Declining National lion Pride Threaten Botswana Eco-Tourism


Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)

January 22, 2004
Posted to the web January 23, 2004

Rampholo Molefhe


ECOLOGY-based tourism in Botswana could receive a painful blow if 'the lion' lost its place among the big five animals that attract visitors to the country.

Chief executive officer of the Kalahari Conservation Society, Felix Monggae, confirmed yesterday that the number of lions are going down, especially in the Makgadikgadi and Kgalagadi areas.


Lion population estimates for the eco-tourist hub of northern Botswana was 1270 in the Okavango high delta and 306 in the low delta in 1999. Chobe high (Kwando) held a population of 256 whilst the low enclave had nil and the low Kwando/Delta hosted 38 lions. The low part of northern Botswana had 224.

Each lion attracts $3 300 for the Department of Wildlife and trophy hunters from the United States of America in the lodges of Kasane and northern Botswana.

Briany Hale writes for the BBC that "after 30 trophy lions were sent off to be shot in 2001, the government has vowed to end lion hunting and concentrate their efforts on a less aggressive breed of tourist".

Hale reports that a professor David McDonald found a shocking decline of 90 percent in the number of lions in 'a recent conservation study' done in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

He also found that the largest risk to the lions was shooting by hunters and farmers protecting their livestock. In future however, one of the largest killers could be FIV, the animal equivalent of the Human Immune-deficiency Virus that that eats away human resistance to disease.

FIV was first discovered in a domestic cat in the United States. "It has since become clear that the effects of this infection among domestic cats, like HIV in humans, is often lethal," according to Kate Nicholls of the Okavango Lion Research Project.

Further, "captive lions have died as a result of opportunistic infections. The FIV infected lions of the Kruger National Park in South Africa seem significantly threatened by an outbreak of tuberculosis," observes Nicholls.

"A sizeable population of lions in the Kruger National Park, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, and Botswana are FIV positive," according to Dr Kathleen Alexander of the Wildlife Rescue Centre in Kasane. It has also been found that a number of leopards in South Africa and Botswana tested positive for feline lentivirus anti-bodies.

"M-bovis is responsible for an unknown but increasing proportion of human TB cases...M-bovis is widespread among domestic animals and has been extensively documented in both captive and free ranging wildlife populations, and in the region, predators such as lion and cheetah populations," Alexander continues.

Hale quotes head of research at the department of wildlife, Daniel Mughogho, on FIV: "You can see the lions wasting away just like you can when people have AIDS. It has killed many lions here in Botswana but we'll start to see the real impact over the next ten years".

The department of Wildlife at the Ministry of Tourism is expected to disclose further information on the plight of the lions of Botswana next week.

There was a excellent article in the African Sporting Gazette showing the direct relationship between an increase in the Elephant population and the decrease in the Lion Population.

Elephants being grazers depleat the grasslands needed by plains game which is is primary food source of Lions.

I noted in another post that Botswana's Elephant population is on the increase.

The solution seems clear.

JBoutfishn,

Yes the answer is clear to me also!

But the answer is not so clear at all to the antis: They are not sure which form of birth control for the elephants will work best. The mere thought of actually shooting a drug loaded dart into a poor unsuspecting elephant is thought to be "just another cruel form of hunting, in which the poor unborn baby elephant may be hamed" by some.

And to add to their confusion the lions actually catch and kill some [very few, but it has been known to happen] cattle that belong to the Botswana political elite! Now we can't have lions killing our cattle, can we? So the solution that will in all likelihood proposed by these misguided souls may involve a serious suggestion of feeding the lions at special tourist venues to keep them form eating some cattle. The real dilemma is that the SPCA is very upset about the proposals to actualy kill some animals to decrease the local donkey population. Some voices have been heard to suggest that all lion food should be "properly" slkaughteres in an approved abbatoir! Then on the other hand.......


Verewaaier.