https://hakaimagazine.com/news/in-namibia-lions-are-king-of-the-beach/
"On a desolate stretch of Namibia’s arid Skeleton Coast National Park, an
invisible fence is keeping lions and visitors apart.
Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism and the nonprofit
Desert Lion Conservation Trust (DLCT) created the virtual fence line, known as
a geofence, to track lions approaching a 40-kilometer stretch of beach around
Torra Bay, a popular fishing and camping area. Each time a lion wearing a
satellite collar crosses the geofence, the system records the animal’s GPS
coordinates and sends automatic alerts to the DLCT’s lion rangers and managers
of the local campsite, who close the area to visitors.
The early warning system is in response to a number of potentially dangerous
incidents between lions and people. In one last year, a party of recreational
anglers got too close to a lioness on a beach near Torra Bay, and the animal
charged their vehicle.
Fortunately, no one was injured, but the odds of aggressive interactions are
increasing as Namibia’s desert lions re-establish themselves on the Skeleton
Coast.
Lions in Namibia’s northwest, renowned for eking out a living amid the Namib
Desert’s harsh gravel plains and endless dunes, have a history of feeding on
marine species, such as Cape fur seals, beached whales, and cormorants.
Remarkably, they are the only lions known to target marine prey. But in the
1980s, the desert lions abandoned the coast after local farmers wiped out most
of the population.
When lions returned in 2002, it was a sign that the population was recovering.
But the animals were no longer hunting marine prey, and lion ecologist Philip
Stander, who founded DLCT, worried that the population had lost the knowledge.
In the last eight years, though, three orphaned lionesses, known to the
researchers as Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, have led a coastal hunting revival on
the beaches around Torra Bay. The resurgence is exciting, but it has also
brought risks; it was likely one of these lions—or a fourth, known as
Xpl-108—who charged the anglers’ car last year."
Via
The Fixer March 1, 2023:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/climate-action-is-a-four-day-work-week/>
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
