Community knowledge on factors behind extirpation of lion Panthera leo in Comoé National Park, Côte d'Ivoire (West Africa)

Abstract

AbstractA rise in human disturbance in Comoé National Park (CNP) has led to lion (Panthera leo) extirpation. After the crisis, there have been numerous efforts to restore this ecosystem and CNP's management authority is considering reintroducing lions. This ideally requires an understanding of the earlier process of lion extirpation. We assessed the causes of lion extirpation through semi‐structured questionnaires to 307 volunteer participants in surrounding 23 villages. Respondents reported that lions were extirpated two decades ago (19.75 years ± 8.15). Bouna was the sector that lions seem to have disappeared first (mean = 23.61 years ± 9.14) and recently on Nassian and Téhini sectors (mean = 18.43 years ± 8.17 and 18.74 years ± 6.74 respectively). People identified civil war from 2002 as the main facilitator of lion extirpation (85%; n = 261), which led to the abandonment of CNP, and opened the way for all forms of anthropogenic pressures including illegal hunting and prey depletion (70%; n = 216), illegal gold mining (74%; n = 227), direct lion killing due to transhumance and human‐wildlife conflict (15%; n = 45), and wildfires (23%; n = 72). Historically, prey density curves show a progressive decrease with a drastic drop during the civil war period before a post‐crisis recovery from 2016 to 2022. We recommend intensifying CNP monitoring and local measures to limit anthropogenic disturbances and improve indigenous communities' involvement to ensure the success of potential lion reintroduction.