Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: How many lions?

25 minutes

Find Out: Sampling lions

20 minutes

Take Action: Protect the pride

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

explore the different data collection methods used to collect data on African lions
create visual displays of this data for conservation messaging purposes

Success criteria

Students can:

explain the practicalities and implications of different data collection methods
interpret the data to provide conservation recommendations.

Tune In: How many lions?

Step 1

Begin by sharing the following trailer from the new Disney movie “Mufasa: The Lion King”:

Mufasa: The Lion King | Official Trailer - youtube.com/watch?v=SJwcDX-8Ytc

Explain to students that this is the story of how a young lion cub in Africa overcame a number of challenges to become the lion king. Suggest to students that this story of bravery and triumph over adversity is not always the case for lions in the wild. Ask your students to guess:

How many lions do you think there are in the wild currently?
Do you think this population is declining or increasing?
How do you think today’s population compares to the number of lions in 1950?

Step 2

Pose the question, ‘Why might it be important to know how many lions there are in the wild?’

Suggested answer: Tracking the number of lions in the wild lets us know the status of their population. If there are many anecdotal reports of lion sightings, we might think there are many lions. However, it might be that we are seeing the same lions over and over again, or it could be that lions have been forced out of their traditional habitat into smaller areas, making the lion population locally denser, with fewer lions overall.

Knowing how many lions there are can help us plan conservation strategies and programs to protect lions. This includes thinking about the amount of land required for lions (one pride of lions can travel up to 400 square kilometres!), the prey needed to maintain populations, how many lions are interacting with humans and what these interactions involve, and what resources are required to care for and protect lions in their natural habitats.

Step 3

Explain to students that in 2024 we think there are just over 20,000 lions in the wild.

Prompt a discussion with your students by asking, ‘Is 20,000 lions a lot of lions?’ Students may suggest:

It sounds like a lot of lions at first (It would be a lot of lions to have in your backyard!).
We need to put it into context to understand if it is a lot or not.
How does that number compare to historical numbers?

Distribute the Student Worksheet to students and direct them to the following graph and map:

Graph

(Source: globalconservation.org/endangered-species/african-lion)

Map

(Source: lionrecoveryfund.org/distribution-status/)

Step 3

Ask your students, ‘Now that you know more about the context for lion populations, do you think 20,000 lions are a lot of lions?’ Students might suggest:

the current population is less than 5% of the 1950 population
the population has halved again in the last 25 years
the range of lions halved in just ten years (2008 - 2018), according to this map
While 20,000 lions sounds like a lot of lions, it is a drastic reduction in the population.

Explain to your students that we will now investigate how research scientists collect data on lions and how we use that data to make decisions about the conservation of lion populations.

Find Out: Sampling lions

Step 1

Using the Visual Explainer, introduce the different data collection methods to your students.

Step 2

Divide students into pairs and assign them one of the data collection methods below:

You might prefer to select just one data collection method and work with the whole class to create different formats of data displays from the same data set.

Using the Factsheet for their data collection method and the Student Worksheet, ask students to consider the following:

the practicalities of the method (the cost, how it is implemented, the time and personnel involved etc)
the implications of this method (where there are gaps in the data, what the impacts are for the lions, what does it mean for the people in the area, etc.)
what questions the data collection is trying to answer and
what the flow on implications for conservation might be.

Groups can then pair up with another group to share the key points they identified about their data collection method. Once complete, each group can move on to another group so that all groups have heard about each of the sampling methods.

Step 2

Now that we have our data collection method, the next step is to turn the data into a visual display to help us interpret it. Staying in our groups, move on to the next section, which shows us raw data collected in the field. Have your students answer the questions about the raw data.

Step 3

Using the data provided have your students create a visual display to help interpret the data. We recommend:

GPS tracking - Annotated map (requires GIS software such as Google Earth), OR line graph (Distance vs day).
Camera traps - Bar graph showing sightings of animals across a day (Number of sightings vs time of day in hours).
Neck measurements - Box and whisker plot comparing either male vs female or site A vs site B.
Whisker spot patterns - Annotated diagram/whisker pattern grid OR histogram comparing the number of spots in the top row and reference row.

Your students might have other ideas on how to represent the data to answer the specific questions they have. This is a great opportunity to explore different data displays and their purpose.

Take Action: Protect the pride

Step 1

Now we have the data and know how to interpret it, it’s time to use this data for conservation. Using their visual display, students will need to create a tailored conservation message. The students will need to answer the following questions:

What information does your data provide that will help with lion conservation?
Who is the audience for your message?
What do you want this audience to know about lion conservation?
Complete this sentence. More specifically, I want my audience to understand that…
What is your call to action for this audience? Stuck for ideas? Use the Cool.org Act Framework (cool.org/act-framework) to see how actions can scale.

Step 2

On their planning page, have the students write the following information:

Write your answer to question 4 below as a complete sentence (remove ‘More specifically, I want my audience to understand that…’). This is the theme for your media piece.
Write your call to action below as a complete sentence.
What media format would best communicate this message to your audience? (Social media post, campaign poster, short-format video, mail-out flyer, etc.) Consider how your audience accesses their media and which would have the most reach.
How will you include a visual data display in this media piece to communicate your message effectively?

Literacy extension: Continue this activity by having your students create their communication piece. Make sure they consider their data, the theme, the call to action, and how they will link these elements together to create behaviour change in their audience.

Reflection

Invite students to respond to the following:

As lion habitats decrease due to human development (such as towns and farms), interactions between people and lions increase. In many cases, this can take the form of lions hunting farm animals and affecting farmers' livelihoods, and the farmers retaliating by hunting the problem lions. How does involving people, including farmers and other locals, in lion research help with sustainability, both for human and wildlife populations?

How Do You Count Lions?

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