Lions in Nairobi National Park get tracking collars

Lions in Nairobi National Park get tracking collars
By Euronews
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Lions in the Nairobi National Park are being fitted with tracking collars.

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Lions in the Nairobi National Park are being fitted with tracking collars.

The action has been taken to allow Park rangers to map out the animals movements. That should help prevent them roaming beyond the Park’s borders.

In the past some of the lions have been shot and killed to protect the public.

The Kenya Wildlife Service is working with the International Fund for Animal Welfare on the project.

The two organisations are planning to monitor and map out lion movements in and around the park so that they are alerted when lions start to stray into areas of danger.

Last year, the KWS was forced to kill a lion when it wandered into a human settlement.

Last year, 2 male lions were killed in 2 days in Nairobi National Park. We're want to stop this happening ever again https://t.co/P8DzYKpxxWpic.twitter.com/DpWwVOj5eX

— IFAW United Kingdom (@IFAWUK) February 9, 2017

Steve Njumbi, is head of operations for IFAW in East Africa.

“Lions were going out of the park. The resulting action was to shoot the lion in order to protect human life. If we continue at that rate, then we will clear all the lions and therefore we are collaring them here today so that we can have pre-emptive action, we will be able to monitor their movements and take pre-emptive action before they go out of the park,” he said.

Conservationists say a new road and railway passing through the park was affecting animal habits and behaviour. More lions, conservationists maintain, are trying to escape the Park in search of quieter hunting grounds.

“Nairobi National Park is 117 square kilometres, it has about 23 to 25 lions within that and they want to collar six of them during this phase. Five lions already have collars, with six, that will be about 11, this will give them adequate information about the movements of the lions out of the park,” added Steve Njumbi.

According to Reuters, there are about 2,000 lions left in the whole of Kenya.

The Nairobi National Park is home to 100 different mammal species including rhinos, cheetahs and giraffes. It also hosts 400 migratory and endemic bird species.

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