THE tragic and wasteful death of the last remaining pride of lions in the Hoaruseb could be the catalyst needed for change, Dr Philip Stander said last week.
Speaking to The Namibian on Friday, the lion researcher who spent thousands of hours with the Hoaruseb pride said despite the “waste ... the big thing is not to lose faith and heart”.
He stressed that he hopes “that these lions did not die in vain. I think there is a real chance for things to actually change now.”
The reaction of the Purros community, who have expressed their own feelings of loss of their “resident pride”, is to Stander an encouraging sign.
He said it is important to realise that living amidst predators who threaten a community’s well-being, is a tough situation. The bottom line, he said, is that “local communities who live with these lions, they are in a completely different situation than the rest of the world”. While free roaming lions contribute to tourism, living daily amongst predators is another story. But, through the past number of years, the Purros community worked hand in hand with Stander and tourist organisations to find mutually beneficial solutions of addressing conflict with the Hoaruseb pride. The aim was to find means in which the benefits of living with a pride of lions outweighed the negative aspects.
Now with the “sudden death of the lions”, Stander says he hopes the “penny dropped” as to the value of working to conserve and protect the predators.
Stander added that if the conservancy members “on their own accord feel this was a bad move” then “we have won a major battle”.
Stander said his close bond with the Hoaruseb pride was forged during thousands of hours he spent studying and monitoring them over the past decade.
“I watched them grow and become hardcore lionesses. From insecure young cubs to finding their feet and having their own cubs”, he said.
The time Stander spent with the lions - sleeping for months at a time in a sleeping bag next to his trusted research vehicle in the Skeleton Coast park and the Hoaruseb river – gave him, and the world, a chance to learn behavioural secrets of the desert lion.
“It was a fantastic privilege to do that. To share a part of their lives, and to learn the intricacies of how they live and how they operate.” He says the Hoaruseb pride gave the world a trove of valuable data on free roaming lions, which was impossible to imagine a decade ago.
As the Hoaruseb pride grew familiar with his research vehicle and with Stander himself, he was able to glean previously unknown facts about the lives of lions. “They allowed me into their lives, providing a fantastic opportunity to learn so much”.
Now his focus will shift to the 30 radio collared lions roaming other areas in the Kunene region.
Stander is confident that another pride could annex the Hoaruseb River valley again. The Hoanib area is “where the most likely dispersal could come from”, he said.
He’s pinning his hope on the fact if the lions do move back into the area “not soon, but I think if they do, things might be very different”.
For Stander, the return to the Hoaruseb could mark an important event – the loss and regret that many in the Purros community have expressed over their resident lions following the fatal poisoning of the last three lionesses – could translate into a different attitude and approach towards lion conservation and predator human conflict resolution.
Moreover, if there is acceptance of their return, then it could prove a major motivation for other conservancies.
For Stander, the death of the Hoaruseb lions – though “an absolute tragedy” – does not mean a complete loss. “Their death does not remove the progress we had made. That is why it is important to carry on”.