Lion Guardians

People migrating again

Category: Community work, life in camp, lion research fieldwork | Date: Nov 15 2007 | By: admin

As is typical of our ranch, it has rained in some parts of the ranch while other areas have received very little rain. The result is that there is an uneven distribution of pasture. Towards the hills, where our camp is, pastures are green and abundant. In the lowlands, pastures are still not sufficient. For this reason, people are in motion again.

Some of the Lion Guardians are having to shift base to the areas around camp where people have moved their livestock so that they can carry on their community service work.

Most prey species are in this area, and so are the lions. The situation is precarious at the moment with some of the lions completely surrounded by oblivious herders.

Below are some goats that are busy eating to regain weight.

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Video footage of Nosero’s cub

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 13 2007 | By: admin

Here is a clip of Nosero’s cub thinking about the world, and of the tasty Wildebeest that her mother killed

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Antony flies to New York

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 12 2007 | By: admin

Anthony flew out to the USA yesterday. He had hoped for this trip for a very long time and he was very excited about it. We hope he will be back in a week and half or so. For the time being Seamus and I will keep the blog going.

I am sure he will have lots of experiences to narrate when he comes back. He went out in full murran attire (braided hair, tyre shoes, beads and all) so he must be causing a sensation wherever he is!

We found a warrior in a nearby village who is well known for braiding hair skillfully, and he spent a long time doing Antony’s hair before he left. Here are a few pictures

The warrior doing the braiding was happy to have his picture taken too. Here he is

And here are some of his arm decorations, made with beads and cow-hide, by women.

We wish him Antony a nice time and hope that he will be able to cope with the drastic change from our calm ranch to the bustling New York!

kind regards

Ernest (lion research)

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Kipande reports on his activities, early November

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Nov 11 2007 | By: admin

Here is Kipande’s report for the first week of November.

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weather report

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 09 2007 | By: admin

Lowryder wanted to know what the weather is like. Well, its hot every day with clouds building in the afternoons. As the wet season progresses we will expect rain more frequently. Here is a photograph…

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newly collared male lion located

Category: lion research fieldwork | Date: Nov 08 2007 | By: admin

Last night we went out looking for the lion that was collared recently. We found him close to the home where they raided geese a few nights ago. He seemed to be on his own. He is still new so all we did was spend time with him. This will make him used to us. Once we are comfortable around each other then we will be able to make important observations on him. Otherwise, he seems alright and was surprisingly not very shy of our vehicle.

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donations from Hashi, Agnes and Katherine received

Category: Donations received | Date: Nov 06 2007 | By: admin

Hashi, Agnes and Katherine,

We have just received the donations summary for October. Thank you all for your generous contributions.

best regards

Antony Kasanga

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Seleka and aothers track a problem lion to collar

Category: lion research fieldwork | Date: Nov 06 2007 | By: admin

Two days ago three lions from the plains near to our camp caused trouble. Normally, it is the herders that complain of losses when a lion decides to be naughty. This time however, they attacked a most unlikely place: the residence of the lodge-owners who live nearby. In the dead of the night, the lodge-owners were woken up by the sound of geese flapping and honking. The goose ‘pen’ (what is it called?) is situated right in the middle of the compound and can be clearly seen from some of the rooms.

So guys were just shining a light at the ‘pen’, seeing one of the lions, and instead of going rescue the geese, they would push something heavy against their doors just incase she came knocking. The opening she went in through was a small one and when she attempted to come out, she could not fit. She was stuck in there with the geese with no help in sight. In frustration, she killed all the geese before she finally managed to crawl out. In the next photo Lion Guardian Seleka is showing the size of one of the holes the lion crawled through to get to the geese.

We spent the past two days trying to track the culprits. Then luck shone on us yesterday. The researchers were able to locate them by their roaring, and use bait to attract them, then sedate, and fit a collar to the male lion. here is a picture of his track from when we were tracking.

They came back to camp with good news today morning. One more lion added to the herd for the Lion Guardians to look after! We hope he is a resident of the group ranch and we will be able to study him

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Lion Guardian Kapande’s monthly report

Category: Community work, life in camp, lion research fieldwork | Date: Nov 04 2007 | By: admin

In our attempt to bring the lion guardians in direct contact with our audience, today we bring on Kapande’s monthly report. He represents a zone called Lenkiloriti to the north of our camp.

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Snake found while tracking lions

Category: lion research fieldwork | Date: Nov 01 2007 | By: admin

On the 30^th, we had our usual end of the month meeting with the Lion Guardians. All guardians seem to enjoying their work and they actually gave brief reports on tape that we will post for you to listen to. Forgive our poor presentation skills. Some of us are just like many people. We just run out of words when faced with a recorder and required to say something coherent!

Anyway, after the meeting, Seamus, Ernest and Ritei (a lion guardian) spent yesterday out in the bush monitoring some of the collared lions. They found Sangale, Nosero, and Lentim. It was a routine exercise except for a snake they found hiding in a bush by the track they were using. If anyone out there has the east african reptile book, they could tell us what this is:

It was staring at them from less than 1m away observing intently what they were up to. Its not unusual to find snakes around here but sometimes, it takes such experiences to remind the guardians that their work includes risks. Here is Ritei pointing out the snake. Ernest is watching.

Today as you may guess, I am neck high in office work. Meetings, reports…just name it

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