In 2021, ecologists and rangers from Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) received in-depth training from researchers at Lion Landscapes, an LRF grantee. This training focused on how to plan, design, set up, and manage grids of camera traps to collect data in Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve.
Together, the field team successfully completed three camera trap surveys within Selous Game Reserve during the 2021 dry season. In November 2021, the TAWA team applied this training by running a fourth camera trap survey in the western Kingupira sector of Selous. This grid was independently planned, deployed, and managed by TAWA ecologists and rangers, and stayed active until February 2022. The survey was a great success and yielded valuable data on carnivores (including lions) and other wildlife over an area of nearly 400 sq. miles in the heart of the Selous-Nyerere landscape.
The success of this survey paints a clear picture of the capacity built through the project—by incorporating training into collaborative data collection, the LRF’s grant to Lion Landscapes allowed them to equip this team of committed conservationists with practical skills to independently monitor their carnivore populations in the future. The success of this work has also unlocked additional funding from the Darwin Initiative Capability & Capacity Fund, which will enable the establishment of more training, research, and conservation activities that will benefit lions and other species within Selous Game Reserve.
