[Animals] Why are India’s lions increasingly swapping the jungle for the beach?

[FRIDAY THE 13]

 

It was one morning, while walking on the beach in Gujarat, that wildlife expert Meena Venkataraman spotted a pair of paw prints. But this was no dog or fox that had visited. The footprints belonged to an Asiatic lion, the king of the jungle – and, increasingly, the beach.

Once found throughout Mesopotamia, Persia and the Indian subcontinent, the Asiatic lion was almost driven to extinction by the early 1900s due to hunting and habitat loss, before a nawab in the western Indian state of Gujarat intervened. Today, the state is the only home of the Asiatic lion.

While most of the nearly 700 animals counted in 2020 are found in the dry, deciduous terrain of the Gir forest and its surrounding protected areas, many have been moving to seaside locales.

Between 2010 and 2020, the number of lions living along Gujarat’s coast rose from 20 to 104, and forest officials in Gujarat say coastal habitats are now the most significant of all satellite habitats that the lions occupy.

Lions on the sandy beach, walking at the edge of the sea, is an incredible sight
Meena Venkataraman, wildlife expert
Finding lions in coastal areas is not unprecedented – in Namibia, lions have adapted to the beach, where they hunt seals – but in India it is unusual, says Venkataraman, principal consultant at Carnivore Conservation and Research.

“Lions using the sandy beach and walking at the edge of the sea is an incredible sight. I have had the good luck to see that a few times,” she says.

In November 2022, researchers from Gujarat’s forest department released findings from the first study of coastal Asiatic lions. Between 2019 and 2021, they monitored 10 lions fitted with GPS radio collars. One question they set out to answer was what kind of habitats the coastal lions were using, says Mohan Ram, deputy conservator of forests in Gir, and lead author of the study.The answers were surprising, says Venkataraman, who was also part of the study. “They shelter in the prosopis plantations in the western coasts [of Gujarat]. These are very thick and very thorny habitats,” she says, adding that it’s unusual because the lion is believed to be a more “open area” animal. Meanwhile, “in the eastern coasts, lions are actually making use of salt pan areas and mangroves”.

The researchers also compared the characteristics of the dispersing lions to those in Gir. “Interestingly, we found the home ranges to be different,” says Venkataraman. Lions living in coastal habitats had larger home ranges – the area where an animal usually roams – than those living in the Gir protected areas. Those living between the forest and coastal areas – the “link lions” – were found to have even larger home ranges, she says.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/19/why-are-indias-lions-increasingly-swapping-the-jungle-for-the-beach-aoe