January 17, 2024 3:20 a.m.

Wildlife Safari has announced a landmark research project led by Dr. Terrie Williams.

A Safari release said in a groundbreaking collaboration with the University of California-Santa Cruz and Washington State University, the initiative aims to study the energy and caloric demands of African lions, shedding light on factors influencing their hunting behaviors and potential conflicts with humans.

The project, conducted in two phases, involves metabolic measurements of adult African lions at Wildlife Safari. Using a specially designed treadmill and metabolic chamber, researchers analyze oxygen consumption and caloric expenditure, similar to methods used in human athlete studies. Video recordings of the exercising lions are also analyzed to determine step counts at different speeds. The gathered data will be crucial in understanding the lion’s biological vulnerabilities and formulating conservation strategies for wild lion populations.

Wildlife Safari General Curator Dan Brands said, “Wildlife Safari is excited to participate in this research project on Lion Energetics”. Brands said, “We have never done a research project like this before and the uniqueness of the study makes it a very exciting project to learn more about energy budgets of lions”.

The second phase of the project involves transferring the data to SMART wildlife collars, which will be deployed in several African regions. The calibrated data aims to predict predation rates and guide conservation efforts to reduce human-animal conflicts involving lions.

More information about Wildlife Safari is available at www.wildlifesafari.net.