Social structure of lions (Panthera leo) is affected by management in Pendjari Biosphere Reserve, Benin.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 24416263.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0084674 and PMC identifier 3885576.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Lion populations have undergone a severe decline in West Africa. As baseline for conservation management, we assessed the group structure of lions in the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve in Benin. This reserve, composed of one National Park and two Hunting Zones, is part of the WAP transboundary complex of protected areas. Overall mean group size was 2.6±1.7 individuals (n = 296), it was significantly higher in the National Park (2.7±1.7, n = 168) than in the Hunting Zones (2.2±1.5, n = 128). Overall adult sex ratio was even, but significantly biased towards females (0.67) in the National Park and towards males (1.67) in the Hunting Zones. Our results suggest that the Pendjari lion population is affected by perturbations, such as trophy hunting.
Medical subject headings
- Conservation of Natural Resources
- Ecosystem
- Lions