How far will a lion travel???

[Brent Sinclair]

We are getting some real interesting information on movements from both tom and female lions on the reaserch project I am helping with in Alberta.
These GPS collars don't lie....how far will a lion travel?
I thought I had 3 different lions only to find out they are all the same big tom....distance between the locations is an eye opener!!!!!
Mike L. I am sure some of those desert lions you have followed have gone long distances???
Any info from some of you fellas here that have been on a project or know a particular lion to varify how far some lions will travel??

[liontracker]

One collared in New Mexico was hit by a car 600 miles away.
That is the furthest I have heard of.

[Brent Sinclair]

Thats' a fair distance, like Ol Gus on Lonesome Dove , a travlin SOB!!!
There was a lion shot in Saskatoon Sask. Canada that was part of a study project in the Black Hills I believe, and that lion was 900 km from where it was collared.
No wonder when we find a good tom and don't get him caught and that's the last time you see his track that winter and you think he's been killed, when all he's done is gone on for a walk!!!
I guess they call them the long walkers for a good reason....

[Big Mike]

Theres a Tom in AZ that has a GPS collar that uses 4 mountain ranges in his "home range".

A collared tom in NM off of the Armendariz ranch had such a big home range it would take him about 8-12 months to complete his circle.

During Logan/Sweanor study in South NM the trap and relocated 4 lions If I remember right. They moved these lions to the Colorado border and two of them came back home a distance of round 300 miles as a crow flies

The old saying he will be back in two weeks? Well you'll be waiting on him along time!!!

The most interesting one I heard of was a female adult collared in the Black hills in South Dakota. She just up and moved and set up a new home range about 400-500 miles away.

[Big Mike]

And for the complete opposite we have two GPS collar lions in NM right now,a Tom and a Female both adult that havnt left a 3 mile square area in 3-4 months!

[sourdough]

I think it all depends on lion density, habitat type, as well prey, defined by preference and migration. Not being in Alberta and only guessing from habitat type from pictures you have posted I would only guess, and it would be a wild one at best, with the lions you are working on. I would say that some females may travel from sixty to one hundred miles from where you collard them with some remaining relatively local with small defined territories, again that’s just a guess, the toms on the other hand I will say 150-250 miles with over lapping large territories so as to have access to other prey, but most importantly females from other ranges. This may be some what of a educated guess, but as I said it’s a guess at best.

sourdough

[BEAR HUNTER]

Check out my old post from a few month back "do lions have a set route". Lots of good responses. Mike L. Posted a link that shows the route of some collard lions. Great info.

When I lived in Fresno we had some "Town lions" that lived on the San Joaquin river bordering the North side of Fresno Ca. Fish and Game bragged they had 4 breeding females living along the river. They lived on the local deer, dog, and cat populations. We had one young one that jumped into the back yard during a kids b-day party. Another youngster laid down near the front entrance to Cosco and watched people go in and out for an hour. Never even made the news.

[Cowboyvon]

LF1 is a female and LM3 is a Tom..

This graphs shows a frequency distribution of the number of nights a female (LF1) and a male (LM3) puma traveled certain distances: less than 100 meters, 100-500m, 500-1,000m, 1,000 - 5,000m, and so on, up to 20 km in one night. Both of these pumas traveled at least 5 km (3.1 mi) on most nights, and quite often exceeded 10 km - as the crow flies, and if you've ever spent time in New Mexico, you know there's a whole lot more ground to cover for us mammals than for the crows. LM3 liked to wander more than LF1, as we would expect for a lone male relative to a female that often has small kittens to tend.

This is from a study on the Ladder ranch in southern NM

[Daniel Tremblay]

That is absolutely crazy, I would have never guessed lions move that far. Than again we can't hunt them so I dont have any personal experience lol.

[Benny G]

Big Mike, what mountain ranges are you talking about in AZ? Being from Arizona, I'm curious as to the type of habitat and terrain that a lion would feel the need to travel so far in. Are they small ranges that aren't too rough, or are they large areas?

[Big Mike]

Benny, I dont know the name of mountain ranges off hand but I will see if I can find out. I want to say he was south central or south eastern AZ. I would assume desert type terrain, not sure on the size of the mountain ranges.

I think prey density has alot to do with home range size.

We have also learned through GPS collars that it is very much individual too. Some are big traveler and some arn't

[Benny G]

Looking forward to knowing the ranges, but prey density has played a huge role in lion habits changing in the last ten years. With the outlawing of traps, and therefore not keeping the coyote population in check, as well as the Forrest Service kissing ass with the worshippers of the creation, and killing the beef industry, lions don't have as much to eat anymore.

[Majestic Tree Hound]

Their are ALOT of GPS Tracking Studies Currently ongoing at the Moment and their are quite afew on the Internet ..

(Note: Unkown Date of Below Quote)
"The most spectacular lion trip was just documented this week. A female lion left the Oquirrhs last May. After crossing I-15 near Richfield, she headed north. In September she climbed a 10,000 foot summit, walked deep into Wyoming, doubled back to Utah, then headed for Colorado. A hunter shot her two weeks ago, still wearing her GPS collar. In total, she traveled 830 miles, something usually done only by males."

Their are GPS Studies in CA. Using GPS/Accelerometer/Attitude collars that have Complete Movement to the min. Speed of the Lion, down to rolling around on the ground to Making Kills.

[Mike Leonard]

Brent,

I have always said that a lion will travel then again as much as half as far as he will go in a night. LOL! In other words ain't no way of telling till you you catch up to him.

It seems the more we study lions even with the new GPS methods, we find out just how little we really do know. what happens in one area or range may be vastly different in another. And one mature tom might be a traveler and another might be more of a home boy.



All I can tell you is I seem to be very good at being at the wrong place at the wrong time to get on the short end of a lion's track.

[chilcotin hillbilly]

This is interesting, as each year I find a track of BIGFOOT. The nickname I gave him the firsttime I cut his track 5 years ago. The first time I would have had him as I pulled the dogs off as he had entered private land. Considering the size of cats I kill, nothing matches the pad or toe size. It looks like it is very possible it could be only once a year he comes through. I better camp out at his usually crossings this season as he may die of old age on me.