Lion Guardians

Category: Lion Guardian reports, Meet the lions | Date: Sep 30 2009 | By: lionguardians

A few days ago Lion Guardian Pilenanka came across a zebra that had been killed by lions not far from camp. We went down to see the carcass, and found that not very much had been eaten, and realised the lions would probably come back to the kill that night. We decided this was the perfect opportunity to put up the camera trap, and see whether the lions came back to their kill!

We carefully set up the trap by a nearby tree, and left it overnight to see who arrived at the scene of the kill. When we came back to the site the next day we found the trap had been opened up and was hanging off the tree, and covered in hairs, bite marks, blood and saliva!

The camera was switched off, and we feared that it had been completely destroyed, by what looked from the tracks to be a huge male lion!

We rushed back to camp to see whether the camera had been able to take any photos before it was attacked. It was then that we found out who the culprit was - our collared male lion Kesayou!

Unfortunately he was on the wrong side of the zebra to get a very good photo, but we have got 2, which we can recognise him from. Kesayou is extremely camera shy, and obviously did not want to be photographed while eating the zebra!

Luckily the camera still works, and once it is cleaned up it should be perfectly fine again. Next time we will have to put the trap out of his reach!!

Tags: camera, camera trap, Kenya, lion, lion attack, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

6 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardians work | Date: Sep 28 2009 | By: lionguardians

Yesterday the Lion Guardians were visited by Reuters, the world news agency. The crew visited Lion Guardian Mokoi’s boma where they were treated to tea and some songs from the mamas at the boma. Here are the Guardians swapping their news at Mokoi’s boma, while being filmed by Reuters.

The film crew talked to Guardians Mokoi, Olubi, Lenkina and Pilenanka about their jobs, and then went up a nearby hill to track collared lions Selenkay and Narika, who have recently been in the area. These lions usually reside on Eselenkei Group Ranch, but have recently been around the border between the two ranches, Mbirikani and Eselenkei.

After that, the Reuters crew went to a community borehole to see how the Guardians work with the local people, and found out what the community think about the project.

We hope that Reuters will bring the story of the Lion Guardians to the world, and that we will get many more readers of the blog, and more donations too! Now that we are going to hire 8 more Guardians in Olgulului, we are in great need of more funds so that we can pay their wages, and buy all the equipment that the Guardians will need to do their work.

Thank you Reuters for coming to help publicise our work!

Tags: filming, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, reuters, tracking

2 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Sep 26 2009 | By: lionguardians

One of our new Eselenkei Lion Guardians Melita called us with some very exciting news a few days ago. He reported seeing tracks of wild dogs in his area during his daily monitoring duties! Unfortunately we haven’t got any photos of these dogs yet, but the ones below were photographed in Laikipia.

I went out to verify that these really were the tracks of wild dogs and discovered that indeed they were! It was with excitement and surprise that very early the next morning back at camp I heard a cry of a kudu near my tent. I woke up to find out what was happening, only to be confronted and barked at by 2 white tailed African wild dogs!

I immediately summoned Lenkai, one of our research assistants and together we followed the tracks of the 2 wild dogs. We discovered that the 2 were part of a pack of 16 that were roaming within Selenkay Conservancy. Filled with the excitement of coming into close proximity with one of the most endangered species in the country, we decided to follow their tracks. Their tracks, comparable only to that of a large domestic dog, have roughly triangular main pads, blunt claws and four toe imprints, but are longer and thinner than the domestic dog.

From looking at the tracks we were able to work out the story of what had happened the previous night. The dogs had come across the dry river bed, and targeted a big male kudu, chasing it until it was exhausted and eventually tearing it apart. We couldn’t believe it had happened so close to our camp!

The population of African wild dog [Lycaon pictus] is declining rapidly. In fact, the species is categorized as endangered on the IUCN Red list on the basis of small population size and continuous decline. We are so excited that these endangered carnivores are now on our ranch, and we can’t wait to hear and see more from them. We really hope they stay in the area!

Tags: African wild dog, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, wild dog

4 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 23 2009 | By: lionguardians

After successfully starting up the Lion Guardians program on Eselenkei Group Ranch, we are now expanding to yet another ranch in the Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem! The new ranch, Olgulului is on the border with Amboseli National Park, and experiences a lot of conflict with wildlife. We can’t wait to start work there! Here is one of our collared lions Nempakai, who is currently residing in Amboseli.

The interview process for possible Lion Guardians on Olgulului is now complete. The Group Ranch was divided into 8 zones, and each was represented by 9 traditional morans, eager to conserve carnivores and lions in particular, as well as serve their community. In fact, the ravaging drought did not inhibit their attendance. A total of 72 morans attended the interviews!

During the interviews, the selection panel looked at many different criteria, including poverty levels, physical fitness, leadership qualities and tracking skills, as well as general wildlife knowledge and lion killing history. A total of 16 morans were short-listed and will now start a 1 month volunteering period. During this voluntary process, the Guardians will help reinforce bomas to predator-proof levels, assist their communities in finding lost livestock, as well as tracking and monitoring lions.

What exciting news for the project!

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

4 responses so far

Category: life in camp | Date: Sep 21 2009 | By: lionguardians

Last night was full of noise and disturbance. No, it wasn’t some rowdy Maasai warriors having a party… it was elephants! In the last few days the elephants have decided to come to our camp and are spending their time breaking branches, pulling up trees and causing a tremendous racket!

But the strangest thing that we found this morning was that an elephant had set up his own café outside our kitchen! He had removed a chair, presumably through the window, and also taken a mug, a bottle of water, our jar of lovely fresh coffee and our coffee plunger (which sadly he managed to break)!

What an odd sight we found in the morning - it was almost as if he had wanted to make himself a cup of coffee and have a sit down after so much tree-breaking!

We’ll keep you posted on the latest from these noisy visitors!

Tags: coffee, elephant, elephants, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

2 responses so far

Category: life in camp | Date: Sep 20 2009 | By: lionguardians

Here are the latest pictures from the camera trap we were kindly donated by Sheri and Owen Hogle from the Wild Bird Center in Utah. It was put at a water hole so that we could see what animals were visiting the area. Here are some of the animals that came:

Some very inquisitive giraffes…..

a number of elephants…..

and an oryx!

We still have not been able to capture any lions on the camera, but Lion Guardian Kapande reported seeing fresh tracks of a male lion this morning, so we are hoping to find this individual soon!

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

2 responses so far

Category: ways you can help | Date: Sep 18 2009 | By: lionguardians

We are very excited to announce our beautiful Lion Guardians Christmas Cards, which you can buy right here on this blog! Of course all the profits will go to the Lion Guardians, so please buy as many as you can and tell all your friends about them too! Maybe you could even buy a stock, and help us by selling them at your school or place of work?

There are three fantastic designs, one is of Lion Guardian Olubi tracking lions, the second is a female lion in Nempakai’s pride with her cub (who you may have seen in Amboseli National Park if you have been lucky enough to visit there recently), and the final design is of a young Maasai girl from one of the communities that the Lion Guardians program works with. The cards are high quality glossy laminated and the message inside reads ‘Season’s Greetings’.

The cost is $22 (that’s approx £13) for 12 cards (4 of each design), and this includes airmail postage and packing of the cards (and envelopes) to your address. Just put a number in the QTY box next to ‘Christmas card pack’ to say  how many packs you would like to purchase, and click on DONATE.

Please Note
As well as making your donation for the cards, you MUST also write a request for the cards on this blog by adding a comment so that we can trace you to obtain your address for postage. We cannot trace you from the donation box alone. Thank you!

We hope you like the designs, and we hope we can raise a lot of money for the Guardians, so please buy some now, and spread the word!!

THANK YOU! Your support is helping save the remaining wild lions in Kenya.

Tags: christmas, christmas cards, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, season's greetings

13 responses so far

Category: life in camp | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: lionguardians

The new Lion Guardian training and celebration day in Eselenkei Group Ranch was held to celebrate the new Guardians after their first month of work. The day started with traditional blessings and the new Lion Guardians were then each given 5 minutes to present the reports from their zones. They talked about signs of lions in their areas, how they were getting on with reinforcing the bomas (livestock enclosures), lost livestock that they had found and what animals are being killed by carnivores. After this, the Guardians had some important training sessions, covering data forms, telemetry (to track collared lions), GPS and spoor counting.

In the evening, it was time to celebrate, with dance and song, as everyone enjoyed delicious expertly-roasted goat meat that was prepared especially for the occasion. Maasai traditional songs filled the air as the Lion Guardians tried to out-do each other in their praise songs. What a wonderful occasion! That evening ranks as one of the best we have enjoyed since the start of the project in Eselenkei. Here are the Guardians enjoying their goat roast!

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

2 responses so far

Category: Donations received | Date: Sep 14 2009 | By: lionguardians

The Lion Guardins would like to thank everyone who has supported us recently.

Thank you to: Katherine J, Samantha V, Scott R, Richard V, Black C, Lois C, Hashi H, Anne C, Diane K, Jessica F, Mary P, Pirjo I, Mary H, Shannon C, The F, Angela G, Kerryn W, Mike S, Sauwah T, Jason L, Ana L, Sheri H and Angela D. Here are the Mbirikani Lion Guardians at our last monthly meeting, who would all like to extend their thanks to you.

Your support is invaluable. We use the money donated through this blog to pay the Guardians’ wages, as well as for all the essential items that are used by them on a daily basis, like paper and pens so they can fill in their data forms, phone credit so they can call camp with their lion reports and all the other monthly costs that enable us to run the project effectively. Thank you so much for helping us to keep the Lion Guardians project running.

With the expansion of the project on to the new ranch Eselenkei, we have also been able to use your donations to pay for equipment for the new Guardians - backpacks to carry their equipment in, GPS devices, and receivers and aerials for tracking collared lions. With your donations you are helping the survival of cubs like these two, who are in Nempakai’s pride.

Now plans are underway to start the Lion Guardians program on Olgulului Group Ranch, another neighbouring ranch in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. With this step we will be expanding the project to an area which borders Amboseli National Park, and therefore has very high human wildlife conflict.

Please continue with your generous donations, so that we can make a difference to the lions throughout the whole ecosystem. There is no point conserving lions in one ranch if they might be killed when they wander into a neighbouring area!

Than you so much for your help!

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

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Category: Donations received | Date: Sep 09 2009 | By: lionguardians

Once again the UK tourist attraction and zoo, Africa Alive have done an amazing job, and collected the huge sum of $4731 for the Lion Guardians! What fantastic news! We are thrilled that they have managed to raise this amount for us, which will help the project considerably, especially as we now expand the program to our neighbouring ranches Eselenkei and Olgulului.

As you may remember, Africa Alive have helped us with a donation in the past and we are extremely grateful that they are still supporting us.

We have now successfully expanded the project to Eselenkei Group Ranch, but we can’t wait to be able to start it up in Olgulului too. This area is still struggling with human wildlife conflict, especially during this severe drought, and though the Maasai Preservation Trust have recently started their predator compensation scheme there, we still need to get the Lion Guardians program up and running.

This donation will go a long way towards some of our start up costs for this expansion, including purchasing new equipment for the Guardians like GPS, mobile phones and telemetry receivers, as well as basics like pens, paper and backpacks.

Thank you Africa Alive, and everyone who donated money towards the project at the fundraising events!

Tags: africa alive, donations, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

2 responses so far