Landscape of technology solution for African lion conservation

Jacobo Domingo Gil

@jdomingo
| He/Him

I am an enthusiast for nature, technology development, biodiversity conservation and nature inspired design. I posses a technical and environmental background, and I am looking to explore the potential that advance technology has to empower the field of nature conservation.

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Human-Wildlife Conflict

I am currently begining to research the topic of African Lion conservation, and in particular human-lion interaction, from a technological perspective. I would like to get an overview of what the landscape currently looks like in terms of tech solutions developed to improve lion conservation. And in particular solutions that are directed to track, understand and improve interaction between lions and humans. I came across this open-source platform that was developed using ML to improve lion identification (https://linclion.org/)

Could anyone working on this field or with knowledge of it, provide me with some pointers?

Thank you very much!

Carly Batist

@carlybatist | she/her

Science Outreach Lead-Rainforest Connection (RFCx) & ArbimonEcoacoustics, biodiversity monitoring, primates, lemurs

15 January 2024 3:07pm

I believe the folks at WildMe have been looking at individual re-ID of lions - @holmbergius ?

WildCru also does a ton of work on lion conservation using all sorts of tech - @Egil @AmyFitzmaurice

Lion Landscapes does a lot of work on mitigating human-lion conflict as well - @amydickman

OpenCollar as well - @Tim_van_Dam

Jacobo Domingo Gil

15 January 2024 3:07pm

Thanks for your reply! I will take a look at those projects/companies you sent through.

Hopefully I can also have a chat with those in charge that you have tagged :)

Maureen Reilly

15 January 2024 3:07pm

Hi there, we have individual lion ID capability in the African Carnivore Wildbook (ACW), along with the same for 9 other African carnivore species. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to know more or get an account. It's a fully open source system and free to use for accredited researchers and conservationists.

The linclion system is run by Lion Guardians in Kenya and it also has individual lion ID capabilities. We (Tech 4 Conservation) have been collaborating with them for several years now to improve our respective lion capabilities for the benefit of the lion conservation community overall.

Lion Guardians' main focus is to mitigate human-lion conflict. They've been doing this for almost 20 years and so have extensive experience. You can read more about their program and approach here.

We're also trialing a LoRaWAN tracking system with them to add to their existing human-lion conflict mitigation program should it prove successful.

I hope that helps.

Jacobo Domingo Gil

15 January 2024 3:07pm

Hi Maureen,

Thank you very much for your insights. I would definitely like to connect with you and discuss this further! I will reach out to you so we can potentially schedule a quick call and chat about this further.

Thank you,
Best regards,

Travis Bayer

@TravisBayer

Movement Ecologist studying the where, why, and how animals move throughout our world. Current work is investigating the movement and energetics of large neotropical bats in a changing environment with ephemeral resources.

16 January 2024 10:23pm

Hi Jacobo!

We are currently working out the details of a lion movement study in SA using a few different bio-logging devices. If you are interested in hearing more about this study, or just general chatter about wildlife technology (whats being used and where future potential lies), feel free to shoot me an email! [email protected]

Cheers!

Travis

Hassan

@Hassangollo2024 | mr

social worker and Conservationist

24 January 2024 8:48pm

Isiolo County Conservancies Association is a conservation umbrella organization that brings together 12 community conservancies working in Isiolo County, East Africa, Kenya

On Human-Wildlife Conflict we are closing working with KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service ) A Government entity that leads wildlife Conservation, we recently distributed Predator lights in affected Communities in Isiolo County, and we are planning to initiate research to assess the conflict cases if it reduced by How much percentage this will be done Through Focal Group Discussion, one on one meeting at Boma, interview, and also visit those far Boma or Community without Predator Light to get the feedback. The Research will Guide all Conservation Partners to bring synergy and work together to address the Human-Wildlife Conflict.

My appeal is that ICCA is a new Organization and any willing Partner who is ready to walk with us on this journey is mostly welcome

Thank you

Simon Chamaillé-Jammes

@schamaille

Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)

Behavioural ecologist @CNRS in France - working mostly on ungulates in Europe and Africa

27 January 2024 12:49pm

Hello Jacobo,

we are now deploying all our collars with a custom-designed audiologger (add-on module to screw to the collar), which allows to get a lot of information about the animal's behaviour and it's environment. We're getting great data from lions in protected areas and I'm curious to see whether it could useful to better understand human-lions interactions. We have done a bit of this with audiologgers on wild boars in France and it was interesting. Reach out if you are interested to discuss this more.