Lion Guardians

Category: Lion Guardian reports, Meet the lions | Date: Nov 02 2009 | By: lionguardians

The Lion Guardians team was out on Eselenkei Group Ranch looking for the Tara pride when we received information that the wandering group of 4 male lions that we had been monitoring for the last week had visited several bomas the previous night and left death and destruction in their wake. They had killed 5 donkeys, and critically injured 2 and killed (but left intact) 4 goats that had got lost in the bush. What a disaster! Here is one of the young male lions that had carried out the attacks.

We mobilized several Lion Guardians and together with some game scouts from nearby Amboseli Porini camp (Selenkay Conservancy), they were thankfully able to prevent the agitated community members from any revengeful attacks against the lions. After successfully calming the community, the Lion Guardians team proceeded to get things ready for a potential collaring later in the evening, and started the process by doing a ‘call-in’ near to the place where the attacks had happened. This involves playing the sounds of lions roaring, or other noises that might attract lions, such as a dying prey, through loud speakers. Out of the darkness came the lions. They strolled past the car and disappeared again; this marked the start of a long game of ‘hide and seek’!

After a search that lasted more than 3 hours, one of the lions was finally collared, and the Lion Guardians that were present named the male lion ‘Sikiria’, a Maasai name meaning ‘He of the donkey’. This is the first male to be collared on Eselenkei Group Ranch. Young, big and very strong, Sikiria comes from a group of 4 lions that seem to be moving far and wide searching for everything from prey and territory to females. Here I am with Sikiria, at his collaring.

Now that the Lion Guardians can keep close eye on their locations, we hope that they will be able to prevent any more disasters from happening, by alerting community members of their whereabouts as a way of preventing human-wildlife conflicts. We will keep you posted on the activities of these rambunctious male lions!

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

8 responses so far

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, Meet the lions | Date: Aug 05 2009 | By: lionguardians

You will probably remember the story of our collared female lion Nemasi and her 3 male cubs. Here is Nemasi and her cubs in March 2008.

In February we were very sad to come across a dead sub-adult lion on the side of a hill called Olasera. A herder had found the carcass while looking after his goats on the hillside. The lion had been dead for too long for us to identify who it was, or how it had died, but we suspected that it might have been one of Nemasi’s cubs.

It was possible that the cub had been killed by the male lion Lentim who had been spending time with Nemasi, and who is not the father of the cubs. Here are two of the cubs feeding in July 2008.

We spent a long time looking for Nemasi and her cubs so that we could see how many youngsters she had with her. One day we saw Nemasi with Lentim in the lava, but there were no cubs in sight. The Lion Guardians in the area kept finding tracks of 2 sub adults along with Nemasi’s tracks, so it was becoming more and more likely that it was one of hers that had died. But Nemasi remained elusive, hiding out in the lava, and never coming out so we couldn’t be certain about many offspring she had.

Last week we finally caught up with Nemasi, who was with her sub-adults out in an open area. Sadly she was only with two offspring. The dead lion on the hillside must have been one of hers. But the two remaining sub-adults were looking very well. They are both male, and are almost as big as Nemasi now! Here is the first of the male sub-adults:

And here is the second:

There is a huge amount of prey available for them at the moment, as there are so many weak animals around because of the drought, and the area that they were resting in was littered with wildebeest and zebra carcasses. They were certainly well fed, and very handsome! We can’t wait to see how these two young males develop, and where they will roam when they are old enough to leave Nemasi.

Keep reading the blog to find out! And, as always, thank you so much for your donations, without which we would not be able to continue to study and protect these amazing animals.

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

4 responses so far

Category: Meet the lions | Date: Aug 27 2008 | By: lionguardians

I went out yesterday to look for one of our collared lions, a female called Nemasi. We found her relaxing with her cubs playing around her. It was great to see her, and I was really happy that she was quite close by and her cubs were doing well and growing. Here are a few photos of Nemasi and her cubs.

It is great that we have a new generation of lions growing up here on Mbirikani ranch. I really hope the Guardians can continue with their work in protecting them so that these cubs can also have offspring one day, and the lion population here can start to grow. If you can help us by making a donation to the program, please do. As I always say, we need your help to continue running the program, to make sure these cubs and all the other lions have a future here. Thank you!

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

4 responses so far

Category: Meet the lions, lion research fieldwork | Date: Jul 09 2008 | By: lionguardians

We are very excited about a new website that has just been launched by the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project, which shows exactly where one of our collared lions Ndelie has been in the previous few days.

Ndelie’s collar transmits GPS signals to a satellite, which then sends this information on his location to the site! You can look at the interactive map to see where he has been, and you can also see where our camp is, and a few of the Lion Guardians’ bomas. Please take a look and explore the new site. It’s really exciting! Here is the link:

http://www.abycats.com/maps/catmap.html

This is the lion Ndelie, with Lion Guardian Melubo, when he was collared. His name means cooking pot in Maasai. He is called this because when the Lion Guardians helped to collar him they thought his paws were as large as cooking pots!

Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, ndelie, tracking, website

15 responses so far

Category: Meet the lions | Date: Jul 07 2008 | By: lionguardians

Yesterday we were very lucky to see one of our collared female lions Nemasi catching a young oryx to feed her and her 3 cubs.

 

The cubs are now about 6 months old, and were all eager to eat the feast that their mother had caught for them.

Lion Guardian Kapande has been tracking Nemasi recently, and he often locates her in an area close to the two hills called ‘Ilmao’ meaning ‘the twins’ in Maasai. This is near to where we found her and her cubs yesterday.

Tags: Kapande, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lion kill, Maasai, masai, oryx

One response so far

Category: Meet the lions, lion biology, lion research fieldwork | Date: Mar 21 2008 | By: admin

Today I received a great birthday present; I was blessed with the sighting of
Nemasi and her cubs. Nemasi was resting under a tree when we found her. She had her cubs well hidden in the long grass. She was an attentive mother, constantly making sure that they were safe. After a while, she led them out into the open where we got a good look at them. They all seemed healthy as did Mama Nemasi.

These cubs are believed to have been sired by Sangale as Nemasi was seen mating with him a few months before his death. Now, we know that Lentim is in the area of Nemasi and her new cubs, approximately ten kilometers away. Infanticide has been observed in lions before (when a male lion kills other male’s cubs so that the female comes into estrus quickly, then he can mate with her and sire his own cubs). Our fingers are crossed that these cubs survive to carry on the great genes of Sangale.

9 responses so far

Category: Meet the lions, lion research fieldwork | Date: Mar 05 2008 | By: admin

Another lion dead!
I am sad to bring you news of yet another lion killed. This is the eighth lion killed in a four month period. This happened to the west of our camp almost 50kms, on the neighboring Eselenkei Group Ranch. The lion was completely innocent, no livestock had been killed. The group of two murrans (warriors) and five dogs defied the orders of the elders and saw it fit to go out and killed this immature female lion.
This is the hind leg with the paw removed.

The lioness was in a pride of five lions; a male, another lioness and two young cubs. She was a sub-adult. There is no reason for the killing apparently. A weak reason being given out by the culprits is that the lions had killed a cow a week earlier. But the cow owner had not bothered to go out and kill the lions nor had his three murran sons.
The two murran were taken into custody and are awaiting their case. I will update you on any outcomes once I get them.

Dried blood from the site; after the lion was killed almost a week ago.

10 responses so far

Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports, Meet the Lion Guardians, Meet the lions, lion research fieldwork | Date: Jan 16 2008 | By: admin

Recently, we have not been able to put up consistent posts. The reason is that we have been working extra hard out in the field, among the community to get a better understanding of the dynamics behind the death of the two lions on our ranch. We need to do this to be able to hopefully prevent similar cases in the future.

During our time traveling around the ranch, visiting with the communities, we also checked on the remaining lions. We have good news….Nemasi appears to have given birth! We saw her a few mornings ago near Olbili. She looked very fat; it seems that she is lactating, though we have yet to see the cubs so no hard evidence to support our hunch. We have also had the opportunity to talk to the Lion Guardians and get their responses to the poisoning. We shall be sharing them with you in this and future posts. Here is Koikai’s reaction:

http://www.goear.com/listen.php?v=8717579

We also received news from Koikai that he is a proud new father of a baby boy! He was explaining to us that he now has double responsibility. He has to watch out over his own newborn and over Nemasi’s newborns since Sangale, the cubs’ father, is now absent.

Here is Koikai at work

Better days……Nemasi with Sangale before his death.

Technorati : lion killing, lionguardians, poisoning

5 responses so far

Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports, Meet the Lion Guardians, Meet the lions, lion research fieldwork | Date: Jan 16 2008 | By: admin

Recently, we have not been able to put up consistent posts. The reason is that we have been working extra hard out in the field, among the community to get a better understanding of the dynamics behind the death of the two lions on our ranch. We need to do this to be able to hopefully prevent similar cases in the future.

During our time traveling around the ranch, visiting with the communities, we also checked on the remaining lions. We have good news…..Nemasi appears to have given birth! We saw her a few mornings ago near Olbili. She looked very fat; it seems that she is lactating, though we have yet to see the cubs so no hard evidence to support our hunch. We have also had the opportunity to talk to the Lion Guardians and get their responses to the poisoning. We shall be sharing them with you in this and future posts. Here is Koikai’s reaction:

http://www.goear.com/listen.php?v=8717579

We also received news from Koikai that he is a proud new father of a baby boy! He was explaining to us that he now has double responsibility. He has to watch out over his own newborn and over Nemasi’s newborns since Sangale, the cubs’ father, is now absent.

Here is Koikai at work

Better days……Nemasi with Sangale before his death.

Technorati : lion guardians, lion killing, reactions

7 responses so far