The African lion is an iconic species that is in peril. Lions now exist in less than 10% of their former range with swift and dramatic population declines experienced over the last 25 years across East Africa. The country of Uganda, for example, which is a very wildlife-rich region now has fewer than 500 individual lions in the whole country. Though the threats to lion are many, one issue that is particularly problematic is wire snaring. Set principally to catch medium-sized wild ungulates (kob, hartebeest, bushbuck, etc…) for meat, wire snares are indiscriminate and just as capable of capturing lions as their intended targets.

Murchison Falls National Park is the largest national park in Uganda. There we are studying the population dynamics of lions in an effort to quantify the effects of snaring on lions. We are quantifying the proportion of the population that has snaring injuries (as seen in the above photo) and working to estimate the effects of snaring on population persistence in this park. Additionally, we are working with the communities surrounding Murchison Falls to identify the root source of snaring. If we want to save lions, we can only succeed through community conservation efforts that address the root cause of snaring.