Lion Guardians

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 29 2008 | By: lionguardians

I am sorry the blog has been so quiet - I have been in Tanzania to attend the graduation of my friend Stephen Melubo from the College of African Wildlife Management, which as you can see has our favourite animal - the lion as its emblem!

You may remember that Stephen spent some time helping the Lion Guardians with data entry. Well now he is a graduate in Wildlife Management, and will put his good knowledge and skills to use on our ranch, Mbirikani.

The College was like a swarm of bees as families and friends came to celebrate the graduation of their loved ones. I had a great time, and was very glad to be able to share this special day with my friend.

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Tags: college of african wildlife management, graduation, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 20 2008 | By: lionguardians

Today I went to visit three of the Lion Guardians, Koikai, Melubo and Ritei. On the way we came across a dead zebra being feasted on by many vultures.

We were interested to find out what had killed the zebra, as none of our collared lions are in the area - maybe it was a new lion that we didn’t know!

We took a close look around the area and found only cheetah tracks; they might have been able to kill the zebra because the animal was a sub adult and may have been weak. The situation for wildlife and people here in the Chyulu Hills is still tense because this is the time when we expect the short rains to come and they are not yet here; wildlife and livestock are getting weaker everyday.

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Tags: attack, carcass, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, vultures, zebra

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 07 2008 | By: lionguardians

Have you had a look at the map on the right hand side at the bottom of the blog? If you click on the map you can see how many people are reading this blog from all over the world. It is amazing to see that people from so many different places are reading about the lions and their Guardians here in Maasailand. Who could imagine that people so far and wide would be interested in helping save our lions?

Please let us know where you are and what you are doing, whether you are surfing with dolphins in the Atlantic, backpacking in Australia or are logging on to the Lion Guardians somewhere deep in the African bush like we are. A big thank you to all of you for reading our blog!

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

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: lionguardians

As part of my time off work, I spent a few days with my grandfather. I had a good time helping him take care of his livestock with one of my neighbors. My grandpa still herds his cows every day, and even when I was home he would not rest, but accompanied us to the grazing fields. We had to make sure they didn’t feed on the crops growing in people’s gardens! I really miss home now that I am back at work and away from my family.

Here is my grandfather wearing my baseball cap!

I am trying to take photos like the ones I have seen in newspapers. What do you think about this new style of photography?

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

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 10 2008 | By: lionguardians

I’ve been out of the office for a few days to see my family, catch up with my mother and see how the vegetables are growing in her garden. I had a lot of fun and also helped out the family with herding the cattle. We herd through a local swamp, which is very good for the cattle and agriculture. Here are some of my mother’s vegetables. They are growing well!

I also saw my sister before she went back to school after the holiday. It was lovely to see her, if only for a few hours. It was great to catch up with my family and see my beautiful sister, but now I am glad to be back at work as the community is waiting for my help, and I’m sure you want to hear more of what is happening here. I will update you on the situation with the elephant as soon as I have found out the latest news.

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

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

I have recently come back to camp after a few days at home, away from the office. It was great to be home - I really enjoyed spending some time with my mum and sisters and one of my brothers. Here is a photo of me with my mum and one of my young sisters.

During my break from work I also had a chance to visit the National Museum in Nairobi and have a look at their gallery with some of my friends. The information about the ancestry of man was very interesting, and I learnt a lot about the origins of humans and the discoveries that were made in Kenya. Sorry about the flash reflecting off the glass!

I also helped my mum at her small vegetable garden and she was really happy to have me around. My sister was also on holiday from school for two weeks; my mum was a happy person having all of us at home. It is not common to have the whole family around at the same time together. I was sad to leave my family, but I am also glad to be back working for the lions and the community.

We don’t have any more news from Ritei about the attack on cattle at the moment. I will let you update you when I hear from him.

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Tags: home, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, nairobi museum

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Category: Meet the Lion Guardians, Uncategorized | Date: Jul 20 2008 | By: lionguardians

Ritei is one of those jolly murrans that find fun in everything they do. He is a dedicated Lion Guardian and a hard worker. He was one of the original pioneering Lion Guardians. His zone borders a neighbouring group ranch and a National Park to the East. It is located right up in the Chyulu Hills. Although no lions seem to have their permanent residence there, it is a favourite stopping point for many of them.

Leopards sometimes also wreak havoc in his zone. At one time things got so bad that Ritei and two other Guardians were forced to take up sentry work, trying to keep a marauding leopard out of the bomas in his zone.

The most outstanding characteristic of Ritei is his easy going, always joyful nature. Wherever Ritei is, there will always be laughter, no matter what hardships people are facing. He has a way of melting peoples’ hearts with a winning smile and humorous approach to life. Ritei was the first Guardian to get sponsorship, thanks to his charm!

Ritei was very fond of the lion Sangale, the favourite of all the Lion Guardians. Sangale was sadly killed earlier this year, on a trip away from Ritei’s zone, where he was often a visitor.

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

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 11 2008 | By: lionguardians

Last week I heard that Kenya’s tourism minister Honorable Najib Balala would be visiting the Chyulus to re-open the lodge that is near to our camp. I had to go and see this man who is so famous in the coalition government.

In the minister’s speech he promised to help strengthen the wildlife in the area by providing training to combat wildlife poaching and lion killing by communities. We will have to wait and see whether these things he has promised will happen. I do hope he does try to support the wildlife here.

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Tags: chyulus, Kenya, Lion Guardians, tourism, tourism minister, wildlife

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Category: Lion Guardians work, Uncategorized | Date: Jul 10 2008 | By: lionguardians

Over the last few days we have been enjoying a visit from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). CBC News’ Africa correspondent David McGuffin had heard about the good conservation work of the Lion Guardians and the help they are providing their community and came to film a short news piece on us.

It is great that the work of the Lion Guardians will be seen by more people - the more that know about what we do, the more donations we will receive (I hope!) and this will ensure that we can continue to run the program in the future.

We visited Lion Guardians Mokoi and Olubi’s bomas, and showed them the kind of help the Guardians give their communities. They interviewed members of the community who were eager to talk about the support they are getting from the Guardians to mitigate conflict and reduce attacks by predators.

We also showed them all the other work the Lion Guardians do - helping herders in the grazing fields, fixing bomas, finding lost livestock in the bush and of course tracking lions.

I hope some of our blog audience from Canada will be able to see this piece on CBC, and those across the world will also be able to see it on their website. We will let you know when the piece will be aired, and when it appears on their site, and then you can tell all your friends to watch it too!

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Tags: CBC, film crew, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, news

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 06 2008 | By: lionguardians

If you have been following this blog for a while, you will have probably seen quite a few photos of the landscape around the Chyulu Hills, on Mbirikani Group Ranch where our Lion Guardians program is based.

It is a beautiful place to live and work, and when it is not too cloudy we can see Kilimanjaro in the distance.

But I think you probably have not seen any photos of Mbirikani village, where there are a few shops and places to drink tea. This is the main street of Mbirikani. How does it compare with the main street in the place where you live?

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Tags: Kenya, kilimanjaro, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, mbirikani

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