Lion Guardians

Category: lion research fieldwork | Date: Jul 03 2009 | By: lionguardians

We recently received a report from one of our volunteering Guardians Lopono, that lion tracks had been found over two hours drive from camp. We started our journey in the scorching afternoon sun and on the way collected a further three volunteering Guardians, Kisioki, Naini and Lenkai who had also found tracks in the area.

We soon found the signal of Nosieki, our newly collared pregnant lioness, and within minutes we located her in the bush. She was resting peacefully with the other female we had spotted with her before, and her three cubs playing around them.

We were keen to find the pride male too, so we went in search of him. Amazingly we came across three other lions only 500m away! These three were also lionesses, and they were so close that they must have known of each other’s presence. This was another great opportunity to put a collar on one of the lionesses.

The four Lion Guardians who had found the tracks and accompanied us throughout the journey were very excited to be part of the team. They decided to name the lioness Selenkay; a shortened name of the group ranch we are now working on - Eselenkei. This name also means a girl who has reached maturity in the Maa language. It is not often that a warrior gets to touch a ‘live’ lion and these murrans told us they will remember this moment for the rest of their lives.

We can’t wait to find out more about the lion population here!

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