Lion

[Peter Betts]

What a mess

Diesel engines running, too many cars, people talking, OSV blocking the sight

Disneyland at its best ..Stock car racing and rodeo all in one ..Kudu probably couldnt hear the Lion over the sounds of reving engines and a quiet tar road ..Dirt roads are noisier

[Richprins]

Remarkable luck! So they are not just lazy!

[Klipspringer]

https://www.nje.org.na/index.php/nje/ar ... tander/27/

Lions (Panthera leo) specialising on a marine diet in the Skeleton Coast National Park, Namibia

ABSTRACT
The Skeleton Coast National Park in the northwest of Namibia supports a small population of African lions (Panthera leo) that are adapted to the harsh hyper-arid conditions. After a period of prolonged human-lion conflict during the 1980s lions disappeared from the Skeleton Coast for more than a decade. Due to favourable conditions, such as the development of co munal conservancies and the growth of tourism in the area, lion populations started to recover along the Skeleton Coast in 2002. However, it took another 15 years for the lions to rediscover the rich marine food resources that their predecessors utilised in the 1980s. In 2017 two prides of lions started hunting cormorants (Phalacrocorax spp.) and Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) on a regular basis. Over a period of 18 months, three young lioness of the Hoanib Floodplain pride killed two greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus), 60 cormorants and 18 seals. The marine diet contributed to 79% of their food items and 86% of the biomass they consumed during this period. The marine resources along the intertidal zone of the Skeleton Coast provide an important source of energy and nutrients to lions that they could rely on when their terrestrial food resources are scarce.

The first confirmed evidence of lions utilising marine
food items along the Skeleton Coast came in March
2006 when lionesses from the Hoaruseb pride were
observed feeding on a Cape fur seal on a beach north
of the Hoaruseb River. During the next ten years,
lions were observed feeding on adult seals on a total
of nine occasions. Similar to the findings by
Bridgeford (1985) from the early 1980s, most of the
incidents occurred in the vicinity of the Hoanib and
Hoaruseb Rivers with two records from the Uniab
River and one from the Huab River (Figure 2). At
least three seals were killed by lions and since the
cause of death of the remaining six seals was not
confirmed, they may have been scavenged.

Up until the end of 2016 the killing and/or scavenging
of seals by lions in the SCNP was opportunistic and
sporadic. There are four Cape fur seal colonies
situated within reach of where lions were distributed
during that period (Figure 2). Based on the
movements of radio-collared lions and spoor surveys
along the coast, none of the lions visited the colonies,
nor did they appear to be aware of the rich food
resources on offer.

Early in 2017, when conditions for lions throughout
the Desert population were difficult due to poor
rainfall, the Hoanib Floodplain pride and the
Uniab/Obab pride started using the rich marine food
source along the coast. They were also the two prides
with the largest proportion of coastal habitat in their
respective home ranges (Table 1) and that visited the
coastline most often.

Lions from the Uniab/Obab pride have been visiting
the Uniab Delta on a regular basis since 2014. They
moved along the coastal zone between Torra Bay and
Terrace Bay and fed primarily on gemsbok and
ostriches. In April 2017 one lioness that was in poor
condition started killing cormorants at Torra Bay.
During a two-day period, she was observed catching
and consuming six white-breasted cormorants, four
Cape cormorants and one adult brown hyaena. The
lioness then moved further south along the coast and
started to prey on Cape fur seals from the Koigab
colony. Over a period of four weeks she killed and
consumed a minimum of eight adult seals.

At the mouth of the Hoanib River three young
lionesses from the Hoanib Floodplain pride began
depending on a marine diet in March 2017. Their
mother died of natural causes when the lionesses
were barely a year old. Driven by hunger and
desperation, the young lionesses found their way over
the dunes and swam onto an island at a fresh-water
spring near the coast. Here they started killing
cormorants that roost on the island at night
(Figure 5a). They became skilled in hunting a wider
range of wetland birds, including flamingos and redbilled teals (Anas erythrorhyncha). The large
numbers of resident Cape and white-breasted
cormorants provided them with a nutritious and
reliable marine diet. The lionesses began following
the large flocks of cormorants and hunting them at night on the mud-flats and along the coastline
(Figure 5b). This brought them into contact with
Cape fur seals from the Möwe Bay colony that rest
on the beaches. At first the lions scavenged seal
carcasses that they found along the beaches (n=5),
and then they expropriated seal carcasses from brown
hyaenas (n=2). Early in 2018 the lionesses started
killing seals themselves. Initially they took only
juveniles of less than a year old, but as they became
more experienced they selected larger seals of >50kg,
including a few adult females (Figure 5c & d).

During visual observations on 62 days and
supplemented by spoor reconstructions in the coastal
habitat between May 2017 and November 2018, the
lionesses killed and consumed a total 89 animals of
eight different species (Table 2). The majority of their
food items were cormorants (n=60) and seals (n=13).
The 89 food items provided an estimated 701 kg of
edible biomass that the lionesses consumed. Marine
species (seals, cormorants and flamingos combined)
contributed 79% of the food items and 86% of the
biomass that the lionesses consumed during the
observation periods. On numerous occasions the
lionesses were observed exploring the intertidal zone
and investigating items in shallow water (Figure 5c).
But it was not possible to determine whether or not
they utilised any other marine organisms.

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

I have seen a documentary on this

[Flutterby]

Pescatarian lions!

[Klipspringer]

Give them some time and they will learn fishing!

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
18h18 hours ago

3:38 pm
1 Lion stationary
'Lioness very badly injured '
H2-2, Outspan Plaque
Near Malelane
5/5
Tinged by Mareike
(Photo)