Lion-Human Conflict Resolution Strategy Proposed for Tanzania

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, August 17, 2005 (ENS) - Conflicts between lions and people have escalated in the East African country of Tanzania, as the population has boomed from 23.1 million people in 1988 to 34.6 million in 2002. As a result, the animals that lions eat have decreased outside protected areas, and the hungry lions seek prey near human settlements.

Since 1990, lions have killed more than 560 Tanzanians, including nursing mothers, children playing outside their huts and people dragged from their beds. In retaliation, increasing numbers of lions are being killed by local people.

Lion populations are dwindling. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 wild African lions remain today, down from 50,000 a decade ago.

African lions like this one are increasingly pressured by a growing human population. (Photo by Ken Stansell courtesy USFWS)

In an effort to find a way to protect both people and lions, University of Minnesota researchers have analyzed the factors involved in the lion attacks. They have identified the control of bush pigs - a major agricultural pest - as the most promising strategy for curbing attacks.

"Human population growth has led to encroachment into wildlife areas and depletion of natural prey populations, but attempting to sustain viable populations of African lions places rural people at risk of their lives and livelihoods in one of the poorest countries of the world," the researchers wrote.

"Mitigation of this fundamental conflict must take priority for any lion conservation strategy in Africa," they concluded in a study published in tomorrow's issue of the journal "Nature."

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation, Conservation Force and the Tanzanian government.

"People in the United States often tend to think of lions, tigers, etc. as cute and cuddly because we don't know what it's like to live with predatory animals who threaten us and our familes," said team leader Craig Packer, a professor of ecology, evolution and behavior in the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences.

"That's because 150 years or so ago, our ancestors in the United States killed off the most dangerous predators in the country," he said. "We need to understand that Africans are facing a far more dangerous threat today, and they are responding in the same way our ancestors did."

About 39 percent of lion attacks happen during the March-May harvest season, when farmers, who cannot afford a fence to protect their crops from bush pigs, sleep in a makeshift guard hut in the field. Hungry lions follow bush pigs into the fields and find the farmers. More than 27 percent of lion attacks on humans occur in fields.

But no one is immune. More than 18 percent of victims whose ages were known were younger than 10,.

Of the older victims, 69 percent were men, who are more likely to tend cattle, forage for bushmeat, walk alone at night and retaliate against man-eaters and cattle-killers with nets and spears. said Packer.

Most rural residents live in houses with thatched roofs, and lions simply force their way inside. Lacking indoor plumbing, people are attacked when visiting outdoor toilets.

Female African lion with two cubs (Photo by Ken Stansell courtesy USFWS)

Several people interviewed reported that lions entered their villages or fields in pursuit of bush pigs, and some even said they tolerated lions because the big cats helped control bush pig numbers.

Moving people away from areas prone to lion attacks is not feasible, the researchers report. They believe that bush pig control strategies offer the best hope for reducing encounters between lions and people. These measures would have the added benefit of reducing the need for village farmers to sleep in their fields.

Packer has set up an organization, Savannas Forever, to address this need. Through its website, savannasforever.org, online donations can be made to help bring together different stakeholders to create the proper balance between conservation and human safety.

Savannas Forever seeks to provide solutions through scientific analysis of the interplay between human population growth, the economics of ecotourism and sustainable trophy hunting, and government policy throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

"Most conservationists regret the way cougars and wolves were largely exterminated from the United States in the 19th century," Packer said, "but we still have time to help Africans live with lions. Our primary concern is to protect people and their livestock without eradicating the lions. But people obviously come first."

Packer plans to establish a series of interrelated projects in Tanzania and Botswana by summer 2006.