Lion Guardians

Category: Lion Guardian reports, Lions killed | Date: Nov 24 2008 | By: lionguardians

This week the Lion Guardians have been busy with another film crew. CBS and their presenter Bob Simon are here to film a piece for their program ‘60 minutes’. They want to find out more about the poisoning of lions and other carnivores. They came at the right time - just after an attempted poisoning case. We took them to the market in Kimana, south of our ranch and close to Amboseli National Park. CBS wanted to film people selling the poison Furadan, an agricultural chemical, which people say is increasingly being used to bait carcasses and kill carnivores.

As usual there were many women trying to sell Maasai ornaments to tourists, and my group was not spared. I was acting as a go between, negotiating between the two parties because of the language barrier. At one point a woman approached me, and held out her hand with something inside for me to look at. I couldn’t believe it when I saw lion claws! I was even more shocked when I examined them closely and found that they were new, fresh claws.

I asked how much we would have to pay for them and she said 60 US dollars. I told her that if she reduced the price I would take more, to find out how many she had. It was then that I discovered she didn’t just have claws, but lion teeth too! She offered the claws and teeth to me at 15 US dollars less the original price. We asked her where she got them from, and she said that someone dropped them.

It is clear that lions are now facing a new threat that never used to exist: their body parts are being traded. It is so hard to believe that tourists in Kenya that come to see the beautiful animals here would buy the claws and teeth of lions. But we have seen with our own eyes that it is happening, and if nothing is done to stop it, the few prides of lions we have here will disappear forever.

We need Lion Guardians to start working in other places, especially Olgulului ranch, near to Amboseli, where the last lion killing happened. Something needs to be done and we are calling out loud for help!

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Tags: 60 minutes, Bob Simon, cbs, claws, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, teeth, vultures

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Category: Lions killed | Date: Nov 04 2008 | By: lionguardians

We are sad to report that another lion has been killed on our neighbouring ranch Olgulului, where we are soon to start the Lion Guardians program. The lion killed a big expensive bull, and in doing so injured its paw. A week later it killed a goat close to where the bull was attacked, and apparently was still limping. About 10 days after that it killed yet another goat in the same area and chased the young herder. It seems the lion was attacking livestock because it was weak, following the injury.

The lion’s carcass was found close to the area where the bull was killed, south of Amboseli National Park. It had been speared, and all the claws were missing together with the 4 canine teeth. We are so sad about this news. We hope that when we start the Lion Guardians on this ranch, attacks like this will stop.

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Tags: dead lion, Kenya, lion, lion attack, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, speared

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Category: Lions killed | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: lionguardians

Today I am bringing you some really good news! I am sure that all of you are familiar with the last lion killing that happened in June outside our ranch. We were all very angry and saddened that murrans on our neighboring ranch would kill a lion in order to sell its claws. This is all that remained of the lion when we got to it.

The good news is that the culprits were arrested and taken to court. We have just heard that last week they appeared before a chief magistrate and pleaded guilty to involvement in the lion killing and being in possession of 11 lion claws that they were intending to sell.

We are told that the two murrans were each sentenced to either 36 months in jail or to pay a fine worth 100,000 Kenyan shillings each. This is really great news for us; it shows that justice is coming for the lions and the people who are wiping out the little population that is left in Maasailand today will not get away with it.

The story appeared in a Kenya Swahili newspaper called Taifa Leo. We hope that this means the word will be spread far and wide that lion killing will not go unpunished, and that other murrans will learn from this tragic lesson.

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

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Category: Lions killed, lion killings | Date: Jun 18 2008 | By: lionguardians

We have some sad news to report. A lion has been killed by murrans at Olgulului, the ranch bordering Amboseli National Park, and the neighbouring ranch to Mbirikani, home of the Lion Guardians.

The reason for the killing was first unclear. Some rumors reported that the lion had killed two goats and that the murrans went after it in revenge. But after further investigations it became clear that they speared this lion for trade. Two of the murrans are beach boys at the Kenyan coast and it seems they killed the lion so that they could take the claws to go and sell. Here is the paw of the lion, that was left after the claws were removed.

This is awful news for us, as the population of lions in this area is already so low, and it is a tragedy to lose another lion. It was a female lion, probably about four years old, but not one known by the Lion Guardians.

One of the factors that has led to the decline in the number of lions in this area is the low level of employment, especially for murrans - the warrior age class. We are hoping that we can raise enough funds to start up the Lion Guardians program on Olgulului too. This would give at least some of the murrans employment and an interest in conserving lions, which they will then pass on to their communities. Your donations are vitally important at this critical time, so we can try to save the few remaining lions in this area.

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Tags: Amboseli, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, murrans, speared

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Category: Lions killed, lion killings | Date: Mar 31 2008 | By: admin

We’ve received a report that on the 28th of March, 60 murrans from Olgulului (OLG) went to hunt for lions. Allegedly these lions killed a cow and the warriors were seeking revenge. The murrans divided into groups and were chasing a lion, which headed into Amboseli National Park when the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts and the Kenya Wildlife Service stopped the first group from entering the park. Just after the first group left, a second group showed up, but luckily the Game Scouts and KWS were able to calm the situation and put a halt to the lion hunting. The Olgulului warriors were not able to spear any lions. That was a smart (or lucky) lion to head back to the National Park. We are so glad that the Game Scouts and Kenya Wildlife Service were there to stop the killing before it happened.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that OLG is in desperate need of lion conservation. We are aiming to start Lion Guardians program over there in late summer/early fall. Those murrans need to begin benefiting from living with lions.

As for the murrans who succeeded in spearing lions on OLG last month; they appeared in court before the judge last week and denied their charges after being advised to do so by other inmates. Their case will be heard on the 19th of April.

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