Lion Guardians

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 13 2008 | By: lionguardians

In collaboration with the local communities of Mbirikani ranch, the Living with Lions project (LWL) and the Maasailand Preservation Trust initiated a program called “Lion Guardians” in November 2006.

The impetus to create this project was in response to the slaughtering of over 150 lions in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem since 2001. Retaliatory and traditional spearing by Maasai warriors (murrans) is the greatest threat to the survival of lions in Kenyan Maasailand today. The Lion Guardians program attempts to reduce the pressure on lions by employing their greatest enemy to conserve them rather than kill them. Since the onset of this project there have been no lions speared on Mbirikani ranch.

The Guardians have two major duties:

1) to monitor lions and other carnivore movements, and so to protect them

2) to aid their communities in various ways.

Specifically by:

• informing herders to avoid high-conflict grazing areas (where carnivores are present)
• improving livestock kraals (bomas)
• helping herders find lost livestock that are left out in the bush (and subsequently killed by predators)
• educating communities about carnivore importance and conservation
• and lastly, but most importantly, Lion Guardians work with other murrans in the community to prevent further lion killings (both tradition and retaliation killings).

Since the inception of the project, Guardians have actively prevented over ten hunting parties from killing lions. During the same time period, over 20 lions have been killed in surrounding group ranches by murrans. Given that the Guardians come from the communities in which they work, and are older murrans (many have also killed lions in the past) they are very well respected by all community members and can assuage a tense situation of angry warriors wanting revenge for their dead cow.

Currently there are nine Guardians employed and managed by a Maasai coordinator (Antony Kasanga) and the Living with Lions project. The Guardians are working in seven communities on the ranch where lion-livestock conflict is highest. Each Guardian has been trained to document lion and other carnivore presence using GPS units and then record it on a simple form, composed of pictures rather than words, making it easier for non-literate Guardians.

Also, each Guardian has learned how to track collared lions using telemetry receivers. Each lion that has been collared since the start of the project has been given a Maasai name by the Guardian(s) who helped with the collaring. In addition, every employee has a cell phone which is used to report back any significant sightings of lions or any illegal activity to the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project (KLCP, part of LWL).

The Maasai of southern Kenya are still totally dependent on their great herds of cattle, sheep and goats, but due to modernization and massive socioeconomic change, they have lost their traditional tolerance and ability to cope with carnivores and conflict. Today, they regard wild animals as an unmitigated nuisance rather than an economic resource or embodiment of Maasai culture.

If lions are to persist in this ecosystem, it is essential to increase tolerance of local communities by getting them involved in conservation and by showing them that benefits can come from conserving wildlife.