All is now set for the proposed new Mkomazi Sub-Landscape Lion Census to be undertaken in Kilimanjaro Region, Northern Tanzania.
An official statement from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) reveals plans for a new animal count in the Mkomazi landscape specifically targeting the lions.
A team of researchers and rangers from Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) in collaboration with the WWF, the Tony Fitzjohn and George Adamson, African Wildlife Preservation Trust (TPW), as well as the Mkomazi Lion Research are all set to finally undertake a lion census in the Mkomazi Sub Landscape.
It should be noted that Mkomazi directly borders Tsavo East and West National Parks of Kenya where the famous Man-Eating Lions once terrorized the landscape during the construction of the Railway line linking Mombasa to Kampala.
The team behind the project has already undergone rigorous training on Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) by experts from the Kenya Wildlife and Research Training Institute (WRTI).
This advanced and scientifically robust approach will ensure accurate or near-accurate counting of lions in the Mkomazi sub-landscape.
The training was designed to enhance the team’s skills for field implementation, involving District Game Officers (DGOs) and Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) ecologists.
The Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture method being applied in the latest census for the cats of Mkomazi incorporates the CyberTracker mobile application, where each observed lion is photographed and identified based on its whisker spot pattern and unique features or markings.
The lions are then aged and sexed, with only those over one year old being included in the count. This exclusion is crucial as lions under one year often have high mortality rates, and their inclusion could lead to misleading data.
Now the team is ready and set to go out and undertake a physical lion census in the Mkomazi Sub Landscape.
Until now Tanzania is reported to have more than 15000 lions, making the country to be the home of more such ferocious cats than any other precinct on the African Continent.