Kenya’s big cats under pressure – cattle push lions away

SAME AS THEY DO TO WOLVES IN NORTH AMERICA

Cattle herds are driving lions and other wildlife away from their habitats in Kenya, even though herders enclose their livestock at night when predators are most active.

Aarhus University

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On the Kenyan savannah, lions and livestock essentially live in shifts: cattle graze during the day and are enclosed at night when lions are active. Nevertheless, lions are being pushed out of their habitats by large numbers of cattle. This affects both the ecosystem balance and the nature-based tourism on which many Maasai communities in Kenya depend on.

This is shown in a new study from Aarhus University, led by Niels Mogensen, a PhD student at the Department of Biology.

Together with local collaborators, Niels Mogensen recorded different groups of animals – lions, other predators, and grazing livestock – in the Masai Mara Conservancies, a conservation area in southwestern Kenya. The area is roughly the size of Lolland and a large part of Falster and is known for its high lion densities and the annual wildebeest migration.

The Masai Mara is also one of Africa’s most popular tourist destinations, especially for visitors hoping to see the “Big Five” (lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, and buffalo). Lions in particular are under pressure from the Maasai’s large cattle herds. According to Niels Mogensen, the study is extensive, with a large dataset collected over nine years and covering several conservancies.

“Even though cattle are supervised by herders and brought into enclosures at night when lions become active, the wildlife is still indirectly affected. Lions have a natural fear of cattle and their herders, and as cattle numbers increase, it is the lions that retreat. They simply change their behaviour,” explains Niels Mogensen.

Data collection was carried out by dividing the study area into one-by-one-kilometre grid cells. Each time the researchers drove through a cell, they recorded all lions and livestock and the distance travelled. The data were then analysed using spatial modelling methods, meaning that geographical or spatial factors were taken into account.

Less space creates new problems

Nearly 70 percent of Kenya’s wildlife now lives outside national parks, often in the same areas that local communities use for grazing their cattle. In the community-run Masai Mara conservancies, the goal is for wildlife, tourism, and livestock farming to coexist.

But finding that balance is difficult, says Niels Mogensen.

“Even though lions and cattle are not on the grasslands at the same time, our data show that lions avoid  areas where cattle graze. It is very rare for people to kill lions or directly threaten them in the conservancies. Nevertheless, human use of the landscape has created areas that lions are afraid to enter,” he says.

The consequence is that lions have less space to move, creating new problems.

“Lions may be pushed into unsuitable habitats, their ability to reproduce may be affected, and they may be driven into the territories of other lion prides. At the same time, the risk increases that lion prides move closer to villages, creating insecurity.”

Create more refuges

Niels Mogensen points to several solutions, one of the most important being more targeted grazing management.

“The more cattle there are, the harder it becomes for lions to find space. It is therefore crucial that livestock numbers are kept low in areas preferred by lions, especially near rivers and in areas with dense vegetation,” he says.

Another recommendation is to establish clear boundaries for where livestock may graze and to rotate grazing so that some areas experience periods of rest.

“By rotating grazing between different areas, pressure on the most important habitats for lions and other wildlife can be reduced.”

Lions’ safe resting areas should also be better protected. This applies especially to areas along rivers and places with dense bush or forest cover, where lions can hide and rest during the day.

“These areas function as refuges for lions. If they disappear, lions lose some of the last places where they can feel safe,” he explains.

He therefore advises against allowing cattle to graze in these lion refuges and stresses the importance of maintaining a varied landscape.

Use data in management

A third recommendation is to use data more actively in the management of the conservancies. According to Niels Mogensen, knowledge about where lions and livestock actually occur should play a much larger role in grazing planning.

“We now have a detailed picture of how lions respond to livestock. That knowledge should be used directly in management so that grazing decisions are based on evidence rather than assumptions,” he says.

Finally, Niels Mogensen emphasises the need for continued monitoring.

“When lions are pushed into smaller areas, it can have long-term consequences that we do not yet fully understand. That’s why it is important to keep monitoring developments closely,” he says.

Future studies should, among other things, examine how denser populations affect lions’ social structure, pride stability, and cub survival.

 

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Journal

Biological Conservation

DOI

10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111599 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Human-driven landscapes of fear for Africa's largest terrestrial predator in human-used conservation landscapes

 IT'S A QUANTUM UNIVERSE

Researchers publish new guide to measuring spacetime fluctuations

Signatures of Correlation of Spacetime Fluctuations in Laser Interferometers

University of Warwick

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Cardiff's Gravity Exploration Institute team working on QUEST experiment. Credit: H Grote, Cardiff University.

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Credit: H Grote, Cardiff University

A team of researchers led by the University of Warwick has developed the first unified framework for detecting “spacetime fluctuations” - tiny, random distortions in the fabric of spacetime that appear in many attempts to unite quantum physics and gravity.

These subtle fluctuations, first envisaged by physicist John Wheeler, are thought to arise naturally in several leading theories of quantum gravity. But because different models of gravity predict different forms of these fluctuations, experimental teams have until now lacked clear guidance on what to look for.

The new study, published in Nature Communications addresses this challenge by sorting spacetime fluctuations into three broad categories, each defined by how organised the fluctuations are in space and time. For each category, the researchers mapped out the distinct, measurable signatures that would appear in laser interferometers - from the 4km long LIGO, to compact laboratory systems such as QUEST and GQuEST being developed in the UK (Cardiff University) and USA (Caltech) respectively.

Dr. Sharmila Balamurugan, Assistant Professor, University of Warwick and first author said: “Different models of gravity predict very different underlying trends in the random spacetime fluctuations, and that has left experimentalists without a clear target. Our work provides the first unified guide that translates these abstract, theoretical predictions into concrete, measurable signals.

“It means we can now test a whole class of quantum-gravity predictions using existing interferometers, rather than waiting for entirely new technologies. This is an important step towards bringing some of the most fundamental questions in physics firmly into the realm of experiment.”

The study found that:

• Tabletop interferometers beat LIGO in bandwidth
   Despite being far smaller than LIGO, QUEST and GQuEST could provide more detailed information about the nature of spacetime fluctuations. Their wide frequency coverage allows them to detect all the characteristic signatures.
• LIGO is an excellent “yes/no” detector.
   Thanks to its long arm cavities, LIGO is highly sensitive to the mere presence of spacetime fluctuations — although the relevant frequencies lie above the range currently available in public data.
• A long-running debate is resolved.
   A debate about whether arm cavities help or hinder detection has been answered as here arm cavities do enhance an interferometer’s sensitivity to spacetime fluctuations, depending on the type of fluctuation being tested.

Dr. Sander Vermeulen, Caltech, co-author of the study said: “Interferometers can measure spacetime with extraordinary precision. However, to measure spacetime fluctuations with an interferometer, we need to know where - i.e. at what frequency - to look, and what the signal will look like. With our framework we can now predict this for a wide range of theories. Our results show that interferometers are powerful and versatile tools in the quest for quantum gravity.”

Crucially, the new framework developed here is agnostic of the underlying mechanism for the fluctuations: it requires only the mathematical description of the hypothesised fluctuations and the geometry of the instrument. This makes it a powerful tool not only for quantum-gravity tests but also for searches for stochastic gravitational waves, dark-matter signatures, and certain forms of instrumental noise.

Prof Animesh Datta, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Warwick concluded: “With this methodology, we can now treat any proposed model of spacetime fluctuations in a consistent, comparable way. In the coming years, we can use this to design smarter tabletop interferometers to confirm or refute possible theories of quantum or semiclassical gravity and even test new ideas about dark matter and stochastic gravitational waves.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Image Credits: H Grote, Cardiff University.

About the paper and funding:

The paper ‘Signatures of Correlation of Spacetime Fluctuations in Laser Interferometers’ has been published in Nature Communications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67313-3

This work was funded by the UK STFC “Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics” program (Grant Numbers ST/T006404/1, ST/W006308/1 and ST/Y004493/1) and the Leverhulme Trust under research grant ECF-2024-124 and RPG-2019-022.

 About the University of Warwick

Founded in 1965, the University of Warwick is a world-leading institution known for its commitment to era-defining innovation across research and education. A connected ecosystem of staff, students and alumni, the University fosters transformative learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and bold industry partnerships across state-of-the-art facilities in the UK and global satellite hubs. Here, spirited thinkers push boundaries, experiment, and challenge conventions to create a better world.

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-67313-3 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Article Title

Signatures of correlation of spacetime fluctuations in laser interferometers

Quantum measurements with entangled atomic clouds

University of Basel

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With three atomic clouds whose spins (blue) are entangled with each other at a distance, the researchers can measure the spatial variation of an electromagnetic field.

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Credit: Illustration: Enrique Sahagún, Scixel / University of Basel, Department of Physics

Researchers at the University of Basel and the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel have demonstrated how quantum mechanical entanglement can be used to measure several physical parameters simultaneously with greater precision.

Entanglement is probably the most puzzling phenomenon observed in quantum systems. It causes measurements on two quantum objects, even if they are at different locations, to exhibit statistical correlations that should not exist according to classical physics – it’s almost as if a measurement on one object influences the other one at a distance. The experimental demonstration of this effect, also known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in physics.

Now, a research team led by Prof. Dr. Philipp Treutlein at the University of Basel and Prof. Dr. Alice Sinatra at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB) in Paris has shown that the entanglement of spatially separated quantum objects can also be used to measure several physical parameters simultaneously with increased precision. The researchers recently published their results in the scientific journal Science.

Improved measurements through entanglement

“Quantum metrology, which exploits quantum effects to improve measurements of physical quantities, is by now an established field of research,” says Treutlein. Fifteen years ago, he and his collaborators were among the first to perform experiments in which the spins of extremely cold atoms were entangled with each other. The entanglement allowed them to measure the direction of the atomic spins (which can be imagined as tiny compass needles) more precisely than would have been possible with independent spins without entanglement.

“However, those atoms were all in the same location,” Treutlein explains: “We have now extended this concept by distributing the atoms into up to three spatially separated clouds. As a result, the effects of entanglement act at a distance, just as in the EPR paradox.”

The idea behind this is that if one wants to measure, for instance, the spatial distribution of an electromagnetic field, one could use an entangled state of spatially separated atomic spins. Similarly to the measurement at a single location, the entanglement could then reduce the measurement uncertainties due to quantum mechanics and, to a large degree, also cancel other disturbances that act equally on all the atomic spins.

“So far, no one has performed such a quantum measurement with spatially separated entangled atomic clouds, and the theoretical framework for such measurements was also still unclear,” says Yifan Li, who was involved in the experiment as a postdoc in Treutlein’s group. Together with their colleagues at the LKB, Treutlein and his team investigated how the measurement uncertainty for the spatial distribution of an electromagnetic field could be minimized using such entangled clouds.

To achieve this, they first entangled the atomic spins into a single cloud and then split the cloud into three entangled parts. With only a few measurements, they were able to determine the field distribution with a distinctly better precision than would have been expected without the spatial entanglement.

Applications in atomic clocks and gravimeters

“Our measurement protocols can be directly applied to existing precision instruments such as optical lattice clocks,” says Lex Joosten, PhD student in the Basel group. In such clocks, atoms are trapped in an optical lattice created by laser beams and then used as extremely precise “clockworks”. The methods of the Basel researchers could be used to reduce specific measurement errors arising from the distribution of atoms across the lattice, thereby improving the precision of time measurements.

Another example of a practical application is atom interferometers, which can be used to measure the Earth’s gravitational acceleration. For some applications of these instruments, known as gravimeters, the main quantity of interest is the spatial variation of gravity, which can be measured with higher precision than before using the entanglement approach.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adt2442 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Multiparameter estimation with an array of entangled atomic sensors

Article Publication Date

22-Jan-2026

Body-focused (FEMALE) teens more likely to experience anxiety and depression at 20

A cluster analysis of health behaviors and their relationship to weight stigma, neuroticism and psychological wellbeing

University of Warwick

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Teenage girls who maintain a ‘normal’ body weight through constant dieting and exercise may look ‘healthy’ but should be seen as a vulnerable group according to new research from the University of Warwick.

The study, led by Dr Dimitra Hartas, finds that 17-year-old women of normal weight who closely manage their bodies through strict regimes of diet and exercise – focused on “clean eating”, fitness, and constant self-monitoring rather than food deprivation – face heightened risks to their psychological health. Many reported experiences of weight stigma, high levels of anxiety-related traits, and thoughts of self-harm and suicide.

By the age of 20, these young women were more likely to experience symptoms associated with anxiety and depression, alongside psychological distress and poorer overall wellbeing.

The research challenges the widespread assumption that dieting and regular exercise are always markers of good health. Instead, it highlights how body management has become closely tied to identity, self-worth, and social acceptance – particularly for young women.

“In an image-saturated culture, young women are praised for being fit and slim,” said Dr Dimitra Hartas, Reader at the University of Warwick. “But beneath this veneer of health lies a troubling reality. For many, managing body weight is not about wellbeing – it is about meeting cultural expectations and earning a sense of worth.”

The study points to a broader societal shift in which personhood has become a project of constant self-optimisation, where the ‘ideal body’ is narrowly defined and weight is treated as a measure of personal worth.

In social media culture, body satisfaction has become a form of currency, with ‘slim’ increasingly seen as synonymous with ‘worthy’. As a result, young women often work hard to look like the best version of themselves, rather than to feel or be well.

“This pressure for the female body to shrink is a form of social control,” Dr Hartas said. “It restricts women’s physical and symbolic space, shaping how they see themselves and how society permits them to exist. The mental health cost of this pressure is significant and too often overlooked.”

The findings sit within a wider and worrying context. Recent studies show that one in three women aged 16–24 report experiencing mental ill health, with rates of self-harm among young women having quadrupled since 2000.

Dr Hartas argues that recognising young women of normal weight who engage in constant dieting and exercise as a vulnerable group is essential for improving mental health prevention, education, and support.

“Health messaging needs to move beyond weight and appearance,” she said. “We need to ask not just how young women look, but how they are actually doing – psychologically, emotionally, and socially.”

“These findings show that schools and colleges need to do much more to support young people’s health,” said Dr Michael C Watson from the Institute of Health Promotion and Education (IHPE). “We need to move beyond BMI and weight management towards promoting exercise, sleep and healthy eating, while also tackling body image and fat shaming. This is a complex challenge that won’t be solved by one-off or isolated interventions.”

ENDS

About the University of Warwick 

Founded in 1965, the University of Warwick is a world-leading institution known for its commitment to era-defining innovation across research and education. A connected ecosystem of staff, students and alumni, the University fosters transformative learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and bold industry partnerships across state-of-the-art facilities in the UK and global satellite hubs. Here, spirited thinkers push boundaries, experiment and challenge convention to create a better world.

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Journal

Current Psychology

DOI

10.1007/s12144-025-08652-8 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

A cluster analysis of health behaviours and their relationship to weight stigma, neuroticism and psychological wellbeing in adolescents and young adults: a population-based study

Article Publication Date

16-Jan-2026