AHMEDABAD: In a unique study, Gujarat foresters followed 22 radio-collared lions for a year and their patience was rewarded with a stunning insight: a young sub-adult lion could go on a royal saunter across 1,111 sq km.
The foresters also found that the home range of a young lion pride, consisting of two members, had the massive spread of 3,785 sq km.
These jaw-dropping findings have appeared in the Spring 2021 edition of CatNews, a newsletter of the Cat Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The study is titled ‘Home Ranges of Asiatic Lions in the Asiatic Lion Landscape, Gujarat, India.’ The study was carried out in association with the Gujarat forest department.
A senior forest department official said that a 2019 study by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) had reported that the home range of a nomadic male was 832 sq km.
Three young non-nomadic adult males were observed in the latest study. The first had a range of 194 sq km; the second, 932 sq km; and the third, 528 sq km.
In 2019, a WII study projected the home range of lions in the Gir protected area to be 91 sq km and of lionesses to be 27 sq km. This study showed that the lion domains were larger than previously noted.
A senior forest department officer said that WII had found that one nomadic lion had a range of 832 sq km in the Greater Gir area.
A WII researcher who has studied the CatNews paper said that the numbers indicate population saturation in the Gir Sanctuary which is making lions venture out.
“In our study, we had found that the area covered by a lion on average was about 2,000 sq km,” the WII researcher said. “Now the new paper has shown a pride of two animals moving across 3,785 sq km.”
Officials in the forest department said that home ranges are dependent on prey abundance, prey dispersion, pride size, and water availability.
