John Heydinger

Lion Ranger Program Co-Founder
Postdoctoral Associate, Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior and University of Georgia

Conserving desert-adapted lions in northwest Namibia
Community conservation approaches for maintaining a unique lion population.

In Africa’s second-youngest country communal conservancies ensure rural residents benefit from living alongside wildlife. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) in Namibia is a shining light in African wildlife conservation. This signal success brings new challenges, chiefly increasing levels of human-wildlife conflict.

Desert-adapted lions in northwest Namibia primarily inhabit communal land, which is also home to cattle and other livestock which are the chief source of income for the region’s residents. Drought conditions are depressing wildlife numbers. When desert-adapted lions destroy livestock, it threatens farmers livelihoods and lion survival. Since 2000, retaliatory killings of lions following human-lion conflict events are responsible for 89% of adult lion mortalities in northwest Namibia.

Dr. Heydinger is Co-Founder of the Lion Ranger Program and is partnering Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism on an intensive lion monitoring study. Using inclusive, community-centered methods, he is aligning CBNRM and lion conservation to assure evidence-based management of this largely unstudied desert-adapted population. 

Ongoing research focuses on lion fission-fusion patterns and prey preferences. In 2022 Heydinger and Ministry research partners completed the first comprehension population survey of lion in northwest Namibia. Results have been published and recommendations endorsed by government.

In the coming year(s) Heydinger is deepening his data collection on the desert-adapted lions and continuing to upscale the activities of the Lion Rangers. He is also partnering with researchers and graduate students at the University of Georgia to link lion research on communal lands with work in Etosha National Park, and to develop methods for monitoring northwest Namibia’s desert-dwelling spotted hyena population.

John Heydinger