Cheetah attacks reduced
Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports | Date: Jun 30 2008 | By: lionguardians
As always we held our end of month meeting where Lion Guardians from all parts of the ranch come together to discuss what has happened in their areas over the month.
Most of the Guardians reported less lion sightings, except for Melubo and Kapande who have both been able to track lions in their areas and report their locations to herders so as to avoid conflict between the livestock and lions.
We are glad to report that the cheetahs that were a menace for the first two weeks of this month seem to have reduced their attacks on livestock, which must be at least in part due to Olubi’s help advising the community on better herding practices. We are happy to say that this has meant that the community did not take any action against the cheetahs.
Tags: cheetah, Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai
Tracking down lions
Category: Lion Guardians work | Date: Jun 28 2008 | By: lionguardians
We are still training up the new Lion Guardian Solonka, to make sure he is proficient in all the different skills he needs. Although most Maasai murrans are very used to identifying the tracks of different animals, we need to make sure that new Lion Guardians are able to give us accurate and detailed information about the tracks that they see. It is not all that common for them to actually see the lions, as they are always on foot, so it is really important that any information we get about them from their tracks is accurate.
By looking at tracks they try to find out what the animals were, which direction they were going in, how many there were, when they were there, whether there were any young, and perhaps even the sex and approximate age of animals.
Here are Lion Guardians Lenkina and Koikai talking to new Lion Guardian Solonka about tracking, and asking him to identify some tracks that he finds.
Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, tracking
Maasai marriage
Category: Maasai traditions | Date: Jun 26 2008 | By: lionguardians
Marriage in Maasai culture is one of our most important traditional activities. A man has to be married as soon as he undergoes the circumcision ceremony. A Maasai murran is not able to choose whom he is going to marry. If a murran’s father has a good friend with a daughter, then the fathers will negotiate among themselves and decide on a date to marry off their son and daughter, without consulting them first.
A week before the celebration a meeting is held know in Maasai as “aadung inkishu“, which literally means the splitting of cows. This is where both parties agree on the number of livestock that will be paid by the family of the murran, to that of the daughter. This amount differs from person to person. If it is an arrangement between friends it may be 4 or 5 cows, or it may be as high as 14 or 15. As you can see in the video (filmed by Lion Guardian Koikai), he was joking that he would offer 12 cows for Amy to be his second wife!
A Maasai murran does not see his bride before the marriage, and in most cases they have never met before the ceremony. Some days before the marriage a murran picks his best man and they travel together to the bride’s boma to pick her up, taking with them the dowry they are paying to the family.
If her boma is far away, they have to count how many days it will take them to walk to the bride’s boma and back to make sure they get back in time for the marriage! The bridegroom and best man must walk all the way there by themselves. Then they will pick up the bride from her boma, and they will walk all the way back to his boma. No members of her family are permitted to attend the marriage ceremony. She is no longer part of their family.
One may wonder why Maasai men have to pay the bride’s family livestock when they marry. This is so that the family will be able to remember their daughter who is no longer part of the family. These livestock will always remind them of her. Does this happen in your culture?
Tags: Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, marriage, masai
The burden of a Maasai woman
Category: Maasai traditions | Date: Jun 25 2008 | By: lionguardians
I think it is only here in Maasailand that women are the beasts of burden. They have a lot of responsibilities; land tilling, herding cows, collecting water and firewood and even building houses. Recently I came across a new house being built from local materials. In the photo you can see branches collected from the surrounding area, which are smeared with cow dung to make the house warm and waterproof. It is the least costly kind of construction because one does not need any money to buy anything. And of course it was a woman that was building this house!
With my exposure to other cultures in the world, I have learnt that these tasks should be divided more equally among men and women, and I will help my mum cut branches to build a house. But she must collect the cow dung herself. It is against Maasai tradition for a man to hold dung in the case of constructing a house. However when it comes to any other tasks I would do anything to help mum. Here is a photo of some Maasai women in front of a finished house.
Tags: house, Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai
Community threatens to kill cheetahs
Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Jun 23 2008 | By: lionguardians
Today I went to visit a community that is complaining of cheetahs attacking and taking away their goats and sheep during the day. Livestock owner Melubo Nteke showed me one of his goats that had been injured by a cheetah when they were being herded during the day.
I asked him who had been herding the goats and he told me that they were being looked after by young children. He told me that in his community livestock are often herded by children who are less than 15 years of age, who cannot chase away carnivores when they attack livestock. Here is the owner of the goat, who was very upset and angry.
Lion Guardian Olubi is currently in the area trying to help with the situation. From the community’s point of view, all that they want is for the problematic animals to be killed. Livestock is their only source of livelihood and if a group of carnivores starts killing their livestock then they would want them dead. Here is Olubi.
Olubi is now advising them on how they can alter their herding practices so that their goats will not be attacked, and hopefully will bring an end to the problem before any carnivores are killed.
Tags: cheetah, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai
My beautiful land..
Category: life in camp | Date: Jun 22 2008 | By: lionguardians
The other day I was traveling back to camp; I had been to the place where the lion was speared, to investigate what had happened there. I had to get a public bus and since it was full, I had to stand all the way. During my journey I noticed a group of non-Maasai people on the bus. From their conversation they looked like they were from Tanzania. Half way through the journey, we came across a herd of more than 10 giraffes browsing nonchalantly on the Acacias by the roadside.
On seeing this, the guys all stood up from their seats staring at them with great amazement. They were so excited that they had to ask the driver to stop the bus so they could have a better look at these beautiful creatures. They did not even care that they were delaying some of us who see this every day!
Then I started thinking: why don’t most communities endowed with natural resources appreciate the beauty of the land provided to them free of charge? What would happen if a lion crossed the road in front of us and these people saw it, like this one in the Masai Mara? Would they be struck by the lion’s beauty also, or would they be scared and want to kill it?
These are some of the questions that linger in my mind as I sit at my desk at camp.
Tags: giraffe, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai
More sad news from the Chyulus
Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Jun 20 2008 | By: lionguardians
It seems that the sad loss of a lion on the neighbouring ranch is not the only bad news for us at the moment. Yesterday I visited the Lion Guardians to collect their data sheets, and found out that two of them are unwell. Both Koikai and Mokoi are not able to carry out their work as Lion Guardians at the moment.
Koikai fell on some rocks while running away from an elephant when he was following some lion tracks. I took him to the clinic, where he was given some medicine and he was told that if the problem persists he should go for further checkups including an x-ray. Here is Koikai doing some filming with me.
Mokoi, another of our Lion Guardians, meanwhile has an eye infection. His right eye cannot blink at all and stays open all the time. He can’t sleep because of the pain, and I am worried that it will get worse. His father has advised him to take some herbal medicine before going to the clinic, which he has been using, but so far it has not got any better. I hope that he will take my advice and go to the clinic soon, if it persists. Here is a photo of Mokoi with one of his young children.
I hope you will join me in wishing both Koikai and Mokoi a speedy recovery.
Tags: Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai
Tragic loss: lion speared to death
Category: Lions killed, lion killings | Date: Jun 18 2008 | By: lionguardians
We have some sad news to report. A lion has been killed by murrans at Olgulului, the ranch bordering Amboseli National Park, and the neighbouring ranch to Mbirikani, home of the Lion Guardians.
The reason for the killing was first unclear. Some rumors reported that the lion had killed two goats and that the murrans went after it in revenge. But after further investigations it became clear that they speared this lion for trade. Two of the murrans are beach boys at the Kenyan coast and it seems they killed the lion so that they could take the claws to go and sell. Here is the paw of the lion, that was left after the claws were removed.
This is awful news for us, as the population of lions in this area is already so low, and it is a tragedy to lose another lion. It was a female lion, probably about four years old, but not one known by the Lion Guardians.
One of the factors that has led to the decline in the number of lions in this area is the low level of employment, especially for murrans - the warrior age class. We are hoping that we can raise enough funds to start up the Lion Guardians program on Olgulului too. This would give at least some of the murrans employment and an interest in conserving lions, which they will then pass on to their communities. Your donations are vitally important at this critical time, so we can try to save the few remaining lions in this area.
Tags: Amboseli, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, murrans, speared
Lion Guardians in the news
Category: Lion Guardians work, ways you can help | Date: Jun 16 2008 | By: lionguardians
I thought I would tell you a bit more about the news story that has been on the internet and in a lot of the newspapers worldwide recently. The story is about the crisis in lion numbers, especially around Amboseli National Park, near where the Lion Guardians program is located.
It explains that big cats are declining at an alarming rate and may even be extinct in the region within a few years. There may be less than a hundred lions in the area. The main cause of their drastic decline is that the lions have been hunted by the Maasai because of the conflict between the lions and their cattle.
The story talks about the Lion Guardians program and how we employ Maasai murrans, who used to hunt lions themselves, but are now helping to conserve them. The Guardians track collared lions, and warn herders if they are grazing their livestock in an area close to where a lion has been spotted.
They also help herders make their bomas stronger so that predators find it harder to get in, and help them to find lost livestock, as well as educating their communities about how important it is to have carvnivores around. One of their main and most important tasks is to persuade their contemporaries not to hunt lions.
The National Geographic has started a new fund to raise money for big cats, which we hope will help conserve lions in the area. But the Lion Guardians also need your donations to allow us to continue with our important work with the local community.
Tags: conflict, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, natinal geographic, news, tracking
More skills for new Lion Guardian
Category: Lion Guardians work | Date: Jun 16 2008 | By: lionguardians
Lion Guardians need to learn some new skills in order for them to carry out their work. Yesterday we showed new Lion Guardian Solonka learning how to track collared lions using radio telemetry equipment.
Another of the new things they need to learn is how to use a Global Positioning System unit to mark the locations of different things that they find. For example, they will use the GPS unit to record the point where they have found lion tracks, or a lion, or a place where a carnivore has broken into a boma and killed livestock.
Here Lion Guardians Lenkina and Koikai are teaching Solonka, the new volunteer, how to use the GPS unit.
Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai
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