Transcript:

music
ambience: Lions roar, growl

In southeastern Kenya, the weather is typically either wet or dry. Now the dry season is tough on most animals - except for a top predator like a lion. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

“Tsavo has a very seasonal environment, which is a bit unusual.”

Earthwatch scientist Roland Kays is curator of mammals at the New York State Museum. He's been studying lions in Kenya's greater Tsavo ecosystem.

"There are two very succinct dry seasons which vary from year to year in terms of exactly when they are and how bad they are and how dry they are. But what this does in this almost desert like environment is when it hasn’t rained for a few months, the water holes start drying up and the rivers start drying up and you just get a few areas that still have water. So the animals that need to drink on a regular basis, such as buffalo or water buck -- good prey for lions -- they all focus around these water holes. So lions this time of year can really be lazy and just sit around the water hole and wait for their prey to come to them."

"In contrast, when the rains are heavy, the prey spread out over an enormous amount of area and the lions are then forced to chase after them and to go in search of them and to cover a lot more territory, we expect. And I think this is the time when it’s harder to be a lion, and in fact this is the time when you find the most human-lion conflict. This is when lions are most likely to attack cattle in times when it’s more difficult for them to find natural prey."

Lions in southeastern Kenya are looking forward to the next dry season, which typically comes in March.

Please visit us on the web at pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.

music