It was one morning, whereas strolling on the seashore in Gujarat, that wildlife professional Meena Venkataraman noticed a pair of paw prints. But this was no canine or fox that had visited. The footprints belonged to an Asiatic lion, the king of the jungle – and, more and more, the seashore.

Once discovered all through Mesopotamia, Persia and the Indian subcontinent, the Asiatic lion was virtually pushed to extinction by the early 1900s as a result of looking and habitat loss, earlier than a nawab within the western Indian state of Gujarat intervened. Today, the state is the one house of the Asiatic lion.

While a lot of the nearly 700 animals counted in 2020 are discovered within the dry, deciduous terrain of the Gir forest and its surrounding protected areas, many have been shifting to seaside locales.

Between 2010 and 2020, the variety of lions residing alongside Gujarat’s coast rose from 20 to 104, and forest officers in Gujarat say coastal habitats at the moment are essentially the most vital of all satellite tv for pc habitats that the lions occupy.

Finding lions in coastal areas shouldn’t be unprecedented – in Namibia, lions have adapted to the beach, where they hunt seals – however in India it’s uncommon, says Venkataraman, principal advisor at Carnivore Conservation and Research.

“Lions using the sandy beach and walking at the edge of the sea is an incredible sight. I have had the good luck to see that a few times,” she says.

In November 2022, researchers from Gujarat’s forest division launched findings from the first study of coastal Asiatic lions. Between 2019 and 2021, they monitored 10 lions fitted with GPS radio collars. One query they got down to reply was what sort of habitats the coastal lions have been utilizing, says Mohan Ram, deputy conservator of forests in Gir, and lead writer of the research.

The solutions have been shocking, says Venkataraman, who was additionally a part of the research. “They shelter in the prosopis plantations in the western coasts [of Gujarat]. These are very thick and very thorny habitats,” she says, including that it’s uncommon as a result of the lion is believed to be a extra “open area” animal. Meanwhile, “in the eastern coasts, lions are actually making use of salt pan areas and mangroves”.

The researchers additionally in contrast the traits of the dispersing lions to these in Gir. “Interestingly, we found the home ranges to be different,” says Venkataraman. Lions residing in coastal habitats had bigger house ranges – the realm the place an animal often roams – than these residing within the Gir protected areas. Those residing between the forest and coastal areas – the “link lions” – have been discovered to have even bigger house ranges, she says.

Unlike Namibia’s coastal lions, these in Gujarat don’t prey on marine animals however, says Venkataraman: “With time, they may develop a taste for scavenging dead fish.”

They largely feed on wild boar, nilgai (a kind of antelope) and stray cattle, however in 2020 there have been stories of a lion preying on a turtle. Ram says forest officers are finding out the coastal lions’ meals habits and looking patterns.

The motion of lions to Gujarat’s coast shouldn’t be new however extra of a “recolonisation of their lost territories”, says Kausik Banerjee, a wildlife researcher who was not a part of the research. But the predators’ presence on the seashore can also be indicative of a bigger downside of restricted area as their numbers develop. “The protected area of Gir [approximately 1,880 sq km] reached its biological carrying capacity for lions long ago,” Banerjee says.

Gujarat officers not too long ago introduced plans for a second home for Asiatic lions within the state’s Barda wildlife sanctuary, about 60 miles (100km) from Gir. The Indian authorities can also be reassessing a proposal to relocate some of the lions to the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh. In 2013, India’s supreme court docket ordered the relocation however it by no means occurred, some consultants say, due to Gujarat’s reluctance to half with the lions it’s so happy with.

However, as lions transfer outdoors protected areas, there may be rising concern about human-lion battle, says Banerjee, amid sporadic stories of lions attacking people. They additionally typically kill livestock, however farmers obtain compensation when that occurs.

Local communities revere the lions, and that has made coexistence potential, says Banerjee. But, Venkataraman says, “as populations increase, [conflict with humans] is definitely a problem, not just with lions but with all wild animals the world over”.

Developers should be more and more conscious of the coastal lions’ migration routes, say the researchers. “Development is necessary for humans, but there needs to be proactive mitigation measures,” says Ram. “For example, if a new highway is being constructed, there should be an underpass so as to not disrupt the movement of wildlife.”

While lions is probably not going to the seashore for the view, it doesn’t imply they don’t get pleasure from it. Ram has typically noticed them sitting on the shore within the evenings, having fun with the ocean breeze. It is a sight that will grow to be more and more widespread in years to return.

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