Lion Guardians

Category: Lion Guardians work | Date: Sep 29 2008 | By: lionguardians

Last week we were visited by the BBC. They were making a documentary as part of a current affairs travelogue series. The series will be aired on BBC2 and Worldwide in early 2009.. so you have a bit of a wait before you can see us on TV!

They were very interested to film the story of the Lion Guardians, and we showed them the work we do, and told presenter Emeka Onono all about the problem of lion killing in Maasailand and how we try to stop it.

They asked the Guardians lots of questions about how and why they used to kill lions in the past, and why they have now changed their attitudes and are protecting lions instead.

We also told them all about the conflicts that the people here have with lions and other carnivores attacking their livestock, and what a big problem this is for livestock owners. I hope it will be a very interesting documentary to watch. I will make sure I tell you when it will be broadcast.

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Tags: BBC, documentary, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

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Category: Lion Guardians work | Date: Sep 26 2008 | By: lionguardians

After our busy time filming with the BBC, which I will write more about soon, the Lion Guardians are full of activity yet again. They are passing on their expertise to some lion scouts from another ranch called Kuku. These lion scouts have come over to learn how to do the kind of work that we do, so they can help conserve carnivores on their ranch.

This morning Lion Guardians Koikai and Mokoi showed them how to read and write GPS coordinates, so that when they find a lion, a kill or anything of interest they can mark the location. In the afternoon they showed them how to track lions. I hope this will make an impact on the Maasailand lion population and the community in general. It will also be really useful for us, so that when any of our collared lions move beyond the borders of our ranch the Kuku scouts can help us to track them.

Koikai is one of the most experienced and sharpest of the Lion Guardians. That is why we had to pick him to train the lion scouts from Kuku. Mokoi is the oldest Guardian and with his expertise in handling issues with young people I decided to ask him to come too and help Koikai with the training.

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Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, tracking

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Category: Lion Guardians work | Date: Sep 24 2008 | By: lionguardians

Sorry we haven’t made a post for a while. We are very busy hosting a BBC film crew who are staying with us to find out about the Lion Guardians. We hope that the film they make will encourage more people to read about our work and help us conserve lions. I will write more about this when we have finished filming.

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Tags: BBC, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

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Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Sep 19 2008 | By: lionguardians

Thanks so much everyone for your attempts to identify the carnivore in our last post. I think you are right about it being a wild dog, as the description that the livestock owner gave me also seems to fit with this. This is a very rare animal to find in this area. In fact, when I asked my friends from the same age group as me to help identify it, none of them were able to. We thought the species had been completely wiped out of the area in the last few years. Here are some photos of wild dogs taken in a different part of Kenya, for those of you who are not familiar with them.

The livestock owner is very angry, and says he will not tolerate another attack on his livestock. I am extremely excited that these wild dogs have been seen - I hope you are too! If you want to find out more about these amazing animals, why don’t you have a look at the Zimbabwe wild dogs project blog.

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Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, wild dogs

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: lionguardians

As part of my time off work, I spent a few days with my grandfather. I had a good time helping him take care of his livestock with one of my neighbors. My grandpa still herds his cows every day, and even when I was home he would not rest, but accompanied us to the grazing fields. We had to make sure they didn’t feed on the crops growing in people’s gardens! I really miss home now that I am back at work and away from my family.

Here is my grandfather wearing my baseball cap!

I am trying to take photos like the ones I have seen in newspapers. What do you think about this new style of photography?

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Tags: , Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai

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Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Sep 16 2008 | By: lionguardians

I have been travelling over the weekend to a neighboring ranch called Eselenkei. On my journey I came across a livestock owner who was very angry because two of his animals had been killed by a carnivore that he claims to be very rare.

He told me that the attack had happened at around 5.30 in the early evening and that his young herder had seen the carnivores. As well as the two killed, four young calves were left with injuries, but luckily they will survive. So, what do you think these rare carnivores were? Here are some of the tracks that I saw. Can you help identify them?

Apologies for the slightly strange look of the blog at the moment - Wildlife Direct are currently working on the layout of the site!

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Tags: attack, carnivore, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai

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Category: Community work | Date: Sep 12 2008 | By: lionguardians

We have some good news for you about the elephant that was worrying the community in Lion Guardian Olubi’s area of work. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers from Amboseli have now visited the area and met with Olubi and were able to track the elephant. We are pleased to say that they confirmed he was well, and is now in a new location where there are no people. Olubi will continue to monitor the situation and I will update you if I have any more news.

The community is so happy that this situation has been resolved without any conflict or injury to themselves or to the elephant. Thank you all so much for your advice and suggestions. I hope you are also pleased that this problem has been solved.

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Tags: elephant, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 10 2008 | By: lionguardians

I’ve been out of the office for a few days to see my family, catch up with my mother and see how the vegetables are growing in her garden. I had a lot of fun and also helped out the family with herding the cattle. We herd through a local swamp, which is very good for the cattle and agriculture. Here are some of my mother’s vegetables. They are growing well!

I also saw my sister before she went back to school after the holiday. It was lovely to see her, if only for a few hours. It was great to catch up with my family and see my beautiful sister, but now I am glad to be back at work as the community is waiting for my help, and I’m sure you want to hear more of what is happening here. I will update you on the situation with the elephant as soon as I have found out the latest news.

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Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai

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Category: Donations received | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: lionguardians

We would like to thank our blog readers for your recent donations - Black C, Richard V, Hashi H, Aisha N and Pirjo I. All the Lion Guardians and the communities they work with appreciate your donations and support. With your help we can continue our work here in Maasailand, saving lions and other carnivores and reducing conflict between the people that live here and the wildlife they live with.

We have been told by Wildlife Direct that any donations that were made on August 25^th have been registered but are not appearing on the blog - so if you made a donation on the 25th (Jan - I know you did - thank you!) we will receive it, but it is just not visible on the right hand side at the moment.

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Category: Donations received, Meet the Lion Guardians | Date: Sep 07 2008 | By: lionguardians

Thank you for your concern and advice about the ongoing problem elephant. When I have any more news on this I will make sure you hear it first. In the meantime, I will post a video of Olubi, the Lion Guardian who is working in the area to prevent conflict between the elephant and the people in the local community.

He thanks Jia, one of our blog readers who has sponsored him. He says that knowing that someone who hasn’t even met him is supporting him from the other side of the world is extremely encouraging for him, when he is working to protect the lions. It makes him feel he is not alone when he is doing his work and he really appreciates it.

If you would like to sponsor one of the Lion Guardians, or make a donation to help our work, please fill in an amount in the column on the right of this page and help us continue with our work conserving lions. It’s really simple - all you need is a credit or debit card, and you can help us and the wildlife we are working to save. Thank you!

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Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai

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