https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180705143853.htm

Due to land use changes and severe human-wildlife conflict, lions today occupy a range that is less than 10 percent of its historic size. Researchers agree that conservation actions should combine preservation of core habitat areas and the paths that link them with mitigation of human-wildlife conflict that can be deadly for lions. However, few efforts to prioritize conservation actions have considered all three factors.

In the new study, Cushman and colleagues used two spatial modeling approaches -- known as "resistant kernel" and "factorial least cost path" -- to analyze GPS collar data that captured the movements of lions outside of national parks in and around the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA). KAZA spans more than 520,000 square kilometers in four countries.