Lion Guardians

A few days ago we received a report that a lone male lion had injured one donkey and three cows and killed another cow in Mbirikani. All this from just two bomas. We followed his tracks on foot for 15 kilometers without any diversion or rest, eager to find out who this male lion was that had caused so much destruction.

After a while we came to a place called Nkoisuk where we were greeted by a strange sight – an ostrich that had been attacked, and even partially eaten, but was still alive. It seemed that the lion had jumped onto the back of the female ostrich and did not even care to break her neck. He fed on it until he was completely satisfied and continued on his journey as if nothing had happened, and all this while the ostrich was still alive! We were completely baffled by this behaviour. Here is the poor ostrich.

The size of his tracks, his strategy while passing by human settlements, his choice of territory and the fact that he was alone all pointed to one individual – Lomunyak. We carried on following the tracks, until we found the spot he had been resting. It seemed he had run off from the place just a minute before, probably after hearing us approaching. Though we were unable to see him, I have no doubt in my mind that it was Lomunyak. He has been elusive for several months now, so we are very glad to find him again.

The Maasai community is known all over the world as livestock keepers. This is their main source of wealth and it has sustained them since time immemorial. To a Maasai, eating meat is a very special thing, almost a preoccupation. And actually, if you pay a visit to a friend and he slaughters a goat for you, you know that your friendship is cemented forever. In the Maasai tradition of yester years, there was a special meat eating season which every moran had to undergo. All the morans in a particular neighbourhood or family would get together to plan this event. They would scout for a base camp, fence it and each of them would in turn donate a cow to be slaughtered until the season was over. Then they would decide whether to go for a second round or not! It was a very valuable tradition that served two main purposes.

These meat eating sessions acted as a school of some sort. Different important traditional and cultural aspects of the community were imparted to the young morans. Selected elders respected for their valuable experience and deep knowledge of culture always accompanied them and they would explain each aspect of the Maasai culture to an inquisitive audience who were allowed to ask as many questions as they wished.

The second purpose is that morans will mix different shrubs known for their effectiveness and make soup with it. They drink it when thirsty. Water is banned. They believe these traditional shrubs cleanse their digestive system and make them immune to many diseases and allow them to better act as the defensive unit of the community. The Maasai have done this for years without end.

However, due to the severity of the last drought, everybody has gone without this session. But now, it is on! It is meat eating season! Junior elders, senior morans, as well as the young moran age-set are all going for it! In fact, our own member of Parliament recently invited me to a meat eating session for a selected few. I enjoyed it for two days but had to leave after this time because of my commitment to the Lion Guardians.

Not to be left behind, our Lion Guardians are also undergoing the same in their own zones. They go for their daily duties and come back to ‘orpul’ as it is known, in the evening. They take this time to educate their age-mates on different aspects of conservation. And it seems they are doing this very well, as we have had many compliments from the junior elders who are very pleased with their training. Clearly, meat eating sessions are here to stay despite the different subjects the morans are now learning about.

We recently received a report from one of the Lion Guardians that several male lion tracks had been found together on Mbirikani. We wanted to know who the individuals were and quickly went to investigate. On reaching the site, we found a lion party in progress! Three very big male lions and two females were feeding on a zebra. It transpired that the three males were Kasayo, Ndelie and Lormanie and the females were Nemasi and Elikan! What an interesting group of individuals! Selenkay, who can usually be found with Elikan, and the four cubs of Lomunyak, that belong to Selenkay and Elikan were nowhere to be found. This was very worrying, especially with these males in the area, none of which are the father of the cubs. Our worry was that they may have killed the cubs. Here are some of the lovely cubs of Selenkay and Elikan.

The vultures and the jackals were kept at bay the whole day…Kasayo and Elikan seemed to have been assigned this task which they undertook efficiently. These males are so big that the same night, their roars which echoed throughout the area made prey species tremble in fear.

The next day we were desperate to find out what had happened to Selenkay and the cubs. Where were they? Were they ok? We hoped nothing had happened to them. Why was Elikan not with Selenkay and the cubs? For two days we had the Lion Guardians on high alert, looking for the tracks of one female and four cubs. Eventually, we got a report from Lion Guardian Mokoi, that he had found the tracks of a female, and some smaller tracks. We rushed to the scene and eventually found Selenkay and the cubs all together, alive and kicking, and looking extremely healthy. We knew then that the male lions were innocent! Thank goodness they are all safe and well! Here is a photo of Selenkay and the cubs.

We will keep you updated on the progress of these lions, and their seemingly ever-changing coalitions as we get reports in from the Guardians!

We told you last week of some of the events of the first ever Lion Guardian Games. Now we will tell you about the other events, which included football, a game that was new to many of the Guardians, especially as the majority of them have never been to school.  Excitement and questions about how this game is played, were upmost in their minds!

Therefore, the first session on the field was used to brief them on a few basic football rules. Each Group Ranch selected their best eleven to play each other to produce the two finalists. After several handballs, off-sides, missed kicks and falls, Eselenkei Group Ranch and Olgulului Group Ranch went through to the final. Here Eric and Kamunu battle it out!

The final was thrilling! Olgulului got the first goal after a fine cross from Mingati, who was a revelation at the wings. This goal was a wake-up call for Eselenkei who were a bit sluggish at the back! After a good combination between Lopono, Melita and Kutata who won practically every ball on the mid-field, Eric scored a gem of a goal! The two teams were still tied 1-1 at the end of time but after penalties, Eselenkei Group Ranch won 3-1 to be crowned the champions to the joy of a cheering crowd of Lion Guardians!

The atmosphere that evening back at camp was one of celebration as the morans sung song after song with Kamunu, Lekundu and Mingati as well as Olubi the best soloists. Jumping, a Maasai cultural specialty and a good contest for morans, captivated the onlookers, who had gathered at camp, drawn by the sounds of the best traditional singers in the area. In the evening, the Guardians enjoyed a sumptuous feast of expertly roasted goat meat and a well cooked soup of boiled perfect roots from the nearby hills.

Another part of the Games was the Award ceremony, where all Guardians were issued with certificates to congratulate them on their hard work, despite difficult challenges, and to give prizes to the winners of the different events. Also, four Lion Guardians were awarded with the ultimate prizes. Mokoi from Mbirikani was chosen for his honesty as well as consistently accurate reports to win the most reliable Lion Guardian award. Mingati was selected as the one who brought the biggest impact to the project. Kapande, also from Mbirikani and Kamunu from Eselenkei won the most improved Lion Guardian award. They were selected based on their great improvement, especially on their writing skills given their humble backgrounds having never been to school. Here is Kamunu receiving his award from Lion Guardians Director Leela Hazzah.

Each of these Lion Guardians got a pair of binoculars to help them continue with their good work, which will come in handy during their daily duties. Everyone had a wonderful celebration of the good hard work that will continue into the future, and we would again like to thank all of you who donated to the us to support the Lion Guardian Games.

Ashe oleng from all the Lion Guardians!

The long awaited Lion Guardian Games has eventually taken place! It was a fantastic event, and the Lion Guardians had a brilliant time competing and getting to know each other. We would like to thank everyone who made a donation towards this event – it was a wonderful occasion, and really brought the Lion Guardians together. And here they all are!

The games were held on the expansive Mbirikani plains , where Lion Guardians from all three Group Ranches converged with great anticipation and joy. And being Maasai morans from the same age-set, it took very little time to familiarize themselves with each other. As well as to get to know one another so that they can easily work together across ranch boundaries, and to swap stories of their lion conservation work, the event was also meant to congratulate all the Lion Guardians for the great work they did last year at the height of a severe drought and at the beginning of this year when carnivore-livestock conflicts were at their climax.

There were three main events – stick throwing, spear throwing and football. Stick throwing is a test of skill and strength, where you have to skim a stick along the dusty ground as far as possible. It was a spectacular show of might, with six Guardians competing to produce the overall winner – Lenkai, who works with the Lion Guardians on Eselenkei Group Ranch.

Spear throwing was next on the agenda. This was two events in one, designed to test accuracy and distance throwing. On spear accuracy, each Group Ranch selected two of the best hit men to compete. Mingati from Mbirikani Group Ranch did not miss the target on any single throw. He was a joy to watch and clearly his past reputation as a great lion killer has been gained through this exceptional skill.

On spear distance throwing it was a very close to call. Eventually, Pilenanka from Mbirikani Group Ranch emerged the victor amid ululations and dancing from his colleagues, with Parkesian from Olgulului Group Ranch coming a close second.

We’ll tell you the results of the Lion Guardians Football Tournament and more details of the evening celebrations soon!

Sikiria the lion is known well by all the Lion Guardians. He was first discovered in Eselenkai in October last year and was aptly named Sikiria (meaning ‘donkey’ in Maa) due to an incident when he and his three other male companions killed a number of donkeys. Since October of last year he and his closest companion Oyayai (Oyayai means ‘porcupine’ in Maa, as he was seen with a number of quills lodged in his chin!) went walkabout. Here is Sikiria.

Being male lions, they possibly decided to have a wander around to find a suitable place to claim as their own territory. But their wanderings took them to places that nobody expected them to go! All of the Lion Guardians across Olgulului, Eselenkei and Mbirikani spent countless days searching their zones for two male tracks and the signal from Sikiria’s collar. For months and months they were missing. Eventually, in early May, they was rediscovered in Eselenkei group ranch again!

Once Sikiria’s GPS collar was downloaded everyone was shocked to see that Sikiria and Oyiayi had covered roughly 4000Kms2; going all the way into Tanzania and far west along the Tanzania/Kenya border. Their vast movement made us realise the importance for the project to expand into other areas to keep the population of lions under constant monitoring.

Since May of this year, Sikiria and Oyayai have begun to settle as residents of Eselenkei. They have mostly been based in the Selenkay Conservancy and can be heard roaring close to our camp every few nights. Guardians Lopono and Kamunu continue to monitor their movements as the lions occupy both of their zones. We don’t know if Sikiria and Oyaiai will decide to finally settle down in this area, but as for now it seems that they are keen to stay. The Guardians are very pleased to be able to monitor Sikiria on a daily basis, especially as he used to be rather fond of livestock, and we all hope he doesn’t disapear again!

Hi, this is Eric.

Recently we told you the news that two young male lions had been spotted by Lion Guardian Lenkina in the same area that Mbeuti and her cubs used to live in. After the sad spearing of Mbeuti by the new age-set of morans back in March, her two 13-month old male cubs escaped unhurt, but many predicted their death owing to their young age. Here they are back with their mother, before the sad event.

However we are now pretty sure that they have defied all the odds and have survived! This must be largely due to the good care their mother gave them before she met her fate. Since the spearing, these cubs moved from place to place, far and wide, in search of their mother, but to no avail. The pangs of hunger were biting hard, they knew they must kill to survive but did not know how. And here they are!

It turns out that during the months of March and April they terrorized more than 10 bomas, killing goats and injuring donkeys but eating none, as they were chased away by angry owners. They even survived many attempted attacks themselves! At the height of the conflicts, the Lion Guardians in conjunction with other stakeholders, managed to stop 3 more lion hunts, all caused in retaliation for livestock killed by these two cubs. It seems they had some close escapes, and since then have never again killed livestock – perhaps they have learnt their lesson! We certainly hope so.

A few days ago, we got another report of two young lion tracks around the same area that Mbeuti and her cubs used to patrol. We summoned our team of reputable trackers! Upon finding the tracks, many thought they might be a female and a cub, as one was slightly bigger than the other. But as soon as I saw them, I knew they were familiar tracks! These tracks surely belonged to Mbeuti’s cubs.

At their age, they have defied all predictions to survive for the last three months. Now I hope they can continue to grow big and handsome like Maringa and Pua, and avoid livestock and people. The Lion Guardians will do their best to enable this to happen.

Hi everyone. This is Eric.

Our team was out in the field visiting the southern Olgulului area where we hope to expand the Lion Guardians project to. The community members came out in good numbers to meet our team and seemed very pleased with our plans for expansion into their area. On seeing satisfaction written in their faces accompanied as always by beaming smiles, we left.

On our way back, we met Parkesian, our Lion Guardian in Meshenani. He told us that he had just seen two male lions not very far from where we were so we decided to go and check out the report. A few kilometers deep into Olgulului Group Ranch, we found two male lions deep asleep. Respecting their slumber, we allowed them to rest. On trying our telemetry equipment we immediately knew who they were. It was one of our collared male lions called Maringa and his usual companion ‘Mr. Nose’ or Pua!

Both detected our presence and proximity to them but were not in the least bit concerned, and they soon went back to sleep. They looked so much at ease and at peace with themselves as if they had killed recently and this was their resting day. Both looked very healthy. We are beginning to think that these two lions must be related because they are so often found together. Adaptation is critical to survival, and lions outside protected areas are adapting by adopting unusual behaviours, like hanging out in small groups as opposed to prides.

Both of these lions are known to frequent Eselenkei but are resident in Olgulului and hardly ever go into Amboseli National Park. They have an admirable record with regards to human-wildlife conflict as their livestock kill numbers are modest. The good news is that elands have started calving, particularly in areas that Maringa and Pua frequent, especially Selenkay Conservancy, which will mean plenty of easy prey for lions.

There is nothing as exciting and as satisfying as seeing lions completely at peace with their environment and without any conflict to talk about. When I first saw Maringa at close range while on foot I thought he was a very handsome lion, but now I have seen him at even closer range from a vehicle I think he looks even more handsome than I thought then! How I pray that all the remaining lions see many more sunsets, like these two, and thank you to all those of you who are helping this to happen with your support of the Lion Guardians project. Asante sana!

We have some news for you – Antony Kasanga has recently left the Lion Guardians project, but he is still working to protect the wildlife of the ecosystem – he now works for our friends at the Maasailand Preservation Trust (MPT).

After he finished secondary school Antony started working for Living with Lions, where he learnt a lot about lions and their conservation. Following on from that he was appointed as Coordinator of the Lion Guardians project which started in 2006 on Mbirikani Group Ranch. The project has grown a lot since then, expanding on to two more group ranches in the ecosystem – Eselenkei and Olgulului.

In 2009 Antony went to the UK to study for a Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice at the University of Oxford, learning many more skills to help him with wildlife conservation back in his homeland.

Antony said “I have enjoyed working with the warriors. We have been together for almost 5 years. I wish you all the best as you strive to conserve African lions for future posterity.”

We wish him all the best for his future work and we shall no doubt see a lot of him still as he is based just down the road!

As you may remember, we were planning to hold the Lion Guardian Games at the very end of last year, but we had to postpone them for a number of reasons – firstly due to major floods, which meant that the Guardians could not attend, but also because the depletion of herbivores and the presence of weak cows (because of the drought) led to a great increase in attacks on livestock by lions. Tensions were running high across the whole ecosystem, lion hunts were attempted and the Guardians were urgently needed on the ground to do all they could to prevent the conflicts. Here is a photo taken during the floods.

This high tension situation lasted for months, with the Guardians working extremely hard to prevent any more lion deaths and reduce the conflicts between the local Maasai communities and lions. Now it seems that the majority of conflicts have subsided, and the Guardians are no longer under such huge pressure. So now we will be able to hold the Games!

The Lion Guardian Games involves competitions in all the skills of a Maasai warrior – tracking, spear throwing, singing, stick throwing, jumping and even football! This will not only be a fun way for the Guardians to relax after all their hard work, but will be a way for those from different ranches to meet each other, and gain a sense of ‘brotherhood’, to tell stories of their work and collaborate with each other.

As lions range far and wide across ranch boundaries it is important that the Guardians on neighbouring ranches get to know each other so they can communicate about when lions are roaming into each others’ zones. This collaboration is essential for lion conservation to happen successfully across the ecosystem. As well as awarding prizes to the winners of the various games, we will also be giving prizes for the best Lion Guardians work, to encourage the guys further.

Thank you to all of you that donated towards the Games, so long ago! We are so grateful to you all for your support, and pleased that we will now be able to use your donations to hold the first ever Lion Guardian Games!