Lion Guardians

Category: Community work, life in camp | Date: Oct 21 2009 | By: lionguardians

Finally the Lion Guardians, Maasai communities, wildlife and livestock that live together on Mbirikani, Eselenkei and Olgulului Group Ranches have experienced their first showers of rain. Everyone is very excited and thankful that at last there are a few green shoots appearing from the ground.

Though the wildlife and livestock are still very hungry, at least there is now hope that the drought is coming to an end. The Chyulu Hills are certainly looking a little greener.

We really hope that these showers are the start of some heavy rains, so that the Maasai people that have lost so much during the drought can start to rebuild their lives after the devastation it caused. Both people and animals have been struggling to survive and it is said that the Maasai have lost 80% of their cattle (which is equivalent to losing 80% of their money, and their livelihoods). The cattle that remain are too thin to sell, and people are unable to buy food or pay for their children’s’ school fees any more. At least these cows now have a few small green shoots to eat.

Most people have moved away from this area with their cattle, in search of pasture, some as far away as Mombasa and Nairobi. Now everyone is hoping that the grass will grow here, and bring back some life to the area, though whether the communities will be able to fully recover after such a severe drought is uncertain. Those people who had a lot of cattle are no longer rich, and those who had only a few might now be left with nothing.

We are also hoping the wildlife that has been suffering and dying due to lack of food, will also be revitalised and strengthened. However, our big worry is that as the wildlife becomes stronger, and the weak cattle return from their long journeys in search of pasture, the lions and other carnivores in the area will start to attack livestock. The Lion Guardians are all prepared for the possibility of this, and are already warning herders to be extremely vigilant at this time, and to build up their boma walls in preparation.

Tags: drought, drought in kenya, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, rain

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Category: Community work, Lion Guardians work, ways you can help | Date: Aug 20 2009 | By: lionguardians

A report in the Telegraph on Tuesday suggested that within 20 years lions may become extinct in Kenya. This follows a press release from KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) which says that Kenya is losing an average of 100 of its 2,000 lions every year due to growing human settlements, increasing farming, climate change and disease.

According to KWS figures, there were 2,749 lions in Kenya in 2002 and their population dropped to 2,280 by 2004 and to roughly 2,000 today. They say that if the current decline rate continues, there won’t be a single lion surviving in Kenya in the next 20 years.

There is no doubt that the numbers are in freefall. I’d be surprised if they even last as long as 20 years, said Dr Laurence Frank, project director of Living with Lions, the umbrella organisation of the Lion Guardians.

Laurence said: When I first came here 30 years ago, you would always hear lions roaring across the rangelands at night and see their tracks in the morning. Now that is very rare. The reason is simple; lions eat cattle, and as the numbers of people grow, the numbers of cows increase. Alongside that there are ever more efficient ways, including poisoning, to kill lions. Click here to read the full story.

Living with Lions and the Lion Guardians are working to reduce the conflicts between lions and livestock, so that there is less incentive for people to kill them. By doing things like warning herders to avoid areas where lions are present, finding lost livestock and helping communities to make their livestock enclosures predator proof (as in the photo below) the Lion Guardians are helping put a stop to lion killing in the Amboseli-Tsavo region where they work.

Please help us with this important work before it is too late. You can support the Lion Guardians by making a donation through this blog. Any amount you can give will help the work of the Lion Guardians, as they reduce human-wildlife conflict in Kenya.

Tags: extinct, Kenya, kws, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, living with lions, Maasai, masai

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Category: Community work, Lion Guardians work | Date: Aug 13 2009 | By: lionguardians

The one month voluntary period by the new Lion Guardians on Eselenkei Group Ranch is now over. During this period the volunteering Lion Guardians have helped reinforce more than ten community bomas (livestock enclosures) to predator proof levels, found lost livestock herds in the bush and been tracking lions across the length & breadth of the ranch. Here one of our new Guardians takes a photo of a collared female from the Tara pride.

Because of our funding constraints we have had to pick only the four best Lion Guardians from our 10 volunteers. The four Lion Guardians that have been selected are Kamunu, Kutata, Melita and Lopono. Here they are receiving training from our new Lion Guardians Coordinator in Eselenkei, Eric.

We chose the warriors that were the most honest and hard working, and who had shown dedication and skill at lion tracking and community work, particularly in helping to upgrade local livestock enclosures. The constant flow of gratitude and appreciation, the positive facial expressions of community members and the instant embracing of boma reinforcement as a way of reducing human-wildlife conflicts means that this kind of community assistance will be a strong component of the Lion Guardian project here on our new ranch.

Keep reading the blog for more news of these four hard working warriors who have successfully gained employment with the Lion Guardians project.

Tags: conflict, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Livestock, Maasai, masai, masai warrior

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Category: Community work, Donations received | Date: Jul 18 2009 | By: lionguardians

Thank you for your concern about the ongoing drought here and for your donations over the past few months. We would like to thank Cass N, Brian M, Black C, Richard V, Lois C, Anne C, Loki Q, Diane K, Jessica F, Pirjo I, Sheri H, Katherine J, Samantha V, Scott R, Jace A, Sauwah T, Hashi H and Jide A for their support of the Lion Guardians and their help conserving the wild lions of Maasailand and the other wildlife that is struggling to survive here. Here is a photo of some of the members of our new Tara pride, that you are helping with your donations.

The boma (livestock enclosure) fencing by our voluntary potential Lion Guardians on new ranch Eselenkei is going very well. The Guardians have shown total commitment to their community work. A perfect example is Melita, who selected a boma which needed to be re-built very urgently, as the owner was having problems with his livestock being attacked by predators that were able to get through gaps in his boma.

Amazingly Melita completed the work in one day - a very impressive achievement! Members of the community have quickly embraced boma fencing as a way of preventing human wildlife conflicts.

Speaking of our new Lion Guardians on Eselenkei, we have a request for you. Are you, or is anyone you know getting rid of an old laptop? The new Lion Guardians team are starting to collect data now, and need to enter this into a computer so that we can measure how the project is doing.

The computer would need to be able to run Microsoft Office (Word and Excel), but do nothing more complicated than that! Do you think you can help? If so, please add a comment below! Thank you!

Tags: boma, eselenkei, fencing, human wildlife conflict, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, predator

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Category: Community work | Date: Jul 10 2009 | By: lionguardians

At the workshops we held recently with the new potential Guardians, we asked them to each pick the weakest boma  (livestock enclosure) in their area - one that had been recently targeted by predators or that they thought needed the most urgent re-building.

We wanted them to find bomas that would benefit most from being given the Lion Guardians predator proofing treatment! A boma wall like this for example, would certainly not stop a lion or a hyena attacking the livestock inside!

Yesterday we set out to verify that each Lion Guardian had chosen the weakest boma and to give them the go-ahead to start improving it. With three zones to cover, we set out early to check the ten bomas. In the first zone we found three well chosen bomas all needing to be re-built, and were honoured to have the presence of the local area chief.

At the second zone we found that the three Lion Guardians here were so eager to start helping their local community that they had already started work on re-building a weak boma! The owner was very thankful for the hard work of the warriors. It might have taken him a week to complete this work himself. We left zone two knowing that the Guardians here had already made a great impact on the life of one family in the community.

The four Guardians in zone 3 had all chosen wisely, with one of the warriors selecting a boma which had recently experienced an incident where a hyena broke in and bit two people as well as killing two goats. 

We were very pleased with all the work we had seen and made our way back to camp satisfied that the new Guardians were beginning to make an impact in their communities. We’ll continue checking on their progress in the upcoming weeks and let you know how they all progress!

Tags: boma, Community work, conflict, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Livestock, Maasai, masai

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Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports, Lion Guardians work | Date: Jun 30 2009 | By: lionguardians

The Lion Guardians team recently conducted three workshops for our thirteen new Guardians who are hoping for employment. We trained and tested them on their tracking skills and reading and writing abilities, as well as carrying out some human-wildlife conflict role-play scenarios with them. The Maasai warriors were eager to learn as well as demonstrate their immense pool of skills.

One of the murrans particularly impressed us with his tracking skills; he could tell the difference between a spotted and a striped hyena simply by looking at their tracks. Even though several warriors could not write well they could all sign their own names and quickly picked up how to use the GPS.

They also demonstrated skills in preventing lion killing by other warriors in role-play scenarios. In fact, the youngest of the potential Guardians showed immense diplomatic skills that defied his age by effortlessly calming an agitated murran whose cow was killed by hyenas.

As well as these workshops, another task was given to the potential Guardians - fencing of a nearby boma. The results of their day-long efforts were a newly fenced boma up to predator proof standard, leaving no gaps or holes for predators to invade.

From the thirteen warriors, ten impressed us the most and they will now start a one month volunteer period. During this period, they will be tracking lions, help the community in fencing bomas, looking for lost livestock in the bush, and preventing other Maasai warriors from killing lions.

Soon the best candidates will emerge and be selected for employment. We will keep you updated on their progress at this exciting time!

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

3 responses so far

Category: Community work, life in camp | Date: Jun 26 2009 | By: lionguardians

We would like to tell you about the area that our new research and Lion Guardians camp is based. The local Maasai Group Ranch is called Eselenkei, which is communal land owned by the Maasai, mainly used for grazing livestock. This map shows you the ranches around Amboseli National Park, which is near to the border with Tanzania in the south of Kenya.

Some 15,000 acres of this land have been leased by Porini Ecotourism, a non-profit company, to create the Selenkay Conservancy, an extremely successful wildlife reserve, which not only protects the flora and fauna in this important wildlife dispersal area around Amboseli National Park, but also helps the local communities by creating employment, as well as many other benefits including helping to build schools, sponsor local children through tertiary education, creating boreholes to provide fresh water, and enabling controllable grazing within the conservancy during times of great need, like the recent drought the local people have been facing here.

Gamewatchers Safaris owns and runs a tented safari camp for tourists called Porini Camp on the conservancy, which generates income and employment opportunities for the local community, and pays a fee to Porini Ecotourism to cover the running costs of the conservancy.

In partnership with the local Maasai communities, Porini Ecotourism and Gamewatchers Safaris use the available community resources to improve and provide alternative source of livelihood in an area with no previously obvious tourist attraction where the local community depended only on livestock rearing for a living. We would like to extend our thanks to Porini, and to the local Maasai community for welcoming us into the area.

We are very glad to be working in an area where the local communities are excited and willing to help with further conservation measures here, and we have some more great news about lions in the area! Keep reading for updates on our local lions and how the Lion Guardians project is getting young warriors involved in helping conserve the lions in their areas, and reduce human-wildlife conflict.

Tags: Amboseli, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, porini, selenkay conservancy

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Category: Community work, Lion Guardians work | Date: Jun 01 2009 | By: lionguardians

After months of waiting, we have finally been able to conduct interviews for three positions as Lion Guardians on Eselenkei Group Ranch. With the drought really affecting the area, the Maasai murrans (warriors) have been travelling huge distances throughout southern Kenya in search of better pastures for their famished cattle herds. Now after a little rain, the murrans are returning to their home area, allowing us to finally hold some interviews! Here are some of the prospective Lion Guardians awaiting their interviews!

We are very excited by this initial step into the new area of Eselenkei. In each of the three areas we had up to 10 eager murrans keen to show us their tracking skills.

Over three consecutive days we interviewed a total of 27 murrans, of which we have selected half to go forward to the next stage - one step closer to becoming a Lion Guardian!

We have been extremely impressed by the eagerness of the murrans we have met. It is exceptionally difficult for young men in Maasailand to find work, particularly as many of them have never attended school and are mostly illiterate, so the opportunities the Lion Guardians program provides makes a huge to their lives.

Hopefully the potential new Lion Guardians will continue to impress us over the next few stages of selection until eventually we have three brilliant Lion Guardians working to protect their once immortal enemy, now turned provider of work - the lion.

Tags: community, eselenkei, interview, job, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

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Category: Community work | Date: Apr 13 2009 | By: lionguardians

First of all I would like to say Happy Easter to all our blog readers! I hope you enjoyed your holiday. Here in Kenya we too have been celebrating Easter, and have also been busy with many other things! We have even had a few hard rain showers!

On Saturday it was the day of my leaving party, an amazing day, which I will tell you more about soon. We also have a guest from New York, who we have been looking after. We decided the best way for her to experience the real work of the Lion Guardians was to take her into the field to do some tracking.

We picked up the nearest Guardian, Kapande who was armed with the telemetry gear and headed to the spot where Kasayio and 2 others killed a wildebeest a few days previously. At a distance with the help of our flashlight we picked out the eyes of the trio, but alas! Kasayio was too shy for us and dashed into the nearby lava forest. The other two lions stayed out for a while, and gave us a good view for our guest whose first visit it was to Africa. What an amazing sight for her!

We also took her to meet Lion Guardian Olubi in his boma. Here they are, Olubi’s mother is to the left, and his wife to the right.

Tags: easter, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, rain, tracking

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Category: Community work, Lion Guardians work | Date: Apr 06 2009 | By: lionguardians

Last week we reported a day of rain, which brought hope to the Maasai of Southern Kenya. But since that one day we have had no more rain. Some are saying this is the worst drought to hit our ranch since 1984. Elders of the pastoral communities have described it as the most dangerous of all, and the Government of Kenya has declared it a national disaster. Human beings, livestock and wildlife are malnourished and emaciated and some are dying of hunger. Scientist and other experts have expressed fears that the situation could get even worse if the rain fails between now and end of the year.

The drought has caused a seriuos influx of herders from other ranches into our ranch, Mbirikani, and onwards through the wildlife migratory corridors to the nearby Chyulu and Tsavo national parks to compete with the wildlife for the little available grass. This contributes seriously to the depletion of the scarce resources and increases human-wildlife conflicts.  

Our Lion Guardians are having their activities doubled as they are now working around the clock to help the affected herders to look after the malnourished animals, and finding lost livestock which is wandering throughout the bush in search of water. Here Lion Guardian Olubi finds some lost goats, that might otherwise be attacked by carnivores, causing anger in the community.

It is our sincere hope that killing of wildlife due to the anger of losing too much livestock will not occur.This is always common in situations like this, but given the on-going education from our Guardians on the importance of conserving lions, we are sure it will not happen.

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

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