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SEQUEL TO THE LION INTRODUCTION AT LIUWA PLAIN

We sadly need to inform you that one of the young lionesses introduced last October from Kafue National Park into Liuwa Plain has gone missing and is presumed dead.  In early June we discovered her tracking collar underwater in a small pan in the Munde River. It had been cut by hand with a knife. We are following up all leads and consulting with our neighbouring communities to discern what could have happened and why.    Her sister, the second lioness brought from Kafue, went missing at the same time but after intensive searching by ground and air, we tracked her down in the north of the Park. However over the next few days she moved further north, breaching the northern boundary and heading towards the Angolan border, from where we would not have been able to retrieve her.

An arduous rescue operation ensued, together with our partners the Zambian Carnivore Programme, involving dozens of hours of driving and constant tracking by air as the lioness headed towards Angola, walking an average of 20 km per day. Realising that the roads were too perilous to bring her back safely by road, a helicopter was summoned just before nightfall on 6 June – by now the young lioness has walked over 120km in one week.   On 7 June the search continued and after several hours senior Liuwa scout Roger Monde spotted the young lioness in a reedbed.

Searching for the young lioness in a thick reedbed 

Several attempts were made to dart her from the helicopter but the watery location was too tricky. It was only in the late afternoon that she left the water and ran into open woodland where she was darted from the car. After running back into the reeds where she fell asleep, she was retrieved and prepared for the 30 minute helicopter flight back to the park. With the helicopter at the ready, the final challenge was whether the young lioness was light enough for the helicopter to carry her. With the light failing, Dr Matt Beckers and his colleague Dave Christense picked her up in her harness and ran with her until she lifted off, back to the safety of Liuwa Plain.   She is currently being held in the lion boma at Liuwa whilst we explore several alternatives to ensure she is returned safely back into the wild.

Date: 23 Jul 2012