Predator Drives & Research

Andrei Snyman has replaced Villiers Steyn as the predator scientist at Mashatu Game Reserve. Andrei will be running the Northern Tuli Leopard Project, which studies the population dynamics, movements and home range sizes of the Northern Tuli Leopard population. He is also conducting a lion research project focusing on the socio organisation of the Tuli lions. For the past few years Andrei has been studying lion population dynamics in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Andrei started with his National Diploma in Game Ranch Management, at the Tshwane University of Technology South Africa, from 2002 - 2004 and then proceeded onto a B-Tech Degree in 2005 – 2006. Andrei is currently working on his Masters Degree, specializing in lions and leopards. Andrei has an absolute passion for wildlife and is thus pursuing a career as a wildlife researcher specializing in large carnivores.

Lion Research Project :

Currently, only a few scientific studies have examined the extent to which hunting affects lions, and the long-term management implications from an economic perspective have yet to be fully understood. Social factors are probably the most influential to lion group dynamics, but there are environmental patterns and processes that influence the distribution of groups through space and time. The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes in lion population dynamics in response to both legal and illegal consumptive utilization. Andrei will make use of the vast amount of data that is already available from rangers, records (dating back from 20-30 years), neighbouring farms, managers and many more. From that wealth of knowledge it would be possible to determine factors like: population dynamics, sex ratio, movements, territoriality, behaviour, reproduction, kinship and various other aspects of the Tuli lion population. It is important to understand how lions react to these consumptive utilization pressures in order for wildlife managers and researchers to better understand and manage their populations.

Northern Tuli Leopard Project :

As part of Adventure Mashatu the Predator-drives will continue as usual, but with the added component of lion research and conservation. There will be 3-4 radio-collared leopards which Andrei will be monitoring as part of the on-going and expanding Northern Tuli Leopard Project (NTLP). In addition, funding will be raised for Camera-Traps, which is a valuable tool for the identification and monitoring of lions and leopards, but also other rare and interesting species like spotted and brown hyaena, aardvark, civet, genets and cheetah. With the assistance of camera-traps it will be possible to determine the presence/ absence and relative movements/home ranges of these above-mentioned species, which are otherwise difficult to spot and identify due to their cryptic nature.

These studies will provide valuable information for management purposes regarding large carnivore populations and their future thereafter.

Should you wish to find out more about the project please contact Andrei by email on: andrei.snyman@googlemail.com