The Social Life of the Lion : A study of the behaviour of wild lions (Panthera leo massaica [Newmann]) in the Nairobi National Park, Kenya

J. A. Rudnai

ISBN 10: 9401171424 / ISBN 13: 9789401171427

Published by Springer Netherlands, Springer Netherlands, 2012

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - THE HABITAT Nairobi National Park lies to the south-southeast of the capital of Kenya, Nairobi, where the Athi Plains meet the Eastern escarpment of the Rift Valley. These plains form part of the semi-arid highland plateau lying between the coast and the Rift Valley. Both the city itself, and the Park bordering it, are a meeting place of two generally distinct types of landscape and climate. While to the east-southeast are semi-arid plains with grasslands and scattered trees, the western-north western parts are higher, hilly, cooler, more humid and support lush forests. The combination of latitude-a little over one degree south of the Equator -and altitude-average of 1600 m. (5000-5500 ft.) -combine to give Nairobi a most equable climate where the temperature varies during the year between about 11 degrees and 27 degrees centigrade (mean minimum and mean maximum for eight years). However, considerable changes are usually experienced within each day and a rise from 14 degrees C at 0600 hours to 22 degrees at 1100 hours is not unusual. Nairobi Park has a unique concentration of wild animals living in their natural habitat less than 10 km. from the centre of a modern city of half a million people. The only interference with the natural course of events in the Park is that normally required for the proper management of a game park, such as maintenance of roads and dams, and, in this particular case, partial fencing towards the city.

Seller Inventory # 9789401171427

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Social Life of the Lion : A study of the behaviour of wild lions (Panthera leo massaica [Newmann]) in the Nairobi National Park, Kenya
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Springer Netherlands
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9401171424
• ISBN 13: 9789401171427
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 297W x 210H x 10D millimeters 297 millimeters width by 210 millimeters height by 10 millimeters depth
• Weight: 444 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This book is a fascinating study of lion behavior, and throws light on many previously unrecognized facets of their social relationships. The depth and expertise of the study ensure its value and interest to a wide readership. Ever increasing human populations and the consequent encroachment of settlement and cultivation threaten the survival of wild animals within viable ecological units through East Africa. In the long run, wildlife will probably only survive within National Parks or similarly protected reserves. However, these units cannot be expected to maintain themselves without management based on clear understanding of the basic pattern of interactions between the climate, vegetation, herbivores, carnivores and scavengers. This applies to an even greater extend to small units which are not self-contained ecologically such as Nairobi national Park. Thus, not only are broad ecological surveys necessary, but also intensive studies of individual species to learn their exact relationship to their environment in any particular area offering a set of circumstances not duplicated anywhere else. This study investigated how lions respond to the particular set of environmental conditions within Nairobi National Park, A small area with a great variety of habitat and a fairly abundant game population, how they select from among the available prey animals and how changes in the proportion of the various ungulates affect the lion’s predation pattern. A major discovery made by Ms. Rudnai is a method of individually identifying them that had never been noted before. She noted that every lion had a unique patter of dark spots whose number, position and size do not change over the course of it lifetime. These are located above and below the top row of whiskers. The “whisker-spot method”, a reliable and non-invasive way of identifying individual lions, has been employed by scientists ever since as had the rest of Ms. Rudnai’s research.