Lions wreak havoc in Midlands

Midlands Bureau Chief
October 14, 2010



THE eight lions that were last month released into the wilderness at Antelope Park near Gweru are causing havoc as they are allegedly devouring game at will, taking advantage of the small enclosed game park, a senior National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has said.
Antelope Park, which is about 8 km outside Gweru, has game that includes zebras, wildebeest, impalas and steenbok.
In an interview yesterday, Parks and Wildlife Management Authority acting director-genera, Mr Vitalis Chadenga, said the authority was closely monitoring the Antelope Park lion breeding project and those released into the wilderness in a bid to establish whether wildlife management principles were not being flouted.
“The situation at the Antelope Park is not very encouraging. We have lions that were raised under monitored and controlled conditions like domestic animals.
“They have been released into the ‘wilderness’ and this is an experiment, the first of its kind in Africa. Given the size of the area, it’s like the lions are hunting animals in a cage. This does not happen in the wild. The lions’ success rate in hunting prey is 100 percent because of the size of the park. The prey has no chance of escaping as what happens in the wild,” he said.
Mr Chadenga said the eight lions or their products were likely to struggle to survive in the wilderness proper as they did not fully develop hunting skills due to the manner in which they were raised.
He dismissed restocking of game in the Ngamo area of Antelope as a solution.
“If you restock, the area is too small. What happened to the initial population? How does that (the situation at Antelope) compare with that at national parks? The design or model of the project needs to be changed, otherwise all animals would be devoured as well.
“If we transfer the lions to a big area like Hwange National Park, they will not survive as they do not have the hunting skills. The exposure that the lions are getting at Antelope is a mimicry of what’s in the wild. In the wild, the hunted or the prey has acres of space to escape to.
“However the idea is not to bash Antelope Park but to support them. We want to work with them to get the best results out of their experiment,” said Mr Chadenga.
He said the authority was supportive of the Antelope Park project and would therefore continue monitoring it.
He said the Parks and Wildlife Authority was working on having all lions and other animals in captivity released into the wilderness.
“We are not satisfied with the idea of keeping lions or any animals in captivity. We do not know what they will do with the lions and we are monitoring the situation. Our mandate is to look at the welfare of wild animals anywhere, be they in private or State land. If we feel that wildlife management principles are not being followed, we will intervene or even stop the project,” said Mr Chadenga.
He said a taskforce had since been formed and mandated to come up with recommendations on how to deal with animals in captivity.
“We want a situation where we have zero animals in captivity. Having lions or elephants in captivity is not ideal. We have formed a taskforce to look into such matters. The taskforce membership is drawn from the farming community and non-governmental organisations that have interests in conservancies. Parks and Wildlife chairs the taskforce,” he said.
Mr Chadenga said the short term measures were to stop the breeding of animals in captivity since more numbers would overwhelm the authority in its efforts to release the animals into the wilderness.
“The taskforce will come up with a report that will be made public and be presented to Government,” said Mr Chadenga.
Antelope Park also has four elephants that are primarily meant for elephant ridings and swimming.
Chronicle toured Antelope Park yesterday and got the opportunity to see the predatory lions relaxing and some of the preyed animals grazing.
The Antelope Park camp manager, Mr Nathan Webb, said they had plans of expanding the area for the lions.
He said the project was, however, expensive as it would cost US$2 million to develop the 6 000 acres of land set aside for the lions.
“The lions have lost the novelty of hunting for fun. They hunt to feed. It is not true that they cannot hunt. The lions’ hunting skills are just as good as those of other lions. We have plans to restock game in the area for them,” said Mr Webb.
He said the park’s breeding project was meant to reduce the chances of having lions that are prone to the deadly feline immuno deficiency syndrome.
“The lion population was decreasing because they had become prone to diseases like FIV, tuberculosis and canine distemper. This was due to in-breeding whereby a male lion would mate with its sisters. We have come up with a special breed where we take lions from different areas in Africa to make a pride.
“The project has been a success because the lions are living as a pride and they can now hunt,” said Mr Webb.
On keeping lions in what was perceived to be a small enclosed area, Mr Webb said every enclosed environment was limiting to animals.
Antelope Park’s research technician, Ms Tina Mhlanga who studies the lions’ social, hunting and reproduction behaviour, said stage two of the project was a huge success.
She said the lions easily bonded as a pride and were hunting and living together.
“Their hunting is normal just like other lions in the wild. They have mastered the art of hunting well. They have killed three wildebeests in one day, two zebras in one kill and this is normal hunting. In stage three we will be introducing competitive species like a hyena,” said Ms Mhlanga.
The section of the game park where the released lions are confined is 500 acres in size and has 13 zebras, four wildebeests, 30 impalas and 10 steenboks.

Duh...?

Rich

Just where the hell are they relative to Doma? Hope Gordon can get a couple on his quota next year, if they are close!

Lions are our cuddly furry friends...

I wouldn't exactly call Antelope Park "wilderness". And what's the problem with Lion eating privately owned game anyway?
Probably upset that its now too risky to poach the place.