Home range size and space use patterns of African lions (Panthera leo) in Chizarira National Park, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Home range size and space use patterns are fundamental concepts for understanding animal movement and ecological needs, and are the most commonly reported ecological attributes of free-ranging mammals. The objectives of this study were to determine the home range sizes and drivers of space use patterns of free-roaming resident lions (Panthera leo) in Chizarira National Park (CNP). Using movement data from four GPS collared prides, the adehabitatHR package was used to compute the home range sizes of the prides between 2017 and 2019. Five environmental factors were hypothesized as a priori to be good predictors of lion space use, namely: prey species, elevation, human settlements, water points, and habitat type. Based on the five environmental predictors, maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model was used to assist in understanding the main drivers of lion space use in CNP. Validation performance of the MaxEnt model was done using the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) concept. The prop. test was run at 95% confidence interval to see if there were seasonal significance differences in the home range sizes of the study prides. The home range sizes varied from 95.99 km² to 316.53 km² and from 50.53 km² to 706.89 km² (95% KDE) in dry and wet seasons, respectively. Home range sizes were highly significant between the wet and dry season (prop.test, p < 0.000) with no establishment of home ranges in the northeastern side of the park. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) confirmed that the MaxEnt model fitted well (Test AUC = 0.76). Individual variable contribution indicated that prey species (75.9 %), elevation (13.3%), and water points (6.5%) contained the most important information to explain the lion space use patterns in CNP. The findings of this study may be applicable to other wild lion populations in protected areas in which data paucity on the spatial ecology of lions limit effective decision making about lion conservation. Potential management interventions to indirectly influence lion space use, such as enhancing water availability and protection of wildlife corridors could improve lion survival and conservation in CNP and in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) at large.