Lions and Human conflict - What to do during Lockdown

It might be lockdown for 'civilisation', but pastoral farmers and Lion's lives still go on..

We have around 64 Lions collared with GPS tacking collars, detected by 18 ground loggers, distributed among village areas and 'Hot-Spots', sending detections and positions in real time to out monitoring and response stations.

In addition there are 20 Prime lions ( a pride leader, or major male or female in a lion clan) fitted with real time IRIDIUM GPS tracking collars.

We have been trying since the beginning of the year to fit another 34 collars, and install another 12 loggers, and the lockdown has really messed this up. The Lions are ignoring the lockdown and still causing trouble/being threatened...

The recent 5 years drought have forced the farmers with there goats and cattle into areas reserved for Wildlife, and this last season was particularly bad. The problem just grows - population is increasing - the farmers want to 'live' in a 'modern' westen world - most have some vehicle or vehicles withing the small community, all have cell phones, many have SAT TV, but they all still want to live as there ancestors did - Woman do the work - men sit on there bums and watch, cattle just left to roam and find food themselves, and if the cattle walk past a hungry Lion..Then the men get up and do some work - get the vehicle, the gun, and go shoot the Lion..

Even with the Logger located at the village - the logger will detect a collar at up to 5km away, line of sight, and sound a siren, activate one or two of 4 directional floodlights giving a direction the Lion is in, and a set of WHITE/RED/GREEN/BLUE  Hi-Brite LEDS, giving the range to the Lion - 100m, 250m, 600m, or further than 1000m.

This all to aid them in taking some action - bring the cattle into the coral, bring in the dog, the Wife, himself, etc.

Instead , they use the info to go find the lion and shoot it...

Some of the Farmers are coming over to the world of sense, but so slowly...

In some areas, Lions have had to be euthanised because the people will not abide - we have tried darting, and relocating them ( The Lions, that is..)- sometimes up to 400km away. They just go back...

We have so many education programs being executed, so many support groups, many Rapid response teams that go out when a Logger detects a Lions, and assist in tracking and chasing the lion - most time, before the team arrives, the Lion is shot! Unless the Lions is actually threatening human life, or seen to attack livestock, shooting them is illegal, so they use the same vehicle to carry the Lion into the middle of the village and stage a scene..good trackers break through that farce quickly..

What a world we live in.

So, I spent the last 4 weeks of our lockdown making more collars, loggers, and all the electronics that goes in them!

GPS Tags

IRIDIUM SAT Tags

Solder Paste Stencil - Brass shimstock

Paste applied to RF Tranceiver module, ready to place tiny electronic parts!

Parts placed and reflow-soldered

Many RF Transceiver modules assembled..

Many collars in progress..

Edited By Joseph Noci 1 on 20/04/2020 10:26:04

You are doing good work. Kudos and thankyou.

Regards,

from someone who understands.

+1 on what thaiguzzi said, I used to live in that part of the world, so like to keep up with the current events.

Fascinating, it must be quite a thrill working closely with such majestic animals, even when they are anaesthetized. Lots of work in those trackers too, must take some time to assemble even with the aid of jigs and templates. Well done.

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I think you instinctively know what would the better thing to do, Joe

___ MichaelG.

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Keep up the amazing work

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 20/04/2020 13:54:44

Glad to see you are using GPS modules from my former employer...

Many thanks for sharing that Joseph, that is very worthwhile.

Brian

Interesting stuff, thanks Joe.

Neil

Thank You to All for the kind words and encouragement. It is difficult to keep being enthusiastic and positive sometimes. Education is key, but its takes generations for the mindset to even begin to change - and my generation is almost over... The male dominated and entrenched beliefs in Muti and Witchdoctoring and the tribal mentalities in a world very different from even 30 years ago....

I am happy if I save one Lion a month..

Thanks all.

Joe