Lion Guardians

By: Tory Shelley

Yellow, purple, white, red, and orange are only a few of the colors on display here in in Ruaha during the rainy season. The wildflowers are in full bloom, the grass often reaches over our heads, the trees are a-buzz with insects and birds, and the watermelons are plentiful, ripe, and refreshing. Afternoon thunderstorms leave us with a welcomed cool breeze and often a rainbow stretching across the freshly blue sky. Quite a difference from the dry dusty days of blazing sun that defines the dry season.

Wild flowers along a spoor route

Wild flowers blooming

LG Pascal on a spoor route

Eric and the biggest Baobab

Dr. Steph Dolrenry, Director of Carnivore Biology and Eric Ole Kesoi the Community Liaison Officer for LG Kenya, came down to Ruaha last month to conduct some further training with the LGs here. One part of that training was setting up spoor routes. “Spoor?” Spoor is an English (U.K.) word for animal tracks. Over a period of two weeks, together with the LGs, we walked over 200 kilometers through the LG zones setting up spoor counting routes. For each zone, of which there are four, a 10-12 km long transect was established. The LGs will walk these transects once a week and collect data on the presence of lions, the various carnivores that compete with lions (leopard, cheetah, wild dog, and hyena), as well as available lion prey (wild pigs, impala, kudu, giraffe and eland) found in their areas by recording the tracks they find.

Eric pointing out a kudu track to Gwagi

Leopard tracks

LGs Pascal and Mandela counting Impala tracks on their spoor route

left to right: George (Coordinator), Steph, Eric, LG Kiro laughing at how far we have walked (25kms!) on the GPS

left to right: Eric, Dewita (a LG volunteer), and Steph

LG Daudi

Coordinator George training LG Daudi on how to fill out the Spoor counting data form

The LG Coordinator here in Ruaha, George Sedoyeka has written his first story in English and we want to share it with you all here.  Enjoy!

MY FAVORITE DAY SPOOR COUNTING

By: George Sedoyeka, LG-Ruaha Coordinator

I woke up early, around 5:00am and met with my team (Eric, Tory and Stephanie a.k.a Nasha) and we drove to Muwira, about 70kms from camp, to mark a spoor route with the Lion Guardians there. At 6:30am we reached the big tree that we planned with Gwagi (LG) and Dewita (a volunteer LG from Muwira) to meet at as a place to start our work. They are from that area (Muwira) and know the bush very well and so they could lead us. Gwagi starting leading us in the direction of a place for good spoor counting. We went up to Dewita’s boma on the way to Gwagi’s boma and then decided to start the spoor counting toward Kibugire area as it was a place both Gwagi and Dewita could meet early in the morning to begin their route.

As I said in the title, it was my favorite day because we passed a watermelon farm and the owner allowed us to eat as much watermelon as we possibly could because he had so many! It was my first time to see Eric eating watermelon since he arrived in Tanzania! All of us enjoyed the watermelon because we were thirsty and hungry from all that walking! We continued on our way until we reached to the point needed to end the route. Then we headed back in the direction that we came from, passing the watermelon farm again and the owner gave us three more watermelons! We ate two right then and took one with us. I didn’t reach the car with the watermelon I was carrying because it was very heavy. I dropped it and we all ate it on the way back to the car. That day we ate five watermelons! We went to Dewita’s boma and greeted his family, then starting walking back to the car, so we said goodbye to his family and left Dewita and Gwagi. But after leaving, Dewita came running up and brought maize (corn) for us to take home. We made it back to a car with our full bellies and drove back to the camp.  It was a delicious and productive day!

Dewita carrying a watermelon for the walk home

Gwagi enjoying some watermelon

LG Volunteer Dewita

 “In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand.
We will only understand what we are taught.”
– Baba Dioum

The LG program and the Lion Guardians themselves are constantly learning from, and teaching, each other. While the LG program brings systematic monitoring systems and the tome of knowledge from scientific literature, the LGs bring traditional ecological knowledge and a particular understanding of the land and all of the life it supports. Together, we are able to monitor the lions and other wildlife while also understanding the people who also live on this land and their relationship with the wildlife. This exchange of knowledge is at the heart of the success of Lion Guardians as a culturally flexible and scientifically stable lion conservation program. Help support the Lion Guardians and all of their hard work!

The Lion Guardian project in Ruaha is a collaboration with Panthera and the Ruaha Carnivore Project.

left to right: LGs Mandela, Pascal, and Dareum being trained on Spoor counting

By Tory Shelley

Recently, the Ruaha Lion Guardians team took a trip into Ruaha National Park for an all day game drive in hopes of seeing lions.

The Lion Guardians observing hippos in Ruaha National Park

The park is a mere 20km away from the village land where the Lion Guardians operate so it is very possible that the lions in the park could be the very same lions that create the tracks and sign that the Lion Guardians find and document.

Lion tracks found by the LGs on village land outside of the protected areas (the pen is about 5 inches long)

This was the first time some of the Lion Guardians had been inside the park in a vehicle and purely as sightseers (two had been on a park trip once in the past provided to pastoralists by the Ruaha Carnivore Project). This was very exciting and we were lucky enough to see wild lions that day three different times! The first encounter was with a large older male lion who was sleeping in the shade of a tree. He let us watch him for a while as the Lion Guardians piled onto the right side of the car to get a better look.

Male lion resting under a tree in Ruaha National Park

The Lion Guardians were very excited as they had never before just watched a lion from a close distance, especially without a spear in their hand. Later that day we came upon a female with an older cub and a sub-adult, all resting in the shade of a tree on the edge of the then dry Ruaha riverbed. Again, the Lion Guardians piled onto that side of the car to get better look and discussed the health of the lions and commented that the lions looked strong.

Lioness, cub and sub-adult resting in the afternoon heat

Then, as we were driving back toward the entrance of the park, Lion Guardian Darem pointed out the window and said “Ngadida” (lion in Kibarabaig) under his breath. Sure enough two lions, a male and a female, were walking steadily through the tawny dry grass about 30 meters from the car. We would have just driven by as the lions were well camouflaged, but Darem’s trained eye spotted them right away.

We were fortunate enough to see many animals that day including elephant, zebra, giraffe, buffalo, kudu and countless other species. But we were particularly lucky to see the lions! This peaceful interaction with wild lions is a crucial aspect of the Lion Guardians experience as most of them have only had exposure to wild lions in the context of tracking and hunting them. As the Lion Guardian program here in Ruaha does not yet include placing radio collars on the lions which would allow us to locate them with telemetry equipment, this intimate time with wild lions inside of Ruaha National Park is critical to the experience and training of the Lion Guardians. Continue to follow our adventures here in Ruaha and support the Lion Guardians hard work!

The Ruaha Lion Guardians project is a collaboration between Lion Guardians, Ruaha Carnivore Project and Panthera.

Too hot to even stand up, elephants rest in the shade of a tree

Giraffe browsing on a small tree pokes his head up to check out the Lion Guardians

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We are very excited that all of the ground work for our expansions into the Ruaha and Sinya areas of Tanzania are now bearing fruits. Earlier this year, we hosted a group of Barabaig community leaders from the Ruaha ecosystem in central Tanzania on an exchange visit to Kenya. They interacted with our Lion Guardians and the Amboseli community members who have partnered with the program over the past 6 years ; they went back very excited and eager to start a Lion Guardians program in Ruaha. After their return, they held community meetings throughout their territory to describe the program to their peers using their own words. The meetings resulted with the community giving us the blessing to go ahead and start the program.  Within a week of our arrival, we were able to interview and select five new Lion Guardians. They are currently undergoing training by two of our best Lion Guardians who traveled to Ruaha from Amboseli; so far the news is encouraging.

Mokoi is one of the Lion Guardians who traveled to Ruaha to train the new recruits

In West Kilimanjaro, Sinya area, the process began with a meeting of the area leaders which was attended by all zonal representatives and their community Chairman, as well as the traditional chiefs. They then convened several community meetings, all of which gave us the final blessings to start the initial process in this conflict prone area. In fact, I have just returned from there, leaving behind two of our team members who are conducting interviews for potential Lion Guardians.  The final selection will be done soon and the results announced in a community meeting. Soon thereafter, the training of the selected Lion Guardians will begin.

The new Lion Guardians will be trained in radio telemetry, the use of GPS and data recording

West Kilimanjaro is a very important area if the Amboseli lion population is to be protected; many of the lions that frequent Amboseli cross into the Tanzania border and are often killed in retaliation as a result of human-wildlife conflict.  In fact, a lion was recently killed there in early September 2012, just a few days before we started community engagement.

We believe that the the presence of Lion Guardians in this area will greatly reduce the incidences of human-wildlife conflict, thereby preserving the life of these precioius few remaining lions. Please help contribute to the success of these noble expansion plans by helping us fund the costs of getting these new sites up and running.  Your support helps us cover cost such as the salaries of the Lion Guardians and their equipment.  It also helps us pay for important field costs such as phone airtime, vehicle fuel, maintenance and repair, which are all imperative to the effective operation of the progam.

Selenkay’s pride which is now composed of ten lions is well known for being a livestock killing group. This is because they have killed livestock in almost every corner of their territory and have been hunted countless times in retaliation. Fortunately, we have succeeded in stopping all lion hunting party’s intent on killing them except for the politically motivated hunt that killed their sister Narika two years ago. However, over the last two months, as if sensing the tension and danger in the air as a result of the conflict in Amboseli, this pride has confounded many that know their reputation. They have not killed any livestock and thus managed to stay away from the limelight.

This is Loomuguri, son of Selenkay and Ndelie, eating meat.

Throughout this conflict period, they have only been hunted once by a group of morans but not in retaliation and fortunately, we were able to come to their rescue. Yesterday, we found them relaxing close to Amboseli Porini camp in Selenkay conservancy with visitors having a field day clicking their cameras. The pride looked absolutely healthy and the cubs seem to have grown bigger beyond their age.

Nempatipat is the daughter of Selenkay and Ndelie

Ndelie, the resident male lion was with them and he seems to have grown in confidence as opposed to his usual skittishness with the car. Lioness Elikan who likes to go solo when she stops weaning, was out hunting and left the motherly Selenkay to be constantly harassed by the playful cubs under the watchful eye of Ndelie. The good news is that their primary prey species are available in plenty owing to the proximity to watering points. This is ideal lion behavior especially in a politically poisoned environment and we pray that they abstain from livestock killing as we wait for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

One of Selenkay’s cubs investigating the camera.

The on-going human-wildlife conflict in Amboseli moved a notch higher yesterday with a complete show of bravado never seen in the recent past. Monday in the middle of the night a lioness, Amyjane, had jumped into a boma adjacent to the park, killed a donkey and cow, and was speared in the front left leg. The morans responsible for the spearing wanted to follow her into the park, but were persuaded not to by elders and village leaders. The morans heeded their advice, but continued to monitor the movement of the lioness inside the park. The following morning we were called in to track and assess the situation of the lioness. She was deep inside a small thicket when we found her and it was clear that she was experiencing a lot of pain. She didn’t move when we drove close with the vehicle and she exhibited a lot of aggression which is unlike her normal behavior.

One of the last photos of Amyjane alive

Then as fate would have it, the veterinary officer that was supposed to treat her was summoned very early in the morning to attend to a rhino that had died due to a gun wound from poachers in the Chyulu Game Reserve. While awaiting the vet to arrive, we responded to another depredation report we received from Lion Guardian Jackson in a nearby zone.

During that time, a herder brought livestock inside the park for water very close to where Amyjane was hidden. When she saw the herder, she growled and the livestock scampered for safety, thus prompting the herder to summon the morans from the nearby cultural boma. They responded immediately and tracked the lion within 10 minutes and speared her ten times till she succumbed to death.

At this time we had just finished verifying Jackson’s report and were on our way back to check on Amyjane, with five Kenya Wildlife Service rangers we picked up on the way. As we were approaching the site where we last saw her (about 50 meters away) we found a lion paw freshly cut. We immediately started to fret, but we also thought that maybe it belonged to another lion that might have been killed earlier that morning.

Worried, we rushed to the site where we had last seen Amyjane just an hour ago, but she was nowhere to be seen! We immediately reached for the receiver to track her collar, but unfortunately after five minutes of searching we came up empty handed. At this time we returned with the KWS rangers to where the paw was found and started tracking the perpetrators foot prints. Using my traditional tracking skills we followed their fresh tracks for about five minutes until we reached Amyjane.

Her body was dismembered; specifically the torso was cut in half and placed 50 meters apart likely to conceal the killing. Her head and all of her paws were missing. This was proof that her killers were in a hurry to leave the site, accompanied by their intentions to sell the fresh trophies to the nearby tourists who visit the park. Interestingly, the tail which is the most important part of traditional lion killing celebrations was still intact: meaning that the killing was not traditionally motivated. It was a ghastly site to see, especially given the fact that we had just seen her alive a few hours ago. I was horrified and heart broken at the same time.

Amyjane’s dismembered body

After joining Amyjane’s torso to verify it was one lion that was killed we decided to follow the fresh tracks of the warriors, which led to the nearby cultural bomas. What was interesting is that the cultural boma, which is always a bee-hive of activities (especially during the high season), was so conspicuously silent that one could hear a pin drop!

Amyjane whose pride has known misfortune over the last few years is the latest victim. Her sister mysteriously died two years ago and left her the duty of bringing up nine small cubs. She successfully brought six of those cubs to maturity, while one was killed by an elephant.  Another was killed by a pair of resident male lions and the third was speared at the gate of the same cultural boma in which her mother’s killers live. Currently, she has three very small cubs whom she left with her companion, who also has three cubs of the same size. We hope that she will be able to bring up all six cubs, but it will be a very difficult feat.

Amyjane’s companion will have a difficult task in trying to raise all of the cubs to maturity. The cubs pictured here are from a litter she had in 2010.

During the past week in Olgulului Group Ranch, lions have gone on a rampage and killed three cows, three donkeys and seriously injured six cows, all resulting in three lion hunts. Lion Guardians managed to stop all the three lion hunting parties in the respective zones. This is due to our diplomatic and non-accusatory approach. But, unfortunately Amyjane was hunted inside the park (outside of our jurisdiction) where existing tensions between the community and KWS has lead to a decrease in tolerance.

Eric used his tracking skills to locate Amyjane’s body and track her killers to the nearby boma.

Currently, the situation in Amboseli is tense and the relationship between the community and KWS is at its lowest ebb and we fear for the future of the local wildlife. The previous conflict resolution meeting on Aug 6^th, failed to arrive at an amicable consensus between KWS and the Maasai community. The Maasai community gave KWS 21 days to respond to their petition requesting a fair distribution of the park revenue.  If the morans are bold enough to hunt in the park in broad daylight and kill a collared lioness now, I shiver to think of what will happen if the trust between the community and KWS is severed over revenue-sharing. The parks wildlife will not survive without communal support and Amboseli National Park will be no more than a glorified zoo!!

Hopefully KWS and the local Maasai community can come to an amicable agreement in order to stop more senseless killings like that of Amyjane.

This year’s awards for the Lion Guardian games were divided into six categories. The most reliable award went to Leparakuo Shuaka from Eselenkei. He was rewarded for being quick to respond to conflicts, effective monitoring of his zone, readiness to work at all hours of the day, finding 4 lost young herders and for his flexibility at work. The most improved award went to Jackson Leposo from S.Olgulului who quickly mastered the use of telemetry, improved writing skills, honesty and reliability in collection of data as well as making 72 quality phone reports. The best community impact award was given to Masarie Ologela who fenced a total of 32 bomas that had been visited by carnivores, all of which never again experienced incursions. Also of the 963 lost livestock reported to him, he helped find 886 of them which is a 92% success rate!

The Guardians are all smiles during the award ceremony as they cheer for their comrades

Mingati Makarot from Mbirikani won the beyond the call of duty annual award. His encouragement and organizing of fellow Lion Guardians to venture into conflict prone areas beyond the jurisdiction of the project in search of collared lions was recognized and praised by all. Samanya Lerionka from Olgulului who managed to stop 14 lion hunts on his own by being creative in front of angry Morans won the innovation award. However, it was Kamunu Saitoti from Eselenkei who brought down the curtain with applause by grabbing the most coveted greatest program impact award amidst ululation and cheering from his admiring colleagues. His impressive leadership skills and eloquence as well as his ability to improve communal tolerance towards carnivores in a conflict prone zone placed him in a class above the rest. He received his award from Mr. Don Young who praised the games for being competitive and the entire Lion Guardian team for effectively contributing to the protection of key wildlife species in the Amboseli ecosystem.

Kamunu accepting his coveted award

In September 2009, we received an unusual report from our Lion Guardian Kamunu. His report was of a group of 4 male lions of the same age traversing through the Selenkay conservancy. We had never had such a big group of males traveling together so we gave instructions for them to be closely followed. We were able to see them briefly one afternoon, but unfortunately that night , they went on a killing spree, killing 7 donkeys as well as several shoats from one neighboring community. In the morning they were hunted, but due to the efforts of the Lion Guardians and the Eselenkei Game Scouts, no one got hurt and all lions lived to see another day. The next day we collared the biggest and called him Sikiria (meaning he of the donkeys). He then disappeared for 4 months. We gave instructions to our Lion Guardians to track him down but to no avail. We even conducted aerial searches without success! One day when we were following a report of a male lion called Lomunyak on Mbirikani Group Ranch, we did a call-in expecting Lomunyak to show up. We heard the approach of lions and when we shone the light, we saw 2 lions and to our utter surprise, it was Sikiria and his brother Oyayai.   When we down loaded his GPS collar, we were completely baffled by his movement patterns. He had moved through Namanga, spending nearly two weeks up on Namanga Hill, then he went all the way to Torosei which borders Shompole briefly in to Tanzania and back to Eselenkei and over to Mbirikani! Shortly thereafter, he moved beyond the Chyulu hills to an area close to Tsavo West National Park, Kuku. On many occasions he killed livestock and was hunted. At one time in early 2011, he injured a young Moran who was with others, hunting Sikiria after he had killed a cow. Sikiria got away without a scratch.

Sikiria after killing the cow

Over the past few years, he has matured, behaved well and finally settled in a place called Oltiasika mating with more than 6 females and siring over 9 cubs. His pride is composed of 14 lions and is thus one of the biggest lion groups that our Lion Guardian Project monitors outside protected areas.

Some of the cubs sired by Sikiria

A few days ago, Sikiria, together with his brother and constant companion Oyayai, killed a cow at a place called Elang’ata Enkima on Kuku Group Ranch during the day. The cows were being herded by 3 Morans and when the Morans confronted these lions, Oyayai ran for his life but Sikiria waited for them. He was speared but in return he seriously injured 2 of the warriors while the 3^rd ran home calling for reinforcements. Many Morans came to the rescue of their colleaques and speared Sikiria to death. But before he died, he seriously injured a 3^rdMoran. All the injured Morans are currently recuperating at Loitokitok District hospital and we wish them quick recovery. According to the Maasai tradition, human injuries caused by any wildlife species is unforgivable and revenge is usually the ultimate response.

Sikiria lies dead with holes from spear wounds and parts removed by the warriors

Up until he finally met his fate, and upon downloading his movement patterns, Sikiria had travelled almost 7,000 square km, passing through 21 of the 30 Lion Guardian zones. As far as we can find, he has one of the largest documented ranges outside the desert lions of the Namib. Sikiria has always been a problem lion but our Lion Guardians in conjunction with other stakeholders within the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem like Maasailand Preservation Trust game scouts, Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust and KWS –Amboselihave all contributed to his protection until he met his fate. He was well-known as a recent survey conducted in Lon Guardian areas showed. Over 70% of people in the surveyed areas could name at least one lion and Sikiria was the most frequently named; a lion legend. His prominent beauty, unique personality, and composure will always be missed by those who knew him.

Sikiria's GPS locations

The last photo taken of Sikiria before his death

Lions in the Osewan area have been killing livestock consecutively for some time now. A few days ago, the new Moran age-set could stand it no more. They spread the word and summoned their age-mates, and went out on a hunt for the lions concerned. Lion Guardians heard about this in time for us to contact relevant stakeholders to aide us with stopping the hunt. We also instructed the Lion Guardians to do all they could to deter the warriors from killing any lions. After many heated arguments and much pleading, our Lion Guardians managed to stop the young Morans with the promise of an urgent meeting to chart the way forward. We consulted in an immediate meeting with the Group Ranch leaders where we listened to their demands. We eventually managed to cool them down and for the past few days now we have not seen any hunts.

A group of warriors gather for a lion hunt