A small group of lions have earned the moniker of the only ‘maritime lions’ in the world. Out of a population of 80, 12 have recently moved from hunting in the Namib desert to hunting along the beach on the Skeleton Coast. Philip Stander, a conservation expert who has been tracking the lions since the 1980s, stated that they’ve earned the moniker “because they have learned to understand the ocean ecosystem and to consume food from the ocean.”
In search of food, amidst a long-running drought in 2017, these lions have found ways to thrive in a new habitat along the coast. Rather than ostriches, oryxes and springboks whose population was devastated by the recent drought, now the maritime lions’ diet largely consists of marine-based prey such as fur seals, cormorants and flamingos highlighting significant changes in hunting and other behavioural patterns.
As desert lions, they had already adapted to live inhospitable terrain where they encountered a sea of sand dunes and no vegetation. With a vast home range of around 12000 sq km compared with their Serengeti counterparts who have around 100 sq km, they had also learned to survive without water and get most of their hydration from meat.
While there are known records of lions living along the coast since the 1930s, they were driven out by a previous drought and conflicts with farmers in the 1980s. While steps are being taken to minimise human-animal conflicts along the coast, there is no denying that 40 years on, they have returned.