The Movement of Lions: New Hope in the Ngorongoro Crater Area

In today’s world, large carnivores like African lions face shrinking wild spaces and fragmented landscapes. These pressures are driving population declines, but recent studies co-authored by Lincoln Park Zoo scientists and the dedicated team at zoo partner KopeLion shed light on how lions are adapting to survive in shared landscapes, and how conservation efforts to promote coexistence between humans and lions can have a positive impact on their long-term survival chances.

Ngorongoro Lions—Some Background

These studies were conducted in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania, where lions and humans share space. Unfortunately, this state of affairs isn’t always harmonious. Lions attack the livestock owned by local pastoralists, who raise animals for a living; lions can also harm people more directly. In return, the pastoralists may hunt the lions in retaliatory killings. Humans also contribute to habitat loss and the poaching of wild prey animals, which makes it harder for lions to survive without clashing with humans.

In this region, lions are safest when they are in protected areas. However, parks and reserves tend to be surrounded by unprotected, multi-use areas that include human settlements. One of the best-studied lion populations lives in the Ngorongoro Crater. Because this community is isolated, it’s hard for the lions to travel outside to places like the Ndutu region, which is contiguous with the vast ecosystem of Serengeti National Park.

That kind of travel allows lions to meet and mate with others of their kind. As they do so, their gene pool expands, reducing the risk of extinction. Thus, conservationists have made it their priority to connect landscapes, allowing the lions to move freely between subpopulations that are separated from one another by geography. Basically, the lions need safe routes to travel from place to place, and people—including the Ilchokuti, or “lion guardians” of KopeLion—are working to provide that for them.

Image credit: KopeLion

Adapting to Multi-use Landscapes

One study, published last fall in PLOS One by Lincoln Park Zoo and KopeLion scientists and conducted in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area, explored how lions navigate that human-occupied landscape. Using GPS collars and movement-tracking tools, the study revealed the ways in which lions are adjusting their behavior to minimize conflict with humans while maintaining connections between subpopulations—an essential factor in their survival.

The study’s findings are encouraging. Lions—especially nomadic males critical for maintaining genetic diversity because they move around and mate in different areas—are adapting to the presence of humans by using more cover and avoiding settlements, especially during the day. Meanwhile, female lions showed a stronger tendency to avoid humans, demonstrating extra caution when near human activity. This behavioral flexibility suggests that lions have the ability to safely navigate a landscape used by pastoralists and their livestock. This is essential to ensuring that lions can move freely, increasing genetic diversity.

Image of the Serengeti by Dennis Rentsch

Hope for Separated Populations

Another study, co-led by Lincoln Park Zoo’s Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology and KopeLion, was just released by the journal Conservation Science and Practice. It illustrates the importance of including communities in conservation solutions for lions. The work documented the positive impacts of KopeLion’s long-term work, which started in 2011 and incorporated the Ilchokuti in 2014.

More than 50 years’ worth of observational data and 11 years of movement data from GPS collars were analyzed to discover whether conservation actions affect the ability of lions to move across lands marked by human habitation. The study found that negative interactions between humans and lions went down between 2016–2021. In fact, dozens of hunts to kill lions were prevented. In 2014, when the Ilchokuti program began, 13 lion kills were recorded. These went down to zero by 2023, despite an increase in livestock attacks by lions. This reduction is thanks to the Ilchokuti’s efforts within their communities, where they prevent conflict by warning herders of the presence of lions, retrieving lost livestock that are vulnerable to attack, and diffusing tense situations to prevent retaliation when lions do take livestock.

Image credit: Lincoln Park Zoo/KopeLion

Meanwhile, the study documents how male lions born in the Ngorongoro Crater started moving out of their home more often, traveling between the Crater and Ndutu. Male lions also moved more often into the Crater during that time. The GPS tracking data showed that the lions were regularly traversing the multi-use landscapes that the Ilchokuti patrol. Since then, more communities have asked to be involved with the Ilchokuti program. All these are great signs for lion conservation—but there’s more work to be done.

Illustrating that reality, an extreme drought—coupled with increasing pressure from more people and their animals moving into the multi-use area—caused a spike in both livestock attacks and retaliatory killings in 2022. This resulted in 10 dead lions that year. The uptick proved that there is a limit to how much local communities will tolerate, and that the relationship between people and animals is a tenuous and unpredictable one that changes based on local conditions. Since that peak, KopeLion has redoubled its efforts in the area, and livestock attacks and retaliatory killings have dropped back down.

KopeLion and The Story of Laramasi-A

Laramasi-A is a lion named for his thick mane (“laramasi” is a term used to refer to people with a lot of hair in the local Maa language). KopeLion first spotted this male lion in 2022 in a multi-use area between two protected areas—Ndutu and the Ngorongoro Crater.

Two years later, he was spotted again—this time, in the Crater Highlands that contain the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. And, in an exciting development, he was with two females known to originate from inside the Crater. His ability to move safely through the 20 miles between his first territory and the Crater area is exactly what KopeLion hoped for. Mixing between these populations allows for more genetic diversity and a better chance for survival for future generations of lions.

Laramasi-A’s travel, along with these two studies, shows that KopeLion’s conservation methods are working—and that the organization’s work will continue to play an essential role in this ongoing conservation story. KopeLion takes actions that are vital to guarding the future of lions in this region. Through collaboration with the local Maasai people, KopeLion combines scientific research with cultural understanding to create lasting solutions that benefit both people and wildlife.

Image credit: KopeLion

“KopeLion’s work has been instrumental in stabilizing and increasing local lion populations in the NCA by enabling coexistence between people and lions,” explains Ololotu Munka, the executive director of KopeLion. “Through our community-led model, we’ve reduced conflict, enhanced lion monitoring, and restored lion connectivity across the NCA and other bordering areas like Maswa and Serengeti. These efforts not only protect lions but also support pastoralist communities in safeguarding their livelihoods.”

The hard work of organizations like KopeLion, combined with the support of places like Lincoln Park Zoo and the adaptive capacity of lions—as illustrated in these two studies—suggests that there are good strategies that can allow the persistence of healthy lion populations as well as thriving local communities.

Senior Director of Population Ecology Lisa Faust, Ph.D., says, “As we reflect on the success of this research, we at the zoo are proud to be part of such a meaningful collaboration. Through continued research and community-based conservation, we can help secure a future for one of the world’s most iconic species.”