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Gary Bushell
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

How DSWF is protecting Lions

How DSWF is protecting Lions

Lions are facing a catastrophic decline, with their population in Africa dropping by an unprecedented and unsustainable 50% in 20 years. DSWF’s efforts to protect lions has been focused on Uganda, but we also support ground-based conservation partners who work to protect key lion habitats in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Leon Molennar
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
Habitat Restoration & Protection

Habitat restoration & protection

Removing snares, protecting lion strongholds

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
Research and awareness

Research and awareness

Monitoring key behaviours and pride patterns, establishing territories and distributions.

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
Anti-poaching

Anti-poaching operations

Anti-poaching and anti-trafficking operations to ensure criminal groups are apprehended in Africa

Fight. Protect. Engage. Fight. Protect. Engage.

How DSWF is protecting lions

Matt Armstrong-Ford
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

DSWF has been funding conservation in Uganda since 1998. Our funding has been focused on Murchison Falls National Park, the biggest remaining lion stronghold in the country. Murchison was once abundant in wildlife, but from the 1970s onwards, poaching exploded, and the park was essentially lawless, with rebel groups controlling large swathes of the area. Wildlife populations resultantly collapsed.

DSWF has supported projects to restore Murchison to its former glory.  Key to this has been extensive ranger patrols and snare sweeps, alongside vast improvements to the infrastructure of the park, including new ranger stations and a vastly improved communications system which now covers over 80% of the park, (compared to 5% previously). Huge challenges remain; budgets are low, especially following the pandemic and given the impact of global price rises – and Murchison remains a difficult park to protect, given the deep bush in many places and the inaccessibility of other areas in the rainy season.

The project protects lions through anti-poaching patrols but also through innovative use of technology, tracking them with satellite collars and using Earth Ranger. The collaring work is still in its infancy, but as more lions are collared, a clearer picture will emerge of threats facing the lions and how to protect them. It is thought lion populations in Murchison have at worst, stabilised, and are perhaps slightly increasing – hugely encouraging news, especially given declining populations in the rest of Uganda. Just as importantly, the population of the lion’s main prey, the Ugandan kob, are exploding, meaning there is a more than healthy prey base, capable of supporting a larger and more robust population of lions in the future.

Wesley Hartmann
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

With your donations DSWF will continue to support

  • Wildlife Ranger training and welfare programmes supporting the brave men and women on the frontline in Uganda
  • Collaring of individual lions to monitor key behaviours and pride patterns in Uganda
  • Monitoring to establish lion territories, distributions and interactions with local communities
  • Law enforcement operations and anti-poaching patrols to ensure lion habitats are protected
  • Undercover investigations into the illegal trade of big cat parts and consumption in Asia
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

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All donations will help us continue our vital work conservation work to protect endangered species and turn the tide on extinction.

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