Lion Guardians

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Mar 30 2009 | By: lionguardians

We hope that a lot of people watched 60 minutes last night and are eager to find out about the lions here in Maasailand, and what the Lion Guardians are doing to save them. If you missed it you can watch it here, and view the comments about whether a poison like Furadan should be still sold here in Kenya, when in other countries it has been banned because of its dangerous nature. I believe there must be other ways for crops to be treated for pests, and we do not need to use the kind of control that can also kill lions, and even people!

I have some great news for you about our Mbirikani lions. Yesterday we had a second report of the three young lion cubs that Lion Guardian Koikai reported to us a few weeks ago! The cubs are still small, probably around 3 or 4 months old, and although we don’t have a photo of them, we are told they are around the size of these cubs below.

We went to track in the area that they were spotted in, and did not pick up any signal, so it seems like we have a new female on our ranch, as well as the new cubs! I hope we can find them again soon, and bring you some photographs. 

Tags: 60 minutes, cubs, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lion poisoning, lions, Maasai, masai

3 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 27 2009 | By: lionguardians

We are very excited that the CBS program 60 minutes featuring the Lion Guardians will be shown on TV in the US this Sunday March 29th at 7pm Eastern Time. It will also be available to watch on the internet at http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml soon after. The program is all about wildlife poisoning, and Bob Simon and his team came to the Chyulu Hills to find out about lion poisoning in our area and how we work to stop wildlife being killed.

Wildlife poisoning is an extremely urgent issue - it is very easy and cheap to buy the agricultural pesticide carbofuran (Furadan) and sadly it can easily kill any animal you would like it to. Many people in Maasailand are using it to kill carnivores, and we have even heard reports that it has been used by a man to kill his father.

Across Kenya there are more and more cases of wildlife, especially carnivores, being killed with poison. It is also destroying vulture populations, as they feast on poisoned carcasses too.

We are very glad that CBS 60 minutes visited Kenya to highlight this important issue, and we hope that the program will make people sit up and listen. Our hope is that no one will be able to buy this substance anymore, and it will be replaced in shops with a pesticide that cannot be used to kill wildlife.

Have a look at our web page on lion poisoning on the Living with Lions website: http://www.livingwithlions.org/lion-poisoning.html, and please tell all your friends to watch 60 minutes. Thank you!

Tags: 60 minutes, Bob Simon, cbs, furadan, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lion poisoning, lions, Maasai, masai, poison

10 responses so far

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!

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

7 responses so far