Honors Theses and Capstones

Date of Award

Fall 2017

Project Type

Senior Honors Thesis

College or School

COLSA

Department

Biological Sciences

Program or Major

Animal Science

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

First Advisor

Drew Conroy

Second Advisor

Emma Dunston

Third Advisor

Jackie Abell

Abstract

The African lion (Panthera leo) population is diminishing rapidly, approximately 43% since 1993 (Bauer et al., 2016. The species is currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN (Bauer et al., 2016). With numerous threats to current populations including human conflict, prey depletion and habitat loss the African lion is in danger of becoming endangered or even critically endangered in the near future. Ex-situ conservation is a proposed method of restoring populations. The current study focuses on correlations of boldness with natural behaviors and sociality to further understand individual personality in hopes of connecting it with success after reintroduction. Six playbacks were used to assess boldness personality traits of the 12 individuals of the Dambwa pride. Social interactions and daily activity budgets were also recorded. Spearman’s correlations were conducted in order to examine correlations between boldness sociality, and average daily activity.

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