# Genetic insights into dispersal distance and disperser fitness of African lions (Panthera leo) from the latitudinal extremes of the Kruger National Park, South Africa

> How far does a young lion wander before settling down? Using DNA from 109 lions at the far ends of Kruger National Park, researchers found that females mostly stayed within about 20 km of home, while some males travelled 75 to 200 km. Dispersers tended to be in poorer condition, which may matter for how diseases such as bovine tuberculosis spread.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2018-van-hooft-keet-genetic-insights-into-dispersal/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Pim van Hooft, Dewald F. Keet, Diana K. Brebner and Armanda D. S. Bastos
- **Year published:** 2018
- **Journal or source:** BMC Genetics
- **Full citation:** van Hooft, P., Keet, D. F., Brebner, D. K. and Bastos, A. D. S. 2018. Genetic insights into dispersal distance and disperser fitness of African lions (Panthera leo) from the latitudinal extremes of the Kruger National Park, South Africa. BMC Genetics 19: 21.
- **DOI:** 10.1186/s12863-018-0607-x
- **Access status:** Open access (CC BY 4.0)
- **PDF:** https://www.originalwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/2018_van-Hooft_and_Keet_etal_genetic-insights-into-dispersal-distance-and-disperser-fitness-of-african-lions.pdf

## Tags

- **Species:** Mammals > Lion
- **Region:** Africa > South Africa
- **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Dispersal; Movement
- **Methods and technology:** Bootstrapping; Chi-square test; DNA; Kendall’s tau rank correlation; Logistic regression; Pearson correlation
- **Data type:** Existing data; New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Not needed
- **Discipline:** Behaviour and ecology
- **Year published:** 2018

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: African lion (Panthera leo). Mentioned: African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), the main carrier of bovine tuberculosis in Kruger; domestic cat (Felis catus), whose genetic map was used to locate two of the markers; domestic cattle (one male lion was caught outside Punda Maria Gate after killing 28 head of cattle over several weeks).
- **Location and habitat:** Kruger National Park, South Africa (19,485 km², about 350 km long and 60 km wide), described as a bush-like ecosystem. Northern samples: north of the Shingwedzi and Phugwane Rivers (one pride just south of the Shingwedzi), an area then free of bovine tuberculosis, with low prey availability. Southern samples: south of the Sabie River, an area with high bovine tuberculosis prevalence and high prey biomass. Eight males came from private reserves bordering southern Kruger without a fence: Mthethomusha and Sabi Sand. Sampling areas on average 267 km apart (201 to 308 km).
- **Topics:** dispersal distance, sex-biased dispersal, female and male dispersal, long-distance dispersal, disperser fitness, body condition, age at dispersal, pride structure, territorial and non-territorial (nomadic) prides, singleton lions, male coalitions, pride turnover, eviction, relatedness within prides, inbreeding avoidance, gene flow, population genetic structure, isolation by distance, disease spread, bovine tuberculosis (BTB), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), lion management. Possible inconsistencies in the paper: (1) the Methods give 47 males and 50 females in prides plus 8 male and 4 female singletons (55 males, 54 females), but the Results use 56 males and 53 females, and the Methods’ sex split of territorial and non-territorial lions (13 + 43 males, 38 + 15 females) also adds to 56 males and 53 females; (2) the Methods say 38 territorial females, the Discussion says 39 out of 51; (3) the abstract gives the fraction of dispersers among southern non-territorial females as at least 0.68, while the Results give at least 68% for all females aged 3.5 to 7 years (most of them non-territorial) and 0.64 for southern non-territorial females.
- **Statistics or models:** 11 microsatellite markers and mitochondrial DNA (RS-3 repeat region) sequences; allelic diversity, observed and expected heterozygosity; Hardy-Weinberg and linkage disequilibrium tests; Wright’s F-statistics (FIS, FST, FIT) and a standardized FST*; private-allele estimate of migrants per generation; pairwise relatedness (Lynch and Ritland); isolation by distance with a Mantel-type permutation test on Pearson correlations; Bayesian cluster analysis in Structure (Evanno method); logistic regression (age, body condition, disperser status); Kendall’s tau-b; paired t-tests; Shapiro-Wilk; Fisher’s exact and chi-square tests; bootstrapping and jack-knifing for confidence intervals; Stouffer’s Z-test; minimum spanning networks of haplotypes. Software: FSTAT, Genepop, GenAlEx, SPAGeDi, Structure, Cervus, Microsatellite Toolkit, SPSS, Excel.
- **Data type:** New genetic data from blood samples collected from 109 lions between June 1998 and October 2004. The samples were originally collected for a bovine tuberculosis prevalence study. Lions were aged by tooth wear and given a body condition score from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). Density, sex ratio and territory size come from the authors’ own observations. Raw data are published with the paper (Additional file 2) and the sequences are in GenBank (MF401594 to MF401621).

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

Female lions usually settle close to where they were born, while males can travel more than 200 km to find a new pride. Earlier studies in bush-like areas such as Kruger National Park and Selous in Tanzania suggested much shorter journeys, of 20 to 30 km. How far lions move, and how well the movers fare, matters for the spread of diseases such as bovine tuberculosis (BTB) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), both present in Kruger lions.

The researchers used the lions’ DNA to look at dispersal. Between 1998 and 2004, 109 lions were captured at call-up stations, sedated and blood sampled: 97 lions from 21 prides, and 12 singleton lions. The samples had been collected for a BTB study, so they came from two areas at opposite ends of the park, more than 200 km apart: the far north, then free of BTB, and the south, where BTB was common. The north had fewer lions per area, larger female territories (about 300 km² versus 70 km²) and lions in better body condition.

They read 11 genetic markers inherited from both parents in all 109 lions, and a stretch of DNA passed down only from mothers (mitochondrial DNA) in 28 lions. From these they worked out how related lions were within and between prides, which lions were probably born locally and which were probably newcomers, and how this changed with sex, age and body condition. They tested four ideas: that dispersal distances in bush-like areas are short, that few males disperse, that dispersal peaks at around 40 months of age, and that dispersers are less fit.

### 2. What they found

Two different populations

- Lions from the north and the south were genetically quite distinct, suggesting only limited movement between the two areas (an estimated 0.62 migrants per generation).

- The DNA passed down from mothers formed two very different groups, one for northern and one for southern females. No female carried a haplotype from the other end of the park.

How far lions moved

- Within prides, females were related to each other at about the level of first cousins, but males and females in the same pride were not related, showing that males came in from other prides.

- Females from different prides were still related up to about 20 km apart, so most females did not move further than this from their birth pride.

- Males showed no such pattern within 75 km, so they moved further, generally more than 25 km.

- Two lions showed long-distance male gene flow of 75 to 200 km: an eight-year-old male from a northern genetic group, sampled in the south in a nomadic group, and a seven-year-old female in the north whose father was probably a southern male.

Who dispersed

- In the north, about 24% of lions were probable dispersers and 51% probable residents. In the south it was the other way round: 58% dispersers and 25% residents.

- Across both areas, the fraction of dispersers was twice as high in males as in territorial females (0.52 versus 0.26).

- In the south, non-territorial females dispersed as often as males (0.64). Seven of the 12 southern prides sampled were non-territorial, against one of nine in the north.

- In the north, males in the same pride were often related, even into adulthood, suggesting male coalitions stayed together. In the south, males five years and older were not related to their pride mates, suggesting coalitions broke up before adulthood.

Age and fitness

- In the south, few lions aged 1 to 3 years were dispersers. As many as 90% of lions aged 3.5 to 7 years were dispersers, but only 29% of the younger and older age classes together.

- In the north, dispersers were less likely to be in top body condition.

- Singleton lions were often old: half the singletons were over eight years, against 10% of pride lions.

### 3. What they concluded

- The authors rejected the idea of short dispersal distances in Kruger: male lions can travel large distances and breed successfully, even in bush-like ecosystems, though the park’s long narrow shape may play a part.

- Most females stayed within about 20 km of their birth pride. The mitochondrial DNA was so different between north and south that the authors describe two distinct female-line subpopulations.

- Male long-distance dispersers seem to be few or to breed little.

- Dispersers appear to have low fitness: lower body condition, and fewer of them at older ages, which may reflect deaths or old males being evicted to live as singletons.

- In the south, the high female dispersal rate, unstable male coalitions and many non-territorial prides point to unstable territories and high pride turnover in 1998 to 2004. Low body condition and high lion density may both play a part; a link with BTB is possible, though another study found no link between BTB and body condition.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- Population genetics from blood samples: microsatellite markers inherited from both parents, and mitochondrial DNA inherited only from mothers, which separates female movement from male movement.

- Bayesian cluster analysis (the program Structure) to sort individual lions into probable residents, probable dispersers and lions of mixed ancestry.

- Lions were aged from tooth wear, scored for body condition, and microchipped so they could be recognized if caught again.

### 7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

- High local dispersal rates in both sexes, and long-distance movement by males, mean infectious diseases could spread quickly through the Kruger lion population.

- Dispersers tend to be in poorer body condition, which makes them more vulnerable to FIV, BTB and probably other infections, adding to the disease risk.

- Infection and the inability to keep a place in a pride may feed into each other.

- The large genetic differences between north and south could be taken into account in management policies.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Genetic insights into dispersal distance and disperser fitness of African lions (Panthera leo) from the latitudinal extremes of the Kruger National Park, South Africa (van Hooft and Keet et al., 2018). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2018-van-hooft-keet-genetic-insights-into-dispersal/