Lion Guardians

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 30 2008 | By: admin

Sincere Apologies

To all our readers,

We apologize for the break up in posts from the Lion Guardian blog. The reason behind this is that my computer has developed a problem. I had to take it to Nairobi to get fixed. Please bear with us and we assure our readers that we will be back on track once the problem is fully fixed.

Here I am working on my computer. Let’s hope it is fixed!

Horrible Experience

Today, I dropped my computer at a computer garage and headed into Nairobi city centre to catch up a Matatu (Matatu is public transport in Kenya popularly known as mathree) to the project house. As I was entering town, there was heavy traffic that forced us to start walking. I had only taken three steps when I heard gun shots. I stopped and looked behind; someone ran past me. I heard more gun shots and someone shouting, “Stop! or I shoot you.” Everybody around me went to the ground. Within minutes there was a wailing cry of agony and pain, the person running collapsed down.

That was when I realized that these were plain cloth police men chasing a robber. The police men shot and killed the robber. Panic struck me with the realization of the danger I had just been through. These days, with so much violence occuring in Kenya, many innocent people are being killed by stray bullets; I don’t want to be one of them.

After this incident, I recalled a dream I had yesterday while traveling to Nairobi. In the dream, I saw myself caught between rioters and police men. Just as I was about to turn and go, a bullet was fired and it hit me right through my neck. I woke up as I went down screaming. I have been praying for God to save Kenya and its people. This is really a hard time for us.

9 responses so far

Category: Community work, ways you can help | Date: Jan 24 2008 | By: admin

Theresa, it is interesting that you want to know of the socio-dynamics behind the scenes of conservation. We decided to answer you in a post so that everyone else can be informed. The area in the photo is in the neighbouring group ranch of Olgulului. They normally receive the same amount of rain as Mbirikani and are only a short distance away. Typical of the rains in this part of the world though, they are unpredictable, irregular, and thus undependable. Last year Mbirikani was in a similar predicament. Fortunately, despite the borders people can still move their cows across in search of better pastures. Mbirikani at the moment is the refuge for most of the people from this area.

This brings us to crop farming. Precisely because of the reasons above, crop farming is next to impossible in this area. Crops cannot be moved around to follow the rains. To further complicate the scene, they border

Amboseli
National Park

about 5km west of where this photo was taken. In fact, Amboseli is also just receiving its first significant amount of rains. Well, being next to a park, they are in the immediate dispersal area of wildlife. Crops would attract zebra, gazelle, buffalo, elephant…. I guess you understand. All the herbivores are going to attack the crops, if by any luck any of them grow as the parks here are unfenced.

The people in this area do not directly tap into the tourism industry because of a lack of capacity (finance and knowledge). As a result, the only thing they do, and have been doing for centuries, is herding. Time has selected this activity as the main viable enterprise for the Maasai on these rangelands. It one of the reasons wildlife still exist here. If you grow crops in an area, you have to kick out all the wildlife. If you are herding, it is possible to co-exist with wildlife.

To survive today where everything has been converted to a monetary tag, people send their cows to cattle markets tens of kilometers away. Here, the cows are sold and the family can convert the money into their daily needs (food, clothe, and in some cases education) depending on priority.

Water, as Theresa asked, is a big problem across the group ranches. People have to travel long distances to get to a source of water of any kind. In the area pictured (21^st Jan.), they have only one water source (a borehole dug by the Kenya Wildlife Service) a short distance from the park. Everyone else depends on this. When it rains, waterholes that are shared between the people, cows, and wildlife are the easier sources of water.

Anyway, from our perspective, changing to a different source of income, especially crop farming, is not the best option. The better option would be trying to improve the output and gains made from the current economic activity. If there were better breeds of cattle, if there was better animal husbandry, if there is less depredation on the cows,….

This is part of what the Lion Guardian program is working hard at.

Technorati : Olgulului, conservation, socio-economics

7 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 22 2008 | By: admin

We made a brief visit to Olgulului Group Ranch to visit Mirishi and the other murrans who are volunteering to document livestock kills by carnivores in their areas. Also, they are keeping track of which communities the lions are living near. These data will help us know where the lion-human conflict is occuring and where we should, if we get the resources, employ Olgulului Lion Guardians. The murrans are very excited about the prospect of a Lion Guardian program. They are all doing well over there and welcomed us warmly. The rains have not come to that area as much as they have been in Mbirikani. The below photo shows a pathetic situation in Olgulului. People have vacated the area in search of greener pastures. An example being the boma in the background.

While we were there we experienced a few showers for which the few remaining people were very thankful. On our way home to Mbirikani we encountered these rains and they brought us troubles. We got very stuck in this mud; it took all afternoon, a lot of man (and woman) power and a tractor to get us unstuck.

Sleeping beside the car is a murran who is tired from the hard work of pushing the car from the mud as a curious little boy looks on.

One response so far

Category: life in camp | Date: Jan 21 2008 | By: admin

This week has been quite dull and chilly, the rains have just now begun. It is rather strange because people around the ranch don’t expect rains on these months, January and February. We normally get ’short’ rains in November and December. These are the months that livestock fatten so they will be able to sustain until the long March, April and May rains come. Our Maasai neighbors are very happy because they were having to buy water at 300 Kenyan Shillings for 150 litre drum (this is expensive compared to the usual 150Ksh/150 litre drum). Now, with all these recent rains, they only have to fetch water for their livestock from the nearby dams.

Everything is blossoming with very green beautiful leaves. This photo was taken outside the Lion Guardian office

One response so far

Category: Community work | Date: Jan 20 2008 | By: admin

While we were travelling around the ranch, we met an old man at Olbili, one of the zones on our Group Ranch bordering Oltiasika; the two communities actually share the watering hole where the poisoned cow was laid out. We had a chat with the old man about lions and the days gone by. He was telling us that lions have reduced in population compared to the past.

He says that in the past lions used to kill cows almost on a daily basis. In the day, they would attack cows in the bush and at night, they would break into homesteads and make away with cows. In response, the people would go out and hunt them down.

The old man told of how in the past, they did not have lights. So when a lion broke into a homestead and it was pitch dark, you could not just throw your spear in the general direction of the lion as you could spear one of your own stampeding cows in the process. In such cases, one had to practically get a hold of the lion, pry it off the cow, and then face it with the spear when there is no more risk of harming your cow. He said that the Maasai love for cows exceeds anything else as cows are their sole livelihood.

This may help bring out the community perspective in conservation. These elders are the ones who determine the dynamics of the wildlife, our ranch and our future.

Technorati : community work, human-wildlife interactions, outreach

9 responses so far

Category: Meet the Lion Guardians | Date: Jan 18 2008 | By: admin

Kapande who is normally a calm and composed guy reacted surprisingly strongly to the poisoning of the two lions, especially Sangale. He says that if they -the murrans- are no longer spearing lions, how does anyone else dare go ahead and kill one. He appropriately uses the expression that, “In the past, when livestock got lost, we would go out searching for them armed with spears but today, we go out armed only with herding sticks.”

He says that the individual involved is out of touch with the changes taking place in the world today! Here is his reaction:

Technorati : lion killing, lionguardians, poisoning

4 responses so far

Category: Donations received | Date: Jan 18 2008 | By: admin

Dear Theresa, Paula, Katherine, Eric, Rosemary, Chris, Herb, John, Fiona, Nancy, Victor, Peter, Louis B, Martha, Cherry and Loki Q

This is a short note to say thank you to all of you who have given so generously over the last few weeks. The donations this month have been exceptional. If this continues I hope that over the next few months we will be bringing you good news: news of cubs being born, of renewal, of growth and security as we find our feet after the tragic events of the beginning of this year.

Many on this list are personal contacts of Kate. To all of you, thanks for your faith in what the Lion Guardians and I are trying to do. Keep reading, commenting and supporting!

” We are naturally drawn to people who are quite similar to ourselves “. Elk, wherever you may be you are greatly, greatly appreciated by those that matter. Don’t ever forget this. And thank you.

regards

Seamus

Kilimanjaro with Euphorbia cactus in foreground.

Nosero’s daughter on the move.

Bush strip north of Mombasa. C-150. Takeoff.

Technorati : conservation, donations, lions

One response so far

Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports, Meet the Lion Guardians, Meet the lions, lion research fieldwork | Date: Jan 16 2008 | By: admin

Recently, we have not been able to put up consistent posts. The reason is that we have been working extra hard out in the field, among the community to get a better understanding of the dynamics behind the death of the two lions on our ranch. We need to do this to be able to hopefully prevent similar cases in the future.

During our time traveling around the ranch, visiting with the communities, we also checked on the remaining lions. We have good news….Nemasi appears to have given birth! We saw her a few mornings ago near Olbili. She looked very fat; it seems that she is lactating, though we have yet to see the cubs so no hard evidence to support our hunch. We have also had the opportunity to talk to the Lion Guardians and get their responses to the poisoning. We shall be sharing them with you in this and future posts. Here is Koikai’s reaction:

http://www.goear.com/listen.php?v=8717579

We also received news from Koikai that he is a proud new father of a baby boy! He was explaining to us that he now has double responsibility. He has to watch out over his own newborn and over Nemasi’s newborns since Sangale, the cubs’ father, is now absent.

Here is Koikai at work

Better days……Nemasi with Sangale before his death.

Technorati : lion killing, lionguardians, poisoning

5 responses so far

Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports, Meet the Lion Guardians, Meet the lions, lion research fieldwork | Date: Jan 16 2008 | By: admin

Recently, we have not been able to put up consistent posts. The reason is that we have been working extra hard out in the field, among the community to get a better understanding of the dynamics behind the death of the two lions on our ranch. We need to do this to be able to hopefully prevent similar cases in the future.

During our time traveling around the ranch, visiting with the communities, we also checked on the remaining lions. We have good news…..Nemasi appears to have given birth! We saw her a few mornings ago near Olbili. She looked very fat; it seems that she is lactating, though we have yet to see the cubs so no hard evidence to support our hunch. We have also had the opportunity to talk to the Lion Guardians and get their responses to the poisoning. We shall be sharing them with you in this and future posts. Here is Koikai’s reaction:

http://www.goear.com/listen.php?v=8717579

We also received news from Koikai that he is a proud new father of a baby boy! He was explaining to us that he now has double responsibility. He has to watch out over his own newborn and over Nemasi’s newborns since Sangale, the cubs’ father, is now absent.

Here is Koikai at work

Better days……Nemasi with Sangale before his death.

Technorati : lion guardians, lion killing, reactions

7 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 07 2008 | By: admin

Most of our time has been taken up with follow-up of the recent poisoning of two of our collared lions. Antony and Leela have just returned from consultations with the Guardians and community members in the area where the lions were poisoned.

The owner of the poisoned cow carcass immediately denied responsibility for lacing the carcass. Subsequent to him telling the Amboseli Tsavo Game Scouts this, he disappeared, perhaps to avoid having to answer further questions. Investigations over the last few days have revealed that the man (an elder) has been implicated in wildlife-poisoning cases in the past, and that he is known to keep poison at his home. He has apparently been seen wallking around the area with poison as well. Law enforcement personell have spoken to his family (his wives and one of his sons), and are looking for the elder himself.

The meeting yesterday with the community of the area, the Lion Guardians and conservationists was productive. It has been revealed that the suspect is in fact from a neighbouring ranch. Elders and community leaders from the area have been asked to formulate a culturally appropriate penalty that can be meted out should the man re-surface, and be found guilty. We will hear their decision and let our readers know in a blog soon.

We couldn’t take photographs at the meeting out of respect for the sensitivity of the subject matter being discussed. However our readers would probably like an idea of what a “baraza” (community meeting) looks like here in Maasailand. here is a photograph shot in early 2007 where the chief of the Murrans (warriors) is standing, with stick in hand, addressing representatives of the ranch, and assuring his support of our work.

Out of the bad, comes good sometimes. In the process of moving around the area of the poisoning, speaking to people that live nearby, it has become clear that the community there is very upset. They are particularly distressed that the culprit might be the visitor from the neighbouring ranch. Many people have spoken of the lions individually, by name, of their experiences living with them and their encounters (both good and bad). This is very rewarding for us as project faciliators, as a few years ago before the Lion Guardians program was established the Maasai in the area had very little personal relationship with the lions that they lived with. There seems to be a surprising resolve to conserve the remaining lions on the ranch, and to support the work of their young men, the Lion Guardians. And to protect what they have to come to regard as theirs, the lions of this small part of southern Maasailand.

Technorati : community, lions, meetings

35 responses so far