding conflict Rörelsemönster hos lejon (Panthera leo) i ett östafrikanskt konservat : att undvika konflikt Haglund, Anna lions activity patterns conservancy moon phase depredation The conflict between wildlife, particularly predators, and humans is one of the main reasons for the rapid decline of predator populations. In Kenya, lions (Panthera leo) are a major threat to livestock and humans living around the wildlife conservancies. Ol Pejeta, in Laikipia County, is such a conservancy where three wildlife corridors allows the animals to move freely between the conservancy and adjacent areas. Knowledge about when, and why, the lions move in and out of Ol Pejeta could help understanding how to better manage the population and give information to people living in the area of when the risk of lion depredation might be higher. To investigate the activity patterns of the lions in Ol Pejeta, I compared the passages at the corridors with environmental data such as rain period and moon phase. I also looked at how the lions distributed their activity during the day to see at what time they were most active. Finally I compared the number of passages with gender distribution to see if there was a difference between males and females. The results showed that there was no difference in activity between moon phases but a high significance between rain periods where there was a higher activity during the driest period. I also found that the lions were active right after sunset all the way to sunrise with a peak between 19.00 pm to 20.00 pm, and all passages out of the conservancy occurred during nighttime. There was no difference in passages between males and females. Due to these results, I suggest that the reason for the activity outside the conservancy is due to hunting and that the lions might be hunting for different types of prey during different times of the month which could further help farmers in the area, and the monitoring unit at Ol Pejeta, to know when there might be a higher risk for depredation. Konflikten mellan vilda djur, särskilt predatorer, och människor är en av de huvudsakliga anledningarna till den hastiga minskningen av rovdjurspopulationer. I Kenya är lejon (Panthera leo) ett stort hot emot boskap och människor som bor i närheten av naturreservat. Ol Pejeta, i Laikipias län, är ett sådant naturreservat där tre korridorer tillåter djuren att röra sig fritt emellan Ol Pejeta och kringliggande områden. Kunskap om när, och varför, lejonen rör sig in och ut ur Ol Pejeta skulle kunna öka förståelsen kring hur man bättre kan hantera populationen och ge information till människor som lever i området om när det kan vara större risk för lejonpredation. För att undersöka lejonens aktivitetsmönster så jämförde jag antalet passager vid korridorerna med miljödata så som regnperiod och månfas. Jag undersökte också hur lejonen distribuerade sin aktivitet under dagen för att se under vilken tid på dygnet de var som mest aktiva. Slutligen så jämförde jag antalet passager med könsfördelning för att se om det fanns en skillnad mellan honor och hanar. Resultaten visade att det inte fanns någon skillnad mellan aktivitet och månfas men det fanns en stor skillnad mellan regnperioder där den högsta aktiviteten skedde under den torraste perioden. Jag fann också att lejonen var aktiva direkt efter solnedgång, ända fram till soluppgång, med en topp runt klockan 21.00, och alla passager ut ur reservatet skedde under natten. Det fanns ingen skillnad mellan passager och kön. På grund av dessa resultat så föreslår jag att anledningen till lejonens aktivitet utanför resrevatet är på grund av jakt och att lejonen skulle kunna jaga olika typer av byten vid olika tider på månaden vilket skulle kunna hjälpa människorna som bor i området, och övervakningsenheten på Ol Pejeta, att veta när risken för predation kan vara särskilt hög. SLU/Dept. of Animal Environment and Health (until 231231) 2017 H2 eng swe https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/12816/ |
| spellingShingle | lions activity patterns conservancy moon phase depredation Haglund, Anna Movement patterns of lions (Panthera leo) in an East African conservancy : avoiding conflict |
| title | Movement patterns of lions (Panthera leo) in an East African conservancy : avoiding conflict |
| title_full | Movement patterns of lions (Panthera leo) in an East African conservancy : avoiding conflict |
| title_fullStr | Movement patterns of lions (Panthera leo) in an East African conservancy : avoiding conflict |
| title_full_unstemmed | Movement patterns of lions (Panthera leo) in an East African conservancy : avoiding conflict |
| title_short | Movement patterns of lions (Panthera leo) in an East African conservancy : avoiding conflict |
| title_sort | movement patterns of lions (panthera leo) in an east african conservancy : avoiding conflict |
| topic | lions activity patterns conservancy moon phase depredation |