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Human-wildlife conflict is taking a toll on the world's great cats and rare canines. More >

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When Predators Become Prey

Roughly 230 lions are living in the Laikipia District of Kenya. Only a few prey on livestock, yet approximately 20% are killed by herders every year to protect their cattle, goats and sheep from predator attacks. Join us to learn more about why tracking the lions of Laikipia is key to protecting them; then try your own hand at radio telemetry!

Despite a 20% mortality rate, the Laikipia lion population is most likely stable because lions also reproduce at a rate of 20%. Documenting the habits and movements of lions in unprotected regions like Laikipia however, remains essential to developing successful lion conservation strategies and to finding ways of resolving human-lion conflicts. The Laikipia Predator Project (LPP), one of two big cat conservation projects featured in the Zoo's Bank of America Big Cat Falls, is working in partnership with commercial ranchers and community livestock herders to protect lions as well as livelihoods. The Philadelphia Zoo's assistant mammal curator Chris Waldron has traveled to the Laikipia project site twice since 2004 to assist with lion tracking and capture.

Join Chris for an in-depth review of the LPP and a first-hand account of his on-the-ground experiences in Africa. You'll also be able to try your hand at using the same kind of radio telemetry equipment researchers rely on to track lions in the wild, discover the challenges of working in a field station and take a private tour of Bank of America Big Cat Falls, home of the Philadelphia Zoo's lion pride.