Kenya Wildlife Service scientists from yesterday started fitting lions in Amboseli National Park with collars to tracking their movements. The exercise is planned to run until Wednesday (July 7, 2010).   

The three collars were among the five GSM devices fixed on lions in July 2007 to monitor their movements and understand human-lion conflict in the Amboseli ecosystem.

The GPS-GSM collars have played a pivotal role in the last three years in helping the scientists collect data on the lions’ movement patterns.

 The GPS-GSM collars will play a pivotal role in the collection of data of the lions’ movement patterns as KWS and other stakeholders seek to address the issue of human-lion conflict in the larger Amboseli ecosystem.

The conflict has seen the lion population dropped from an estimated 2700 eight years ago to the current population of about 2000 lions. 

KWS earlier this year launched the national large carnivore conservation and management strategies aimed at reversing the declining population and increase the lion numbers to an ecologically acceptable level.