Problem lion translocations in Botswana, Southern Africa

Summary

Since shooting lions is illegal in Botswana, wildlife authorities' main tool against livestock-killing "problem" lions has been capturing them in communal farming areas and releasing them into protected areas roughly 120 km away in a straight line. Researchers from Kalahari Research and Conservation and Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks fitted satellite GPS collars to 13 such lions, seven males and six females, translocated into the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park or the Central Kalahari Game Reserve between April 2013 and June 2016, to test whether the practice actually resolved conflict or just relocated it. Four lions needed a second capture and release, and one a third, after continuing to cause problems or attempting to return. Eleven of the 13 died within a mean of 272 days of release, four shot by farmers after leaving the protected area and five from other causes; one lost its collar and its fate is unknown, and only one remained alive and monitored at the time of writing. Females in particular tended to head back toward their capture site, risking retaliation killing along the way, while males more often settled into new territory and resumed preying on livestock there instead. Translocated lions also spent more time outside protected areas during the dry season, likely tracking prey. The project rates itself a failure, concluding that moving problem lions into areas that already hold resident lion populations does not resolve human-lion conflict and instead mainly relocates the mortality.