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Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos
Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos
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Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos
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  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author zubinashara
An accurate count of Asiatic lions could help design better conservation practices
Spoorthy Raman Bengaluru: Feb 20, 2020 (Research Matters) A new study proposes an improved approach to determine lion densities and identify factors that affect their abundance, but there may be flaws say some.
 *This image is copyright of its original author The Gir National Park in Gujarat represents a successful conservation story for the charismatic Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica), as their numbers have apparently surged from less than fifty individuals to claims of over 500 in a century. As a consequence, these cats have started to disperse into neighbouring villages, killing livestock, and sometimes, people. Since the Gir forest is the only natural habitat where Asiatic lions are found, it becomes crucial to monitor their numbers accurately and devise conservational strategies aimed at reducing human-lion conflicts.
In a new study, researchers at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun have estimated the spatial density of Asiatic lions in a part of Gir National Park and determined what factors affect their density. The study, published in the journal PLOS One, estimates that for every 100 square kilometres area, about nine lions are found. It uses an approach - first developed for African lions - of identifying individuals rather than relying on conventional population estimation techniques, which are prone to biases. The study was funded by the Wildlife Institute of India and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
Quote: Since this approach does not individually identify lions, it does not account for double counts and could miss counting a few.
Accurately counting wildlife populations is a challenge, and hence, scientists and managers often resort to arriving at crude estimates using animal signs, such as pug marks or tracks, or attempt to tally up all sightings of a species in a region. In some cases, more reliable approaches, like using faecal DNA or camera traps, could be employed to identify individuals to estimate the number of animals in a park.
Quote: Along with Dr Nicholas Elliot, Dr Gopalaswamy developed the approach, used by the current study, on African lions in Masai Mara, Kenya.
A reliable and scientific approach
The researchers of the current study covered about 30% of the Gir Protected Area between December 2014 and April 2015. They divided their study area into smaller grids and visited each of them multiple times during this period to track lions. They identified each lion individually by looking at the whisker patterns and permanent body marks, and estimated their density using a statistical model called ‘spatially explicit capture-recapture’.
Quote: In their study, the researchers obtained 368 detections of 67 individual lions, based on which they estimated the density of lions older than a year to be 8.53 per 100 sq km. The range of male lions was found to be larger than that of lionesses. The lions seemed to prefer flat valley habitats as opposed to rugged terrains, as they have soft padded feet conducive to walking on smooth surfaces.
The study also estimated the abundance of prey animals like Chital (Axis axis) and Sambar (Rusa unicolor) to see if their density influenced the abundance of lions.
Quote: However, Dr Gopalaswamy is sceptical about the unusual findings of the study due to a methodological problem. “In search-encounter based spatial capture-recapture surveys, such as the one used here, it is absolutely essential to consider how much effort you invest in each grid cell on each day. Because the more effort you invest in a grid cell the more likely you are to detect a lion if present,” he says. In their study at Masai Mara, the effort put in for the survey turned out to be the most influential factor in determining variation in lion detection rates. “This fundamental problem may have contributed to many of the unusual patterns emerging from this study,” he remarks.
Baiting a bane for Gir’s lions
With an annual footfall of about 1.2 million tourists, the livelihoods of many in the surroundings of the Gir National Park depend on lion centric tourism. Besides, the pastoral hamlets, called nesses, rear buffalos and cattle, upon which the lions occasionally prey. As a current practice, authorities dump dead livestock in the tourism zone of the park to minimise predators near the nesses and maximise lion sightings. The present study found a high density of lions in these baiting sites.
Quote: The practice of food provisioning by humans has also influenced the behavioural traits of the lions. The study found that lions here relies on provisioned food & lives as scavengers. Over time, they begin to come in conflict with humans and attack livestock as they are easy targets, say the authors.
The findings highlight how ill-informed strategies, like baiting to attract lions for tourism, can perturb their natural densities, disrupt their behaviour and influence their social dynamics. They call for a more robust approach to calculate their abundance in protected areas to design conservation strategies. “We believe that decision on policy and management of any species, especially endangered species and the last surviving population, should be based on reliable scientific information and our work provides one such mechanism to obtain this information,” signs off Dr Jhala.
Quote: Source: Spatially explicit density and its determinants for Asiatic lions in the Gir forests
Follow-up..........
The WII study’s (Spatially explicit density and its determinants for Asiatic lions in the Gir forests, 2020 by Keshab Gogoi, Ujjwal Kumar, Kausik Banerjee, Yadvendradev V. Jhala) primary objective was to explore a method to count Asiatic lions that uses whisker patterns and permanent body marks with computer software to identify individual lions and conduct mathematical modelling to estimate lion density. But it has also reinforced on another hazard regarding lions behavioural pattern. In the study, the researchers identified 67 individual lions out of 368 lion sightings within a site of 725 square kilometers in the Gir Forests in Gujarat, equating a density of 8.53 lions per 100km². They were spread from the core national park to some fringe forests along revenue lands outside.  *This image is copyright of its original author The researchers assessed prey density & other factors that could influence lion density. They found lion density to be higher in flat valley habitats, as opposed to rugged or elevated areas... and near sites where baits are placed to attract lions for tourists to view them. Contrary to expectations, the abundance of wild prey such as chital or sambar across the Gir landscape had little influence on the distribution of lions. They found that prey density did not appear to influence variations in lion density within the study site. But instead, the lions appeared to gather near sites where they had an “assured food supply” — livestock carcasses placed by staff to both the risk of human-lion conflict & by locals as food basis at strategic spots to increase sightings by tourists. The size of the lion prides were significantly larger in areas provisioned with food baits — with the pride containing an average of 5-7 adult females compared to less than 3 in areas without provisioning.  *This image is copyright of its original author According to them, baiting lions for illegal tourism along the borders of Gir, greatly perturbs their natural density patterns, in line with other studies showing that baiting disrupts lion behaviour and social dynamics. They observed that in many such prides living near human habitation, younger lions lacked the predatory instincts required to hunt as compared to the ones from deeper inside Gir. Such lion cubs fed with dumped carcasses with regularity, grew up as scavengers & never had to give their hunting instincts, which could enhance human-lion conflict as when they disperse from tourist zones and no longer receive food baits. In desperation they may try to attack easier prey, both unoffered livestock & people. The authors suggest that their alternative monitoring method could be used to assess lion's movement/dispersal across their range, in order to manage ongoing conservation efforts, more accurately & come up with more effective policies.
Gujarat: ‘Machadas’ to help check man-beast conflict
TNN | Updated: Feb 26, 2020  *This image is copyright of its original author AHMEDABAD: To monitor human-wildlife conflict, the Gujarat forest department has started building high towers called ‘machadas’ in Gir and Greater Gir landscape, the last habitat of Asiatic lions. The towers are equipped with solar-powered mobile charger, and financial assistance of Rs 17,300 is given to farmers for the foundation work for the machadas, officials said. “The scheme has been rolled out recently and 8,000 farmers have so far enlisted. With big cats increasingly moving out of protected areas, we aim to implement this scheme aggressively and cover new areas like Chotila,” said a forest official. “Issues for conservation are changing, the lion is regaining its territory and moving out of the core area, hence it is important for the forest department to gear up for the new challenges, not just for lion but all species,” said D K Sharma, principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and head of forest force (HoFF), Gujarat. The scheme aims to protect people from being attacked by lions and the farmers can seek refuge on these machadas, where they can rest or even sleep to escape attacks from wild animals. He was speaking at a session on the conservation efforts by Gujarat forest department at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS-COP13) held in Gandhinagar recently. Mohan Ram, deputy conservator of forests, Sasan, ascribed significance to research and training as they are the basis of all other practices. The Gir National Park area has camera traps for monitoring, radio-collaring of lions (world’s largest project), GPS monitoring, a wireless communication system, foot patrols and better facilities with the wildlife rescue service. 
Darshan Pithadia
Brothers.  *This image is copyright of its original author
(02-29-2020, 07:15 AM)Lycaon Wrote: Darshan Pithadia Wow. Never heard of him, but this guy has great photos. All images credited to Darshan Pithadia.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
 
The Leopard Cub With the Lioness Mom
Scientists documented a rare and very cute interspecies adoption in a national park in India.  *This image is copyright of its original author *This image is copyright of its original author A lionness with her adopted leopard and biological son in Gir National Park in Gujarat, India.Credit...Dheeraj Mittal By Cara Giaimo
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The lions and leopards of Gir National Park, in Gujarat, India, normally do not get along.“They compete with each other” for space and food, said Stotra Chakrabarti, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota who studies animal behavior. “They are at perpetual odds.” But about a year ago, a young lioness in the park put this enmity aside. She adopted a baby leopard. The 2-month-old cub — all fuzzy ears and blue eyes — was adorable, and the lioness spent weeks nursing, feeding and caring for him until he died. She treated him as if one of her own two sons, who were about the same age. This was a rare case of cross-species adoption in the wild, and the only documented example involving animals that are normally strong competitors, Dr. Chakrabarti said. He and others detailed the case last week in the ecology journal Ecosphere. The paper’s authors, who also included a conservation officer and a park ranger, first spotted the motley crew in late December 2018, hanging out near a freshly killed nilgai antelope. Initially, they thought the association would be brief; a lioness in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area had once been observed nursing a leopard cub, but only for a day before the two separated. “But this went on,” Dr. Chakrabarti said.  *This image is copyright of its original author Image *This image is copyright of its original author Researchers observed the baby leopard living with the lions for a month and a half.Credit...Dheeraj Mittal For a month and a half, the team watched the mother lion, her two cubs and the leopard roam Gir National Park. “The lioness took care of him like one of her own,” nursing him and sharing meat that she hunted, Dr. Chakrabarti said. His new siblings, too, were welcoming, playing with their spotty new pal and occasionally following him up trees. In one photo, the leopard pounces on the head of one of his adoptive brothers, who is almost twice his size and clearly a good sport. “It looked like two big cubs and one tiny runt of the litter,” Dr. Chakrabarti said. He has been studying the park’s lions for nearly seven years. This unlikely association “was surely the most ‘wow’ moment I’ve come across,” Dr. Chakrabarti said. His fellow researchers with an Asiatic lion conservation project in India, some who have been watching the big cats for decades, had “also not seen anything like this,” he said. Unlike their counterparts in Africa, Asiatic lions live in small, sex-segregated groups. After they give birth, lionesses often separate from the rest of the pride for a few months to raise their offspring on their own. If the makeshift family had interacted more with other adult lions, the leopard may have been identified as an impostor, Dr. Chakrabarti said. But they were never tested in this way. After about 45 days, the research team found the leopard cub’s body near a watering hole. A field necropsy revealed that he had most likely died because of a femoral hernia he had since birth. “It would have been fantastic to see, when the leopard cub grew up, how things would be,” Dr. Chakrabarti said. “But it didn’t happen.”  *This image is copyright of its original author Image *This image is copyright of its original author The case is among three documented instances of interspecies adoption in the wild.Credit...Dheeraj Mittal The tale of the leopard cub joined two other documented instances of interspecies adoption in the wild — each one sweet enough for a children’s book, yet strange enough to captivate scientists. In 2004, a group of capuchin monkeys took in an infant marmoset. And in 2014, a family of bottlenose dolphins fostered a baby melon-headed whale, who learned to surf and jump like his new peers. In all three cases, a lactating mother brought the new baby into the fold, said Patrícia Izar, an associate professor at the University of São Paulo in Brazil and a member of the team that studied the capuchin-marmoset adoption. It’s possible that the hormonal changes associated with motherhood “might facilitate bonding with an extraneous infant,” said Dr. Izar, who was not involved in the new research. As puzzling as this adoption was, it also underscores the similarities between cubs of different feline species, Dr. Chakrabarti said. Until they reach young adulthood, when social differences emerge, lions and leopards play, meow and beg for milk in similar ways. For this mother lioness, these commonalities may have overridden the cub’s more leopardlike features — his smell, size and speckled appearance. “He just blended in,” Dr. Chakrabarti said |
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