I am visiting the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique to better understand how the Houston Zoo can assist with the conservation of lions in the park.

After hearing Malindro’s ( it is actually Malandro, but my American ears did not hear it correctly originally) collar with the distress signal on June 6th and not locating him or the collar on the 6th or 7th, we headed back to the river as the signal was definitely coming from the middle of it. After a 30 minute drive, 15 minutes paddling and a few minutes of diving by the NLP staff in 4 feet of water, Xavier found the collar another foot under the sand. 25 yards from the bank in 4 feet of water, the collars leather strap was hacked off by someone at the edges so it could be slipped off the lion and tossed in the river. I mentioned two days ago the game concessions were good at notifying the camp when they come across a collared lion. This looked very much like the local fisherman who set out snares while fishing to try and catch impala, kudu or waterbuck as well and the lions become a bycatch of the snares.

Malindro's Collar (right), Found in the River

This male was 6 and was traveling with his brother Madevu. They have been traveling with females and maintained this territory for hunting. For NLP who had just collared this male 1 year ago, the story repeats itself every year with males not able to survive in a territory for more than one year without being killed due to poaching or accidental snaring. If left alone, these males may have found a female, reproduced and grew the pride within their territory, instead it leaves Madevu traveling alone to hunt and not being able to hold this territory alone.

NLP’s research is a bit different here. Many programs look at diet, habitat suitability, reproduction rates, etc. The reason these lions are collared are simply to track how many are killed to try and develop solutions to the random snaring and poaching of lions.

Here is what most likely happen next: the females Fatima and Flavia are pregnant and Malindro and/or Madevu are the sires. Now that Madevu is alone, he will lose the territory to new males who will come in to take the territory and would then kill Fatima and Flavias offspring so they can reproduce. One lion killed (Malindro) is equal to 4-6 more being killed when new males move in.

I will bring home one of these broken collars to show the public during keeper chats and will send an update when we  follow Flavia, Fatima and hopefully Akomwana and her three cubs from last year before we leave.

Keep coming back to hear more about my experience with the lions of Mozambique.

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