Can we, or should we, keep lions in Lionspruit?
Yesterday we talked a bit about the principle of energy flow through an ecosystem and how you lose energy every time you go higher up the trophic pyramid. If we had to draw a trophic pyramid for Lionspruit, what would it look like?
Leopards are highly adaptable hunters and will eat anything from termites to a young giraffe. Lions on the other hand, even though they can successfully survive under much less favorable conditions, such as in the Namib desert, they need bigger prey more often than leopards.
In South Africa's Administrative system, power is spiralled down from Central Government to Provincial Government. In Mpumalanga the Legislature makes the Ordinances and Acts that govern the province. In the case of Mpumalanga the executive authority for nature conservation issues is Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks (MTPA).
The Provincial legislation in Mpumalanga stipulates a minimum of 3000 ha is required to keep lions. On this size land the stocking rate is 4 lions. (Although failed experimental introductions in the past showed that if unrelated lions are put together in a boma to bond - even if it is for an extended period - does not mean that they will stick together once they are released).
This may not sound like to much of a problem, but, a group of 4 lions splitting up (3 lions to 1 lion, or 2 lions each) can have devastating effect on the prey animals in the area where they are released. You can now expect the same impact as with a larger pride of lions. Two groups won't hunt together or even share kills. Most likely both groups (2:2 or 3:1 or even worse, 1:1:2) will make separate kills meaning you can lose up to twice the number of prey animal you bargained on.
One must also ask, what possible value could a pride of 4 lions have that outweighs the value of the prey animals. And I'm sure most of you will say tourism value. Tell me, how many people in Marloth Park ever saw the Lions in Lionspruit? In a place like KwaMadwala, across the N4 from us, the lions were so wild and skittish that gamevievers and tourists almost never saw them.
In a small reserve the lions will most certainly have a "regulating" or controlling effect on the prey animals, reducing the need for culling. (That is if that is your objective. In gamefarming culling adds valuable income..). But what if you stock valuable game. Lionspruit's buffalo, being TB, Foot-and-mouth and Corridor disease positive are not worth nearly as much as disease free buffalo but (at the risk of stepping on toes), they, especially the bulls, can earn major income from trophy hunting. Now you have a potential R40000- plus, income, taken out by the lions. How do you make up the loss from the lions? What form of tourism do you bring in to offset the financial loss? (And then you shouldn't stock very expensive game such as roan antelope or sable antelope).
Ok, so back to Lionspruit and our, by now world famous lions. How is it that we kept 3, then 2 lions in an enclosure less than half the size of the legal requirement?
There's a lot of "secondhand" information going round in the world, but fortunately, in this case I can give the most authentic first hand account. I don't want to rehash the events of the 2003 courtcase and interdict forcing MTPA and the Municipality to return our lions but, part of trying to resolve the dispute between the Parties included an Out-of-Court Settlement between us and MTPA. Despite the legal requirements in terms of size MTPA resolved to return our lions under condition that we put them in Lionspruit in order to keep them out of the residential area.
We ended up putting 4 lions (2 males and 2 females) into Lionspruit. (An area of only 1500ha). The first, at the time juvenile male, died within weeks of their release in Lionspruit. The remaining 3 spent 18 years in Lionspruit (old Mamma cat was euthanized a couple of years ago, so she live there for a shorter time).
Part of the Settlement required that we should register a proper research project. (Which I did), (but Matloth Park's dirty politics stopped me from ever doing the project). The objectives of the research project was to determine whether a small area like Lionspruit can sustain lions.
Did it work? I loved hearing the Lionspruit lions. For years it was the highlight of many a night, but was the project a success? I seriously doubt it. (But I will elaborate in a later piece).
All in all, the lions in Lionspruit was the result of a settlement agreement. There were opportunities to test other theories, undermore about lions territorial behaviour, but unfortunately I think much of that potential knowledge was lost ... Ecologicaly it makes little sense to have lions in Lionspruit (again, I will elaborate in a future article).
It does not mean we won't ever have lions in Lionspruit again... But we will talk a bit more about the ecology of lions and the Law next time .
Photo above : Old Mamma and little Gemmerkat the young male who died shortly after being released into Marloth Park.
Photo and short story by Dawie Fourie from Marloth Park.
