Ugandan Wildlife Rangers Prove Effective in Tracking Lions

Editor’s Review:

• A study in Uganda found that wildlife tourism rangers, with their deep knowledge of animal behavior, are more effective and cost-efficient in tracking lions compared to traditional infrared camera traps. The rangers’ approach helped generate accurate population estimates and highlighted the importance of empowering local rangers in conservation efforts to monitor and protect lion populations.

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Lions, iconic symbols of Africa’s wilderness, are facing a decline in numbers across the continent, particularly in West and East Africa. As part of efforts to address this, there have been significant financial investments to conserve lion populations, but these must be paired with effective monitoring strategies. Traditional methods for counting lions often yield unreliable data, especially in unsurveyed regions.

In an effort to improve data accuracy, a team of researchers investigated the potential of wildlife tourism rangers in Uganda for helping estimate lion populations. Tourism rangers, employed primarily to guide tourists, have a deep understanding of animal behavior, making them a valuable resource for locating and monitoring lions. In their study, the researchers compared the performance of wildlife rangers to infrared camera traps, a common method for tracking big cats.

The study took place in the Nile Delta region of Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest protected area, which faces pressure from commercial oil extraction and poaching. Over a span of 76 days, wildlife rangers, using smartphones with tracking software, covered 2,939 kilometers, while infrared camera traps were placed in 32 locations across the same area. The rangers successfully detected 30 individual lions 102 times, generating a reliable population estimate. In contrast, the camera traps only provided two usable detections due to poor image quality.

The ranger-led approach proved not only more effective but also significantly cheaper. The cost of detecting lions through rangers was 50% lower than using camera traps, and each detection via camera traps was 100 times more expensive than one by a ranger.

This study highlights the value of rangers in lion conservation across Africa, not only for their knowledge of animal behavior but also for empowering them as active participants in conservation science. By involving rangers in regular monitoring, lion populations can be more accurately and sustainably tracked, especially in areas where lion numbers have significantly declined, such as Uganda. The current lion population in Uganda is estimated at only 291, far lower than other East African regions. This study demonstrates that by building local capacity and integrating rangers into conservation efforts, there is potential to improve both lion conservation and the livelihood of communities involved in monitoring.