Creel et al. argue against the conservation effectiveness of fencing based on a population measure that ignores the importance of top predators to ecosystem processes. Their statistical analyses consider, first, only a subset of fenced reserves and, second, an incomplete examination of 'costs per lion.' Our original conclusions remain unaltered.
Keywords: Carrying capacity; edge effects; fences; lions; population size.
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.