Lion Guardians

As you may recall from a recent post, many people and their livestock have migrated into the area around our base camp, near the foot of the Chyulu Hills, where the grass is green. With this sudden influx of people we have noticed a local increase in the number of livestock being lost. More often than not the animals are lost during the day while being herded, then killed by large carnivores at night. One of the primary responsibilities of the Lion Guardians is to try to help prevent depredation of people’s livestock, as this reduces their inclination to retaliate against lions and hyenas. So last night we dropped several guardians in strategic areas around here to search for lost livestock and to help people bring their herds home to their bomas (corrals). Here are a few pictures of the guardians setting out for their night’s assignment:

This is Lion Guardian Lenkina heading into the hills. He’s the red speck in the centre of the photograph. there is a herd of goats to the left of him.

… and Olubi heading into the whistling-thorn Acacia

Koikai is surveying from the high ground before embarking towards Olo Sira mountain.

And Mukoi was the last to be deployed, as the sun was about to set, and the full moon was rising

The reports we received this morning were very favourable. Lekina found an entire herd of goats and sheep and brought them down from behind the hills in the photograph. He was unclear as to exactly how many. The Maasai word “kumok” doesn’t really translate to a number. Just “many”. I’m guessing the herd was somewhere between 10 and 30 animals. Olubi searched for 3 cows that were lost yesterday. He eventually found that they had been given shelter for the night in a good samaritan’s boma. Mukoi found a cow that had given birth while out grazing yesterday, and took it home to the owner’s boma