Abstract
In South Africa, more than 30 small, enclosed game reserves have reintroduced
lions over the last two decades, which now house more than 500 individuals. There
is a high risk of inbreeding in these fragmented, fenced and isolated populations,
which may be compounded by a lack of management guidelines. A population of
11 founder lions Panthera leo was reintroduced to Madikwe Game Reserve in
1995, and this population has in turn become a source for reestablishing other
populations. Only four lineages were reintroduced, founder males were related to
founder females, and since 1997, only one male lineage maintained tenure for
49 years, resulting in breeding with direct relatives. Interventionist management
to limit lion population growth and inbreeding in Madikwe has taken the form of
translocating, trophy hunting and culling of mainly sub adult lions. Despite this
management, inbreeding started 5 years after reintroduction. Reproductive performance
and thus population growth in Madikwe were dependent on the overall
lion population density. When lion density was low, females first gave birth at a
significantly younger age and produced larger litters, resulting in a high population
growth rate, which decreased significantly when lion density in the park reached
carrying capacity, that is, 61 lions. This might have profound consequences for
future reestablishment of lion populations when restocking new reserves: our study
illustrates the need for founder populations of reintroduced endangered predator
species to be as large and genetically diverse as possible, and thereafter new genetic
material should be supplemented. The development of such management guidelines
is becoming very important as large predator populations become increasingly
fragmented and managed as metapopulations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1001446 |
| Date | 30 June 2010 |
| Creators | Trinkel, M, Funston, P, Hofmeyr, M, Dell, S, Packer, C, Slotow, R |
| Publisher | The Zoological Society of London |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | |
| Rights | c 2010 The Zoological Society of London |
| Relation | Animal Conservation |
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