Science & Research

The Lion Guardians approach is rooted in science and we continue to use this foundation to develop innovative solutions to human-wildlife conflict issues within changing contexts. In order to keep abreast, with changing times, we have developed a comprehensive research agenda centered on 11 focal topics, each with specific questions to be answered in order to inform carnivore and community conservation at the broadest scale.

  • Monitoring Methods

    What are the most effective (low cost, less time investment) methods for monitoring lions and other carnivores on community lands?

  • Coexistence

    What is the coexistence continuum? And how do we achieve coexistence at the appropriate level for people and carnivores and then maintain it?

  • Connectivity & Corridors of Tolerance

    What impacts can conservation efforts on non-protected areas and development of broad-scale monitoring tools have on lion conservation?

  • Conflict Mitigation, Patterns of Depredation & Problem Animals

    With a clear comprehension of the various aspects of conflict, can we more effectively mitigate and reduce lion depredations?

  • Wildlife Killing Motivations & Intentions

    How are traditional values changing and are these changes having impact on wildlife conservation effectiveness?

  • Community Conservation Models

    What are the components of community conservation programs? How do we reduce the risk of poor implementation of conservation models?

  • Societal components to conservation

    What motivates local community members to engage in conservation?

  • Changing Culture & Attitudes

    How do the shifts from traditional beliefs (e.g a move towards Christianity) effect people's attitudes and propensity to kill lions.

  • Lion Demography in Human Landscapes

    Through a better understanding of problem lions as well as the adaptations of the species to conflict & humans, can we more effectively conserve them?

  • Traditional Knowledge

    Can conservation and monitoring that combines conventional scientific methods with traditional knowledge (TK) be more effective? Explore the "added benefit" of TK to conservation.

  • Technology in Carnivore and Community Conservation

    How to apply cutting edge technology carnivore conservation to make it more effective across border areas?

Current Projects

LOST LIVESTOCK

One of the greatest causes of depredation by lions and other carnivores is when cows, sheep, or goats are left out in the bush overnight; locally, this “lost livestock” accounts for more than 80% of lion attacks on livestock. Guardians regularly help locate lost cows, sheep, and goats in the bush and bring them home to proactively mitigate this conflict and reduce potential loss. Now, we are also exploring the underlying drivers of this issue through community surveys. We plan to use the data collected plus our knowledge of local ‘hotspots’ to design interventions and identify communities to test these ideas. If successful, these interventions could reduce both losses to the communities and retaliatory hunting of lions.

See how we're putting these ideas to work
LINC

The Lion Identification Network of Collaborators - is a revolutionary noninvasive tool for tracking, identifying and monitoring African lions. Lion Guardians is one of the participating members in the LINC project, and Stephanie - our Co-founder and Director of Science - has been a lead in developing the project under our fiscal sponsor Wildlife Guardians. The platform brings together researchers from various organizations and employs groundbreaking artificial intelligence to automatically identify individual lions and monitor them collaboratively across vast areas. LINC is growing exponentially and is already helping transform how researchers work together to conserve lions across Africa.

MOCK HUNTS

In our operating area, we have have been implementing mock hunts in order to discipline lions. This idea was mooted by our Guardians and they essentially recreate every element of the traditional hunt sequence except the spearing, in order to scare problem lions into stopping their boma raids. This is a prime example of a conservation tool that is directly informed by local culture and traditions. We have found mock hunts to be an effective technique for mitigating conflict, but we are still collecting data to better understand the effects of mock hunts and the circumstances in which they are most successful.

PROBLEM ANIMAL CONTROL PROTOCOLS

We led the development of protocols that better coordinate the efforts of conservation organizations and communities during situations involving problem animals. These protocols outline how to identify lions, elephants, and other animals that are causing conflict, as well as the procedures for dealing with scenarios such as lost people, human injury or death by wildlife, and retaliatory hunts. By better coordinating the actions of stakeholders during periods of stress and conflict, we hope to positively change community perceptions, and the pilot phase of the project has seen promising results.

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