Our project examines the population densities of a unique tree-climbing population of African lions in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda, as well as the densities of hyenas and leopards. It will provide the first assessment of the status of African leopards in Uganda, and set the methodological platform for two more surveys in Murchison Falls and Kidepo Valley. Importantly, apart from informing management plans for the Ugandan Wildlife Authority and Wildlife Conservation Society, the estimates of African lion, leopard and spotted hyena densities will be shared with the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, African Lion Working Group, African Lion Management Forum, and CITES. These scientific organisations actively welcome the sharing of area-specific density estimates of these species, which in turn contribute to landscape-level species status assessments. Our work has been the focus of a new National Geographic Film “Tree-climbing lions of Uganda”. We are also working to understand how human–carnivore conflict is influenced by a series of landscape variables including inselberg density, habitat thickness, distance to water, and habitat type.
