Thank you for question, Felines indeedly need close confinement for delivery away from noise. After birth, most felines feel afraid from human that may come near their newborns. So, this condition will let mothers ignore their infants and therefore, newly-born will suffer

I guess there are many publication related to this topic avaialble at the IUCN SSG, or Reintorudction specialists group of the IUCN.

In the other hand all, animals having some sort of new site adaptation after being kept in captivity for some time, since they become more or less dependant in human service . Being back to nature they will recover soon, other wise you have to go for infanticide approach.

We have publications out on such topics in Oryx and The Open Conservation Biology Journal describing the outcomes and lessons learnt from the predator reintroductions to 13 reserves in South Africa's Eastern Cape province.

Thanks for the reply Dr. Hayward. I have read both of your papers. However,  that deals with overall assessment of the reintroduction process and also sheds some light on the population trend. I am looking for more particular work that deals with the issue. We have been monitoring the reintroduced tiger population since 2008 after they were translocated from Ramthambore Tiger Reserve. All the animals are wild and were translocated at the age of nearly 2.5 years. However, one of the reintroduced females gave birth to her first litter four years after translocation, whereas usually tiger first litter at the age of approximately 4 years. Others have not given birth to any litter till date. Only two tigresses have given birth to three litter in past seven years. Sariska has a very good prey base and it can sustain nearly 25 individual tigers. The present population is 9 adult tigers and 4 cubs. Please help.

dear colleagues

A fascinating, although somewhat sad, observation on a small translocated felid population.

May be you accept I broaden the scope a bit. Etosha NP has been the destination of four translocated herbivore species (rhino, sable and roan antelope and black-faced impala) as well as three carnivores (two felid: cheetah and leopard and wild dog); all herbivores were a success, none of carnivores. The introduced felids escaped mostly from the NP, notwithstanding the perimeter fence. Another felid, lion was present already and actually killed some of the reintroduced cheetah and wild dog. Shortage of food is obvious not an issue in Etosha, neither for herbivores nor carnivores. An issue maybe numbers (especially males); herbivores were introduced in substantially larger numbers than carnivores. The carnivores obviously did not feel at home and were either eaten, diseased or ran away from plentiful prey and from a protected area into inhabited farmland. Let me know if you want a reference and/or further exploration of the issue.

Interesting and broadens the scope of discussion. However, here tiger being the apex predator didn't face any such problems. They have established home ranges within the reserve (Not fenced and covers an area of 1200 sq. km) and exhibiting a very normal behavior. Sex ratio is not skewed also. So, if you have anything related to the issue, please let me know. Please let me know the reference. Thank you.

I'm not sure whether we mentioned in those papers, but the lions in Addo took 2 years to produce cubs that survived to 3 months/independence/adulthood. This was intentional due to the limited carrying capacity of the park, so the managers released 4males and 2 females in two separate prides to increase the chances of infanticide, plus reintroduced spotted hyaenas as well for intraguild predation.

Interesting information, Dibyendu and Matt. Could suboptimal nutrition be a cause of the low reproductive success? Either by shortage of prey or a (yet) underdeveloped predation tradition?

What about "home" range? Felids and other carnivores often have seasonal ranges and easily abandon "home" if prey becomes scarce. Allows the size of and variety within the reserve for seasonality and dispersal if the need arises?

My comment on numbers was aiming at the narrow genetic base of a small number of translocated felids.

A reference for Etosha follows separately.

Following on from Matt Hayward's work in South Africa there is even more evidence that translocated lions in South African small reserves had earlier ages of first reproduction than their more wild counterparts in Kruger NP and Serengeti NP (see publication from 2014 attached) - these lions were all reintroduced into fenced, small (

Thanks for the answer Dr. Gils. It might be. Here, we have been recording kills made by individuals also. They are making regular kills which is most of the times male biased with good body condition (studied bone marrow condition).

As far as the range is concerned, yes there are seasonal variation in the ranges. However, that is not really significant here and mostly varies due to the availability/unavailability of water.

Thanks for the paper Dr. Miller. We don't have fenced protected areas in India. The problem is there are villages inside protected areas in India. The Govt. has taken up a scheme to resettle people from inside the park. Since people have lived along with animals for so long in India and still they do. The concept of wilderness or separate heaven for wildlife is not really applicable. It is highly likely that disturbance could be the reason.

Thanks Dr. Hayward for the information.

A very informative Q&A, colleagues.

Translocation of lion seems far less problematic somehow than those of the two other large felid, leopard and cheetah, also here in Namibia. Maybe because cheetah and leopard are mostly solitary, unlikely lions.

OK, we can reject lack of prey and/or appropriate hunting skills as explanation.

I remember a case of translocated cheetah and one of them stopped hunting after arrival in her new home and subsequently died amidst plenty of prey hunted by other cheetah that had been released in the same place at the same time (I am chasing a reference). Maybe individual experience with people in the old home plays a role. Are the new and the old home in your case similar in terms of HWC?

Please appreciate that cheetah in Namibia lives largely on private land and commonly co-exists with cattle and people. Similarly, carnivores, wolf and bear, co-habit with people and livestock in the Central Apennines, Italy, although sheep need corralling and dogs at night; cattle and horses can protect themselves (attached).

Article Where the bears roam in Majella National Park, Italy

What a wonderful Q&A

Susan, why would small, fended reserves (RSA; Namibia) result in population explosion of lions (and probably cheetah; but not leopard)? Maybe because dispersal is contained, veterinary care is/has been provided,  prey is translocated as well (I know of a private reserve that translocate springbok every couple of years, when cheetah has had their share), prey cannot escape, prey densities are kept high across seasons and drought years (for hunting purposes) by supplementary feeding or provision of drinking water points were predator and prey meet? 

Stelios, can you provide a few lines on the relevant findings for this Q & A?

Hein, in South Africa the lions are primarily kept for tourism so prey numbers are supplemented when necessary, the fences prevent almost all natural dispersal (although there is lots of artificial removal - in fact this may be what is driving the high birth rates), veterinary care is provided very occasionally so I don't think this has a major impact. Disease is however less common and South African law regulates diseases such as rabies so it is not tolerated. TB has not made it into the small reserve populations. Another factor is that often there is only one pride per reserve and so the competition from other lions is lost - no infanticide etc. (although infanticide can, and did in a few cases, result in a population increase in the short term). Basically the natural systems that seem to keep lion numbers in check in larger systems have broken down - we are working towards changing this in South Africa. The Lion Management Forum (LiMF) formed to try to address the population crisis - we have published one paper - see attached and there are various other research projects on the go currently. If you want more details on LiMF, please message me privately.

Article Management of Reintroduced Lions in Small, Fenced Reserves i...

Very informative discussion indeed. Thanks to all of you for enriching and diversifying my knowledge about reintroduction of carnivores. Dr. Gills, the new and old home differs as far as HWC is concerned. Grazing pressure is much more in the new home.  I do appreciate carnivores co-habit with people and livestock and don't want to channelize my research attention in a wrong way. So I am trying to understand it at its entirety. The ongoing Q&A has been a great help in this regard. Thanks again.