The African Lions of Central Kalahari Botswana

Using GPS fixes data from 13 collared African lions in the Central Kalahari Reserve, Botswana, I aim to explore behavioural patterns related to their movements by distinguishing periods of resting and active movement within their territories. While active movement may include exploratory movements, searching, or hunting, these cannot be directly be distinguished from the GPS because of the intervals. Therefore, the focuses is on identifying resting sites and areas of repeated use and how these are dependent on the sex of the lion, time of day and temperature. Early results using step distances and time between fixes, suggest that lions do not use their space uniformly, but instead concentrate activity in specific areas that may reflect feeding or resting sites. This is still a work in progress and I keep refining methods and interpretations, but here is an interactive map (of 6 lions) to play with as you wait .. Enjoy

On the interactive map, GPS points of lions were coloured by individual lion ID and scaled by the time a lion spent on that location in hours (waiting time). Larger circles represent longer waiting times, highlighting potential areas of resting, feeding, or repeated use. Clustering of large points may suggests potential kill sites and strong site fidelity within the lion territory. Smaller points may suggest the lion was searching or travelling.