Territorial movements of African lions: can waterholes shape multiple central-place territories in a savanna ecosystem?

In territorial species, individuals need to regularly patrol their territory to display visual, auditory or olfactory signals, or to detect the presence of intruders. Although territorial movements are often conceptualized as animals travelling along the boundaries of their territories (‘border patrolling’ behaviour), the distribution of territorial cues could also match the distribution of resources when resources are spatially heterogeneous in their availability and found in stable patches, leading to the emergence of “multiple central-place territories”. Here, we explored how territoriality may shape the spatial behaviour of African lions (Panthera leo) in a savanna where
waterholes are associated with aggregations of large herbivores throughout the year and are therefore well-known prey hotspots and key hunting sites for large carnivores. We hypothesized that male lions would be more likely to patrol a buffer area around the territory core to defend a core area where social interactions with groupmates occur, whereas female lions would more specifically patrol hunting sites, i.e. waterhole areas. However, we found that both female and male lions repeatedly moved along straight paths between the waterholes located both in the core and in the periphery of their territories, potentially to defend multiple central-place territories driven by the distribution of waterholes in the landscape. These findings illustrate a case where territorial animals specifically mark feeding sites, increasing the renewal of territorial cues at these key places, potentially using long-distance territorial cues (i.e., vocalizations) to mark uncovered areas, and thereby reducing the cost of patrolling large territories. Overall, multiple
central-place territories provide new insights on how the spatial distribution of resources shapes space use in territorial animals.