African Lion Rehabilitation and Release into the Wild Program

Operated by Lion Encounter in partnership with ALERT - the African Lion & Environmental Research Trust.

In 1975 over 200,000 lions used to roam the African continent. Estimates made in 2002 put the number of lions between 23,000 and 39,000, representing an 80 – 90% decline in less than 30 years.

The IUCN states that “the causes of this reduction are not well understood, are unlikely to have ceased, and may not be reversible”.

Given the recent, rapid reduction in lion populations across Africa it is ALERT’s opinion that habitat protection methods implemented at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars over the last 30 to 40 years have so far failed the lion and many other species.

ALERT fully believes in habitat protection for the long term sustainability of the species, and there have been some success stories to applaud, but given we are clearly failing the lion we believe that a range of solutions must be found before the lion becomes critically endangered.

New ideas are necessary if we are to have any real long term success in habitat protection. ALERT, through the ALERT Communities Trust program, supports the notion that only through local community involvement can the lion, and other species in Africa, survive.

In order to overcome the current view that wildlife should be killed to avoid the conflict over resources with humans we believe that the livelihoods of communities bordering conservation areas should be intrinsically linked to the health of that environment such that the community will have reason to protect it, motivated by Africans to the benefit of Africans.

But can the lion wait for us to effect the necessary major cultural shift at all levels of society to achieve this long-lasting solution to habitat protection?

Will the numbers of lions be so low; populations so fragmented and genetic diversity so narrowed during this long and difficult process leaving the species in crisis?

We, as well as many others believe there is a very real possibility of this nightmare scenario.

ALERT therefore feels it is our responsibility to provide a solution to the problem of how to reintroduce lion into areas that need them when that need arrives; and we feel that we should work on that solution now before it is too late. But where will these lions come from?

There is a current belief that the protected areas in many African countries can either be re-colonized by remnant lion populations that still manage to exist, or can be augmented by translocation of wild lions from other areas. We believe that this is highly hopeful and considerably misguided.

• First, recovery from a small population of lions to re-colonize large areas will be slow and susceptible to many chance events.
• Second, given their drastic decline, there are few areas remaining that might be considered as sources for new colonists.
• And third, many wild lion populations are infected with diseases such as tuberculosis that would preclude involvement in reintroduction or reinforcement programs. Therefore, we are of the opinion that the captive bred lions can be a viable option.

There are many complications and potential dangers inherent in reintroducing lions back into the wild however; most notably the likely conflicts with humans and their livestock following release; this may be especially true of captive bred lions that might not have learned human avoidance characteristics of some wild lions. There are several reasons that have been put forward to explain why past predator releases have had limited success (Sharma 2005):

• the animals were not given pre-release training;
• their dependence on humans was not curtailed;
• they were released as individuals with no natural social system;
• and that they had no experience of predatory or competitive species.

The Lion Rehabilitation & Release into the Wild Program seeks to find a solution to these problems by using a four-stage program.

The intention is to rehabilitate captive bred lions into a limited number of fenced wild environments (stage three), free of any human contact. These lions will give birth to cubs that will be raised within a pride social group in a natural environment such that they will have natural skills comparable to any wild born lion and can therefore be reintroduced into appropriate National Parks and reserves identified for their protection.

There are those who believe that Africa has no future destinations for such lions. This is far from the truth. Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi are resurrecting their protected areas with a diversity of aid programs after years of civil strife and economic instability.

Rural communities in those countries were often reduced to starvation unless they could utilize wildlife resources.

As a result, there are now massive areas available for carefully planned wildlife reintroduction and eco-system revitalization programs. Such incentives will include the eventual reintroduction of major predators such as lions.

Alongside this, our holistic approach to conservation will seek to ensure the sustainability of those reintroduced populations by understanding their environment and ecology better whilst generating support from local communities to protect them.

Stage One (Rehabilitation Phase One)

Cubs born in our breeding centres are removed from their mother at three-weeks old. Our experience indicates that this increases the survival chances of cubs, and is a practice used by most captive breeding programs among carnivores.

We take the place of dominant members of their pride and train them only to the point that they are safe for us to walk with. This enables us to take groups from six-week old cubs into the Bush as often as possible with experienced handlers. The lions are given every opportunity to build their confidence in their natural environment both during the day and at night. As their experience grows they start to take an interest in the game species they encounter on the walks and by the age of 18 months are able to stalk and bring down many of the smaller and young antelope.

By two-years old the lions are seasoned hunters, and we give them plenty of opportunity to hone their hunting skills.

Stage Two (Rehabilitation Phase Two)

In stage two the lions are given the opportunity to develop a natural pride social system in a minimum 500-acre enclosure. They have plenty of game to hunt, and their progress is monitored closely; however all human contact is removed. Lions remain in stage two until such time that the pride is stable and self-sustaining.

Prior to release into stage two some, if not all, of the lions are radio-collared and all are micro-chipped for identification, DNA and disease tested and vaccinated.

Stage Three (Rehabilitation Phase Three)

In stage three the pride from stage two is translocated into a managed eco-system of a minimum 10,000 acres, where:

• there are no resident human beings;
• there are sufficient prey species to hunt;
• and there are competitive species such as hyena.

The lions in stage three will give birth to cubs, which will be raised by the pride in the managed ecosystem, which is very close to their natural environment. These lions born in stage three with all the human avoidance behaviours of wild lions will develop the skills that will enable their re-introduction into appropriate game reserves, conservancies and National Parks across the African continent.

Stage Four (Reintroduction / Reinforcement Phase)

In stage four lions born in stage three can be released into the wild in several natural social groups as required by the needs of the release area. We are able to provide:

• self-sustaining mixed gender prides;
• female only groups that can be integrated with existing wild prides using proven boma-bonding techniques;
• male-only coalitions to add natural gene flow to an existing wild population.

For further information on the conservation effort please visit www.lionalert.org

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