<
https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/23373/Cameroons-Bouba-Ndjidda-National-Park-Is-a-Beacon-of-Hope-for-the-Lion-in-Central-Africa.aspx>
"CAMEROON, August 13, 2024—Ramping up protection efforts of Endangered Central
African lions, a team of Cameroonian rangers and biologists from the Ministry
of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), has
placed GPS collars on seven of the big cats in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjidda
National Park; this brings the number of collared lions to ten. The collaring
is part of a long-term effort by the government of Cameroon and WCS to recover
Bouba Ndjidda’s wildlife to its former glory.
Serge Patrick Tadjo is Bouba Ndjidda’s warden and fiercely committed to
protecting the park. He said “Bouba Ndjidda and the surrounding landscape is
one of the jewels of Central Africa but it is under relentless pressure from
poachers, illegal grazing and illicit gold mining. Over a decade ago, we took
on organized elephant poachers from Sudan, and succeeded in pushing them out of
Bouba Ndjidda and Cameroon. GPS collars have helped us to safeguard our
elephants, and we are very pleased to now use the same technique for lions. We
now have 10 lions monitored, including three collared earlier this year by an
excellent local NGO, Biodiversity, Environment and Sustainable Development.”
The ten collars are the latest high-tech tool to support the efforts of MINFOF
rangers to safely and efficiently protect the park’s wildlife. Paul Bour, the
Landscape Director for WCS assists the Cameroonian government in planning and
preparing anti-poaching patrols. “The data from the collars help us to be
strategic,” he said. “We receive lion locations four times a day, from the
collars via satellite directly to our laptops, so we see which areas of the
landscape lions use almost in real time. We can proactively prioritize those
areas for patrols, to ensure they are well protected and poachers cannot access
them.’
The collars will also provide insights into the ecology of lions from a region
of Africa where the species is poorly known. Dr Paul Funston of African Lion
Conservation worked with the team to capture the lions and said “Lions are
Endangered across Central Africa and most populations are very depleted with a
high level of threat. Bouba Ndjidda is exciting because lions are breeding well
in parts of the park but they do not seem to be raising as many cubs as we
would hope. Strong science with data from the collars will help to unravel that
mystery and other unknowns in the population”."
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/light-into-lightning/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
