The African lion, Panthera leo, has, like many of the world's megafauna, become threatened with extinction over the past century. Loss of habitat and prey, persecution in retaliation of livestock depredation, by-catch by bushmeat poachers and unsustainable trophy hunting are all documented anthropogenic caused threats to lion conservation. Here we present data that indicate the emergence of a further threat to lion conservation: the targeted poaching of lions for body parts. We present lion abundance and mortality data from field surveys in southern Africa between 2011 and 2018 of a resident lion population. The targeted poaching of lions for body parts accounted for 35% of known human caused mortalities across the landscape and 61% of mortalities within Limpopo National Park with a clear increase in this pressure in 2014. Retaliatory killing for livestock conflict accounted for 51% of total mortalities, however in 48% of conflict cases body parts were also removed, suggesting that a demand for body parts may incentivize conflict related killing of lions. The use of poison was the most common means of killing lions and was recorded in 61% of mortalities. Teeth and claws were the body parts harvested most often from illegally killed animals in the study area, with an increase from 2014 onwards. This pressure threatens the viability of the species in our study area and the success of current conservation initiatives. We suggest that the results of this study be viewed as a warning to the global conservation community to be vigilant of the impact that illegal wildlife trade can have on the conservation of lions, just as a similar pressure has already had on other big cat populations.

Animal conservation practices include the grouping of captive related and unrelated individuals to form a social structure which is characteristic of that species in the wild. In response to the rapid decline of wild African lion (Panthera leo) populations, an array of conservational strategies have been adopted. Ex situ reintroduction of the African lion requires the construction of socially cohesive pride structures prior to wild release. This pilot study adopted a social network theory approach to quantitatively assess a captive pride’s social structure and the relationships between individuals within them. Group composition (who is present in a group) and social interaction data (social licking, greeting, play) was observed and recorded to assess social cohesion within a released semi-wild pride. UCINET and SOCPROG software was utilised to represent and analyse these social networks. Results indicate that the pride is socially cohesive, does not exhibit random associations, and the role of socially influential keystone individuals is important for maintaining social bondedness within a lion pride. These results are potentially informative for the structure of lion prides, in captivity and in the wild, and could have implications for captive and wild-founder reintroductions.

Optimal foraging and landscape of fear theories provide frameworks which can be useful for investigating animal's space and prey use decisions. Predators, such as African lions Panthera leo, are likely to respond to prey abundance, accessibility, profitability and potential risks, often anthropogenic in nature, while making foraging decision. Identifying the relative role of these processes has important conservation implications. We investigated the relative role of responses to a pastoralist landscape of fear within lion feeding and spatial ecology in a landscape at the human‐wildlands interface. We collected spatial and predation data from 12 GPS‐collared lions and ungulate count data from transects, along the South Africa–Mozambique border, including parts of Kruger, Limpopo and Banhine National Parks. We calculated Jacobs' Index values from 80 kills to investigate lion selection of wild and domestic ungulates as prey, used maximum entropy modelling to predict multi‐season ungulate spatial occurrence and used resource selection functions to estimate the relative probability of use of wild and domestic ungulate areas by lions. All lions had access to wild prey and domestic livestock within their home ranges. Lions showed a strong selection for large‐bodied wild ungulates as prey taking waterbuck, zebra, kudu and buffalo more frequently then predicted by their availability. Lions showed a slight avoidance of cattle as prey, with cattle outnumbering larger ungulates across much of the study area. Lions showed the greatest selection for habitats with high occurrences of wild prey, specifically areas with kudu, then nyala and buffalo, during the dry seasons and showed strong avoidance of cattle areas during the wet season; a season when cattle are kept closer to settlements and thus better protected and easier to predict and avoid. These results suggest that lions select for wild prey and habitats optimally, yet show a fear response to cattle and cattle areas. This duality in the foraging behaviour of lions suggests that efforts to mitigate human–lion conflict and preserve vulnerable lion populations should focus on both increasing wild ungulate populations as well as exploiting lion's fear of humans with careful consideration of the risks of livestock presence acting as an ecological trap for vulnerable lion populations.