IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0190898.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effectiveness of a LED flashlight technique in reducing livestock depredation by lions (Panthera leo) around Nairobi National Park, Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Francis Lesilau
  • Myrthe Fonck
  • Maria Gatta
  • Charles Musyoki
  • Maarten van 't Zelfde
  • Gerard A Persoon
  • Kees C J M Musters
  • Geert R de Snoo
  • Hans H de Iongh

Abstract

The global lion (Panthera leo) population decline is partly a result of retaliatory killing in response to livestock depredation. Nairobi National Park (NNP) is a small protected area in Kenya surrounded by a human-dominated landscape. Communities around the park use flashlights to deter lions from their livestock bomas. We investigated the response by lions to the installation of a LED flashlight technique during 2007–2016.We interviewed 80 owners of livestock bomas with flashlights (n = 43) and without (n = 37) flashlights in the surroundings of NNP and verified reported attacks on bomas against predation data over10 years. The frequency of attacks on bomas equipped with flashlights was significantly lower compared to bomas without flashlights. We also found that after flashlight installation at livestock bomas, lion attacks took place further away from the park edge, towards areas where bomas without flashlights were still present. With increased numbers of flashlight installations at bomas in recent years, we further noticed a shift from nocturnal to more diurnal predation incidences. Our study shows that the LED flashlight technique is effective in reducing nocturnal livestock predation at bomas by lions. Long term studies on the effects as well as expansion of this technique into other communities around NNP are recommended.

Suggested Citation

  • Francis Lesilau & Myrthe Fonck & Maria Gatta & Charles Musyoki & Maarten van 't Zelfde & Gerard A Persoon & Kees C J M Musters & Geert R de Snoo & Hans H de Iongh, 2018. "Effectiveness of a LED flashlight technique in reducing livestock depredation by lions (Panthera leo) around Nairobi National Park, Kenya," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0190898
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190898
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0190898
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0190898&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0190898?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philipp Henschel & Lauren Coad & Cole Burton & Beatrice Chataigner & Andrew Dunn & David MacDonald & Yohanna Saidu & Luke T B Hunter, 2014. "The Lion in West Africa Is Critically Endangered," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eldosouky, AbdelRahman & Saad, Walid & Mandayam, Narayan, 2021. "Resilient critical infrastructure: Bayesian network analysis and contract-Based optimization," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0190898. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.