Deep in the scrub lands of Botswana, conflicts have been arising between local farmers and the wildlife. The conflicts lead to devastating losses of livestock for Botswanan farmers. The resulting human retaliation response to livestock lost from lion attacks is leading to a decline in lion populations.
Kaileigh Smith, a PhD student at Tarleton State, has a deep-rooted passion for wildlife and conservation. Smith’s research, under the direction of Dr. T. Wayne Schwertner, is investigating the spatial dynamics of lion and livestock movement behavior across their shared landscape. Through better understanding their movement patterns, the Botswanan government and farmers can strategically herd their cattle to reduce loss.
“Fewer lions eating cows means fewer angry farmers and fewer dead lions,” Smith said. “If the farmers are happy, the lions are happy. The way that we do that is by figuring out how to reduce the number of cows that lions are eating.
“They’re very impoverished communities. They get more benefit by selling the livestock than they do by just eating them. They need them. They rely on them to support their families.”
The goal of the study is to determine how the lions use the shared landscape to reduce the interactions between livestock and lions. In theory, improved landscape planning will result in decreased losses of lion and livestock individuals, benefiting both populations.
“I provide quarterly reports to the Botswana Department of Wildlife,” Smith said. “They don’t have the funding or the resources to do this kind of fine scale project, so it will be valuable for them as well. They rely on independent researchers to help supplement the research they do [on lion movement outside of national parks.]”
To track lion movement, Smith and her colleagues have travelled to Botswana two times in the past several years to place GPS collars on lions they tracked with the aid of native guides and veterinarians. Cattle were fitted with collars containing a solar-powered tag. The collars on the lions will track their movement indefinitely, while the cattle collars will be rotated to different herds annually.
“They are scheduled to take one GPS point every hour,” Smith said. “The reality is that technology isn’t perfect, but we are consistently getting 16-18 points per day [from the cattle]. You get a little bit more information from the lion’s collars, so 20-22 points depending on the day.”
While Smith has not yet analyzed movement data, she has noticed some differences between lion movements inside the national park compared to the wildlife management area she is studying.
“Close to the farms, [the lions] appear to move quickly,” she said. “They don’t stay in one area for very long. Inside the park, further away from the cows and farms, they seem to have more predictable, almost leisurely movement. It’s what you would expect of a wild animal responding to its landscape.”
Smith completed her undergraduate degree at Texas State, never having heard of Tarleton and planning for a career with mesocarnivores. Her desire to do wildlife field research while immersed in another culture led her to a master’s position posting at Tarleton funded by a USDA NIFA grant. Following the completion of her master’s thesis looking at the efficacy of solar powered ear tags for lions, Smith stayed at Tarleton to further pursue lion research in her PhD.
“I wasn’t really sure at first if I wanted to apply,” Smith said. “But as I began developing my application, I realized that this [position] was a good fit. I am really excited about adding to the growing, but still pretty small, body of research that looks at how lions might potentially survive outside of protected areas.”
Smith plays an important role in the Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources at Tarleton State as the instructor of record for the Principles of Wildlife Management and Conservation course. In teaching, she has found an interest in watching students learn and encouraging them in careers involving research.
“You just need to put yourself around people that are doing research and be open,” Smith said. “Be open to doing things that maybe aren’t exactly what you want to do, have a good attitude about it, and be willing to learn.”
*All animal capture and handling was conducted under supervision of a licensed veterinarian in accordance with relevant institutional and governmental permits.