New Lion cubs at Venetia

Category: Lions | Date: Feb 15 2008 | By: admin

A new litter of lions has been born on the reserve! We are not sure yet which of a pair of sisters has had the cubs, as they were both mated a few months ago. One sister, Tsotsi, was mated by a known male on the reserve, and the other, Picannin, by a strange male that was passing through. We are keeping our fingers crossed for it being the new male, so that we have some new blood on the reserve.

The lion population is important for the project as we are using it as a benchmark for testing the various census techniques. The lion population is well studied and we know exactly how many there are, so we can test the accuracy of each technique against a known figure. The populations of the other species are currently unknown, and we are just starting to get our first estimates now.
Interestingly, both the spoor counts, and the home range sizes of our 3 radio-collared Black-Backed Jackals, both suggest a figure of approximately 2.5 times the lion population, or between 64-68 Jackals on the reserve. The results are preliminary, but they are encouraging, both because they come out so close and because it is close to the estimate we would expect. For the species we detect less often on the spoor counts, such as Leopard and Cheetah, it may be that we first need to accumulate bigger data sets, or perhaps that other methods may be more appropriate for these elusive felids.

Many thanks to Theresa for the kind donation. We appreciate it and every bit helps towards furthering our work here

4 Responses to “New Lion cubs at Venetia”

Christine C., on 15 Feb 2008

Wonderful news…thanks for the update! Please post pictures when you can!

F. J. PECHIR, on 15 Feb 2008

Good news and thank you for the report!

THERESA SISKIND, on 15 Feb 2008

Rox, are you gathering information on the location of the spoor on the lions, leopards, and cheetahs. I read of a study done on caracals where spore counts and their location depended on the season. During hot weather, very little evidence of caracals near ranches and farms because prey was plentiful. However, during the winter months, spoor counts increased near these risky areas, when their natural prey base had decreased. So much information can be deduced from your census…fascinating stuff. Excited about the cubs, gotta love it!

limpopocarnivores, on 17 Feb 2008

That study on the Caracals is something of a classic. Our environment here is a little different from in most of subsaharan Africa in that it is a checkerboard of 2m high game fences. Our farm is 2200ha and is about average for the area. Every little farm is fenced in in this way. Obviously our big question with the spoor counts is the extent to which these fences affect spoor density, because we see that the fences are used alot. It makes sense that, even where the fences are not completely impermeable, the animal must walk some distance along a fence until it finds a hole. The South African situation is quite unique in this way as fences are the norm here, sadly. Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve, where I am based, is made up of lots of these farms that were bought and put together and the fences removed, but is still surrounded by these little pocket farms, so the use of fences is quite an important aspect of my study.

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