Lions in a coexistence landscape: Repurposing a traditional field technique to monitor an elusive carnivore.

ABSTRACT: Throughout Africa, lions are thought to have experienced dramatic population decline and range contraction. The greatest declines are likely occurring in human-dominated landscapes where reliably estimating lion populations is particularly challenging. By adapting a method that has thus far only been applied to animals that are habituated to vehicles, we estimate lion density in two community areas in Kenya's South Rift, located more than 100 km from the nearest protected area (PA). More specifically, we conducted an 89-day survey using unstructured spatial sampling coupled with playbacks, a commonly used field technique, and estimated lion density using spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models. Our estimated density of 5.9 lions over the age of 1 year per 100 km² compares favorab

SUBMITTER: Western G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8888262 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature