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SCIENCEThursday 15 October 2015
Zimbabwe’s lion guard program helps protect rural villages
TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI lions. lions have collars with sat- blocks together to scare “We definitely know that
Associated Press Oxford University’s Lions ellite tracking devices so away the lions. They also the program has actu-
HWANGE NATIONAL PARK, Research Project has the researchers can inform use bright lights and light ally been able to chase
Zimbabwe (AP) — Stand- tracked and studied over surrounding villages when watch fires at night. some lions from the com-
ing 20 feet (six meters) from 30 lion prides (families) and where lions have left The name Long Shields re- munity back into the park
a lion, Charles Tshuma was in its 15 years here. See- the park. fers to the Matabele war- so in that way it becomes
armed with just a plastic ing many attacks by lions Equipped with mountain riors of the late 19th centu- effective,” said Lovelater
horn. He and some neigh- Sedede, a parks ecologist,
bors blew the vuvuzelas to In this photo taken Tuesday Sept. 29, 2015 a lion guard, wearing a lion-like mask, demonstrates but she warns: “Lions run-
frighten away the lion, but how he scares off lions using a plastic horn during a training session at their base in Hwange, ning away from the sound
the big cat did not budge. south west of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare. of vuvuzelas do not totally
They kept blowing their eradicate the problem.
horns and shouting and Associated Press Lions could get used to it
screaming until the lion and hence there is need
turned away and ambled wandering out of the park, bikes, mobile phones and ry who were known as “the for more research meth-
back into Hwange Nation- the researchers in 2007 a GPS tracker, the guards people of the long shields,” ods to fight lion and hu-
al Park, leaving Tshuma’s launched the Long Shields go to the area to turn back for the tall rawhide shields man conflict.”
rural community. program to reduce lion- the straying lions. They they carried into battle. The surrounding communi-
It’s not always so easy, said human conflicts. blow their vuvuzelas and Even though there’s an ties are pleased with the
Tshuma. Since then, there has been alert other members of the average of 30 lions-hu- results.
“Sometimes people in the a 40 percent decline in community. People then man conflicts per month, “We have noticed that the
village do not want to join those conflicts, according gather, carrying whips and communities surround- challenges from preda-
in to chase away the lions, to Brent Stapelkamp, a re- sticks and some wearing ing Hwange have seen a tors have gone down ...
choosing instead to lock searcher with the Oxford lion-like masks. They play decline in lions attacking our animals are protect-
themselves indoors,” he project. Many of Hwange’s drums and clap wooden cattle. ed and the predators are
said. kept away,” said Vincent
That is the life of Zimba- Mangenyo, a local leader.
bwe’s lion guards, brave Forty percent of the fatali-
community members se- ties of lions in the Oxford
lected and trained to pre- study are at the hands of
vent attacks on humans livestock owners or as a re-
and cattle by big cats who sult of their attacks on live-
stray from the unfenced stock, said Stapelkamp,
Hwange park, which representing the single
sprawls over 14,500 square biggest cause of death.
kilometers (5,625 sq. miles) “I can’t ... tell the world
in western Zimbabwe. that lions are the most im-
The killing of Cecil the lion portant thing in the world
by an American hunter and we must conserve
near Hwange park in them,” he said. “I can’t,
July caused international because there are people
outrage. But the biggest who are hungry, starving
threat to Hwange’s more in Zimbabwe. They lose all
than 500 lions is conflict their livestock to a lion in a
with surrounding cattle night.”
farmers, say researchers. But thanks to the Long
The innovative lion guard Shield guards, not only are
program is designed to livestock saved, noted Sta-
protect both humans and pelkamp, so are lions.q
