The feeding ecology and habitat use of lions reintroduced to small, enclosed reserves in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Lions have recently been introduced to a number of small (120kg), adult (41%) and male (39%) and the five most commonly killed species (kudu, black wildebeest, warthog, bushbuck and Blesbuck) comprised 67.9% of all kills and 67.8% of total biomass consumed. In an attempt to overcome the problem of gaps in the kill lists, a subset of data, which excluded kills more than five days apart, was analyzed and this gave similar results to analysis of the full kill lists. Mean daily intake rates varied annually between 2.26 and 5.23kg.FEQ⁻¹ for the full data set and 4.53 and 1 0.46kg.FEQ⁻¹ for the subset. The difference between estimated (calculated using daily intake rates of 5 and 7.12kg.FEQ⁻¹) and observed offtake for each ungulate species reflected the preference ratings for that species. Analysis of bone marrow indicated that: lions killed ungulates in moderate to good condition; condition of culled animals was lower than that of kills; distal bones could be used in analyses; and that that bones exposed to the environment for at least a week could be used to analyze condition of prey. Home ranges and activity centers ranged from 21.42km² to 73.27km² and 2.7lkm² to 17.47km² respectively, which was smaller than expected from previous studies. Although, lions at K wandwe and Shan1wari preferred different vegetation types, at both reserves they generally occupied areas that were structurally similar to what has previously been reported. Continuous monitoring and analyses of diet, including condition of the prey, and habitat use will provide reserve managers with some of the necessary information to enable them to effectively manage their lion populations and to predict and minimize potential problems