In 2024, Panthera, the Direction des Parcs Nationaux (DPN) of Senegal and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) embarked on one of the most ambitious wildlife monitoring efforts ever attempted in a protected area in Africa.
Panthera helps support the DPN in the management of Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park (NKNP), one of West Africa’s most important protected areas. A stronghold for threatened species in the region, the park is exceptionally important for wild cat conservation, hosting one of only two remaining populations of the Critically Endangered West African lion and likely the largest remaining population of leopards in the region. The area is also home to the last West African population of threatened African wild dogs, the last wild population of Western derby eland (a type of antelope) and Africa’s northernmost population of chimpanzees.
Panthera began supporting the DPN in 2017. Since then, large carnivore surveys carried out in 2021 and 2023 suggest recovery of both lions and leopards. However, while these are two key target species in the landscape, Panthera and the DPN have also identified the need to have reliable indicators of status for other important species in the park.
As a result, Panthera researchers designed a study that would estimate and monitor the distribution of all mammals residing within the park, helping to evaluate Panthera’s support activities and aid the DPN in its conservation management planning. The team deployed 584 remote cameras equally throughout the landscape, giving us a park-wide picture of wildlife status.
However, this was no simple task. Much of Niokolo-Koba is remote, with thick vegetation, and little infrastructure to support field teams. Furthermore, temperatures in the dry season can regularly reach a blistering 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit).
It immediately became clear that multiple teams would be needed due to the size of the area and the fact that most cameras would have to be deployed on foot. It was therefore decided that we would form six teams, each comprising a team leader and DPN rangers that would provide security and collect additional anti-poaching data during the camera deployment. Furthermore, a coordinating team would follow the movements and progress of each deployment team through their satellite communicators, ready to assist with any challenge the teams would encounter in the field, such as equipment malfunctions, vehicle troubles or encounters with poachers.
Following over two months of planning, leaders and key staff from each of the six survey teams and the coordination team met to undergo training with Panthera experts. This training covered everything the teams would need to know:
Following multiple days of training, team leaders were split into two groups, each with an experienced Panthera researcher, and headed to the field to deploy stations in the areas nearest to camp, thus providing the opportunity for some practical training and real-life decision-making. After a week of real-world experience in the field, they were ready to put practice into action.
After more than two months of planning, all the teams travelled to their starting bases and camera deployment officially began. Over the next six days, teams walked an average of 15 km per day, in temperatures regularly over 40 degrees Celsius. Most days would involve waking up at 5:00 or 6:00 am, driving to the start of a walk, dropping one team off, then the next, with the driver then picking up both teams at the end of the day. Usually, only two or three camera stations would be deployed, given the long distances that had to be covered on foot. Due to the lack of phone signal in much of the park, team leaders used satellite communicators to coordinate with each other, their coordination team and their driver to ensure this complex logistical effort went as smoothly as possible.
On February 21, the deployment of the 2024 Niokolo-Koba biodiversity survey cameras was completed! Overall, the six teams walked almost 2,000 km in 22 days in the field, deploying over 400 camera traps. This also allowed teams to record a range of data on wildlife encounters (including with lion, wild dog, spotted hyena, and buffalo and roan antelope herds), as well as several hundred data points on illegal activities. These data will be processed and used by the DPN to inform their protection and anti-poaching activities. This is crucial evidence of the added benefits of carrying out ecological monitoring activities at a park-wide scale and in conjunction with management authorities.
The cameras will be active for approximately three months until Panthera and our partners plan another huge effort to remove them. We can’t wait to see what data they uncover about lions, leopards, chimpanzees, wild dogs and more. Stay tuned for updates as the images start to come in!
This blog has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States through the BIOPAMA Programme. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Panthera and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union nor of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
The Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme aims to improve the long-term conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, in protected areas and surrounding communities.It is an initiative of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States financed by the European Union’s 11th European Development Fund (EDF), jointly implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC). Building on the first five years of activities financed by the 10th EDF (2012-2017), BIOPAMA’s second phase provides tools for data and information management, services for improving the knowledge and capacity for protected area planning and decision making, and funding opportunities for specific site-based actions. www.biopama.org
ACP – www.acp.int
EU – www.Europa.eu
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© Sebastian Kennerknecht
