Lion Guardians

Celebrating Murranhood at Maria’s boma

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 29 2008 | By: admin

Maria, the camp chef, invited me to a ceremony at her boma in Olibili. As well as being an amazing cook, Maria also helps with different aspects of the Lion Guardian program in my absence, including sending air time to the Guardians while they are out in the field and entering Lion Guardian data into the computer.

The ceremony was to mark the graduation to being a murran. When one graduates to being a murran a big feast is prepared, two big cows are slaughtered and some local brew is prepared called Emomoi. This brew is made from the pods of a tree known as Kigelia Africana, mixed with honeycomb. People also use it as a medicine, as well as a drink on big occasions.

The climax of the ceremony is when the murrans gather together and dance in the centre of the boma to welcome the new murran. Young women also dance, and show off their expertise by shaking the beads around their necks, and the murrans compete to see who can jump the highest to attract these women.

Here is a photo of young women at the ceremony. Unfortunately Maria is not in the photo, as she was the photographer, while I took some footage of the dance.

6 responses so far

At peace..!

Category: life in camp, lion killings | Date: Apr 28 2008 | By: admin

I have made it back to camp safely now, after my journey from Nairobi. Sometimes Nairobi scares me a lot especially when I come across security men - because it can either mean there is lawlessness in that area, or that the police are hunting for criminals, and when a shoot out starts anybody could be a target. I had just boarded a Matatu to camp when two security men arrived on horses.

After talking to members of the public for a while it seemed that they were just on patrol, making sure that everything was in order. When I found that out I was able to relax, knowing that at least the government is trying to provide some security for its citizens. In all the times I have been to Nairobi I have never come across police on horseback before. I am glad they are making an effort to enforce security on the streets of Nairobi.

I am now glad to be safely back at camp after the poisoning meeting, which you can read more about here. At the meeting we also heard more news from Dr Asuka Takita about the poisoned lions in the Mara. You can read about the findings of the investigation on Asuka’s blog and on the Mara Conservancy blog.

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2 responses so far

Finding lost livestock and an interview

Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports, Lion Guardians: how the program came to be and why. | Date: Apr 27 2008 | By: admin

I received good news that Guardian Olubi has helped find over 100 shoats that were lost on Friday evening. ‘Shoat’ is an abbreviation for combined herds of sheep and goats or what some people refer to as small stock.

The owner is one of the luckiest persons on earth because none of his shoats were killed! The shoats were recovered between the road to Oltiasika and Nonkiyiaa on Saturday in the afternoon. This area where the animals were found is known to be hyena territory and sometimes a hiding place for lions. It always amazes me that a livestock herder and owner can ‘lose’ over 100 head of livestock.

On other news, a few months ago I was interviewed by Ross from Safaritalk. He asked me about the Lion Guardian program and about WildlifeDirect. I knew all the answers about the LG program, but Dipesh from WildlifeDirect helped me answer the questions about WD. Thanks, Dipesh! The interview is now online; you can read it here

Hope you all like it! Let me know what you think…..

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5 responses so far

Lion Guardian Kapande

Category: Meet the Lion Guardians | Date: Apr 26 2008 | By: admin

I know you are interested to hear more about my trip to Nairobi. I will write more about this after my journey back to camp, which I’m sure will be full of events too! Right now I want to tell you about how Lion Guardian Kapande is doing, as I think you will also want to hear about him. You may know he has been ill with appendicitis, and the readers of this blog have given very generously to support him with his medical expenses. I was so happy to visit him last week, just to see him and how he has been since I left him last in Nairobi hospital. Thankfully he was doing just fine, and his wound is healing. His wife is still at the clinic and according to Kapande’s mother she is doing ok. She delivered a baby girl.
The family is so proud of us all - the readers of the blog who helped raise funds for his hospital and expenses to Nairobi, and of myself for my little help I was able to give his family, especially his mother.

He is still weak- that is why I did not want to take a photo of him, but maybe in the next week he will have gained some health and I will be able to take a recent photo of him. In the meantime, here is Kapande before he became ill.

We would also like to say welcome back to Wildlife Direct to Seamus, who is now writing about his lion research with the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project. He will be giving you information about his fieldwork and research, and the biology of the lions that the Guardians are helping to protect.

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3 responses so far

Stuck in traffic in Nairobi

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 25 2008 | By: admin

I was heading to a meeting in Nairobi early today and there was so much traffic on the road. The meeting was supposed to start around 9:30am and I had been travelling the whole night to try and make it there on time. But in Nairobi travelling less than 2 kilometres was a nightmare. After driving for 30 minutes we were stopped by a policeman, he ordered us out and asked the driver to go to a police station, I really have no idea what happened! I alighted with the other passengers and went to look for another Matatu.

Here is a photo of the busy traffic in Nairobi.

It was a tiring night for me but I am optimistic about one thing; I hope that my contribution to the meeting will have the impact of reducing the poisoning of carnivores, and also human beings (like a case we had last month of a son who poisoned his father). I will be able to tell you more about the meeting next week.

Tags: 220, 325, 327, 339, 341, 350, 43

3 responses so far

Life in camp

Category: life in camp | Date: Apr 24 2008 | By: admin

You can’t imagine that camp used to be for more than eight people - now there are just two people in it! Nights are so quiet that you could think we were the only people left on this planet! Our alarm - the Crested Francolin will call at exactly 6:30am making such a high sound that one has to get out of bed; sometimes coming very close to the tent.
The worst thing things is, Maria is going to be alone in camp until I come back from Nairobi. Here is a picture of our kitchen in camp, a lonely place now!

The reason camp is so quiet is because we are going to a meeting about the increasing use of a toxic pesticide called Furadan, and the poisoning of wildlife in Kenya. We hope this will be very interesting and useful for many wildlife conservationists in Kenya who will be attending this meeting in Nairobi.

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2 responses so far

New Face on Lion Guardians blog

Category: life in camp | Date: Apr 23 2008 | By: admin

We now have a new face on the Lion Guardian blog. Amy Howard will be helping out with different aspects of the blog with myself, to get more interesting stories, pictures and clips of lions and Lion Guardians in their communities.

Amy is from England and has been helping with the media aspects of the Living with Lions project for some years. She designed and developed the Living with Lions website and will now be helping with the Lion Guardians blog too. She also loves taking photographs and filming, so I hope we will see lots more great photos and video clips on the blog soon!

Here is a photo of her with a sleeping collared lion that has been darted to change his collar.

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10 responses so far

Lion Guardian data collection

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

Yesterday I went out on my bike to collect data sheets from some of the Lion Guardians. They tell me what work they have been doing - whether they have seen or heard any lions, or found any lion tracks, and whether anyone in the community has told them about lions in the area. They also tell me how they have helped the community by finding lost livestock or by building better bomas, so that lions can’t attack their livestock at night.

On this journey I was giving Maria a lift from camp, so we had her bags and mine - the bike was heavily loaded! Here we are ready to leave camp.

And here we are less than one minute later! We had a few problems getting going, but arrived safely in the end!

Thank you for all your comments and donations, and hello to our readers from Westbury House School. It is great that you are reading the blog at school! I’m so pleased you are interested in lions, and want to help save them!

2 responses so far

Collared lioness located with cubs

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Apr 19 2008 | By: admin

Our collared lioness, Nempakaai, that usually lives in Amboseli has been located with cubs. The lioness was collared early last year with the help of Guardians Olubi and Mokoi, to the West of Mbirikani. She then moved to Amboseli National Park with a pride of two females. Here is a photo of Lion Guardians Olubi and Mokoi with Nempakaai.

This lioness got her name from the location she was collared, a place called Empakaai Oolaiserr. Empakaai Oolaiserr used to be a Manyatta (a boma where warriors stay for many years) for the Ilkishumu age-group. Close to the boma was a big dam known in Maasai as Empakaai. Ilkishumu are now elders and an equivalent of my dads age, and he is 52 years old.

Nempakaai was with 8 other lions including these two cubs. It seems these lions have moved out of the park and are now on Mbirikani Group ranch close to where she was collared. Look at these beautiful little cubs, with fine handsome spots, uh! they are just amazing. It gives me the courage and pleasure to attain any limits to conserve them.

Thank you all so much for your donations to the Lion Guardians. We are so grateful for your generosity, and happy that we can continue conserving these amazing animals.

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Olgulului/Amboseli Lion Consolation Fund Launched

Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports | Date: Apr 18 2008 | By: admin

Yesterday I went to a meeting in Risa, in a neighbouring group ranch - Olgulului group ranch. The meeting was to launch a consolation scheme that will pay some money to livestock owners whose livestock get killed by lions. The agreement between the group ranch committee and the community was attended by more than 200 people. This is very good news for lions of Olgulului.

The meeting

Risa is the place where the last two lions were speared. Part of the agreement which sparked a lot of murmurs and discontent among the crowd related to ‘Olamayio’, which is when murrans go out in a group to hunt lions for fun. Any party of murrans who do this will be charged an equivalent of up to Kshs.13,500 for each person involved in the killing, up to a maximum of 7 individuals, which will total Kshs 94,500. This was a way of discouraging lion hunting parties. The community was not happy to accept the consolation scheme if it only pays for lions alone. They said that if other predators are not covered then they will kill them instead of lions. The agreement had another clause that tries to deal with justice within the committee. It states that any member of the Olgulului/Amboseli Lion Consolation Fund Committee (OACFC) or official known to have tampered with the justice system either by trying to release individuals that are being prosecuted through the court due to violation of the consolstion scheme agreement or attempting to have their sentence reduced will be fined Ksh 13,500.

The Chairman Daniel ole Leturresh who started the kitty explained that this is just the beginning and he hopes that some private donors will help to raise funds to compensate for livestock killed by other carnivores too.The group Ranch committee showed its commitment to the consolation scheme by giving out a cheque worth Kshs. 500,000 to the Treasurer, Soila Sayialel, who runs the Amboseli Elephant research.

Here is a cheque given out by the Olgulului group ranch

The consolation scheme has come at a time when the community’s relationship with Amboseli National Park authority is fading, following the arrest of the murran who speared two lions in early March. They asked the Warden to release the murrans since this day was a special one for the community. The presence of the District Commissioner at the meeting brought more bright things to the community. With the swearing in of the newly appointed Kenyan cabinet, the people of Amboseli sub-location will get better services from the government, as a local chief will be employed for the Risa area. This is also good news for lions, as it may discourage people from killing carnivores even more if there is a local civil servant paying close attention to the area.

The District Commissioner during the Olgulului meeting

All our eyes are now looking at the new initiative at Olgulului group ranch, and hoping that this will bring a reduction in lion killings to our neighbouring ranch.

Tags: 220, 306, 325, 327, 330, 339, 43

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