Newsletter November 2019

Friday 15 November 2019

A meeting was held in Swakopmund with MET and all the stakeholders to discuss the next phase of implementing the NW Human-lion Conflict Management Plan.

​The DLCT continued working on developing better mechanisms to limit off-road driving and to manage and maintain the existing road network. We engaged with MET & tourism concession holders to repair damaged roads and to improve driving skills in the Skeleton Coast Park.

An annual report was compiled and submitted to NCRST along with a renewal application for our research permit. An information poster and a data form were designed to alert visitors of the presence of lions in the Skeleton Coast Park. This is aimed at the influx of visitors to Torra Bay during the December/January holiday period.

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During the past five months a lioness that gave birth to two cubs in a reed-bed close to the ocean continued to raise the two cubs along the coastline in the Skeleton Coast Park. Her movements have been concentrated well inside the seasonal Torra Bay fishing area that will be occupied by several hundred fishermen between 1 Dec 2019 and 31 Jan 2020. In collaboration with MET, NWR & the Ministry of Fisheries, a concerted effort will be make to prevent any interactions and/or conflicts between the visitors/fishermen and the lions on the coast. In order to achieve that a newly acquired satellite collar must be fitted to the lioness.

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