Lion Guardians

Category: life in camp | Date: Dec 17 2008 | By: lionguardians

We are in the process of establishing a new camp on Eselenkei group ranch, where we are going to start the Lion Guardians program. I have just been to visit Eselenkei, to see the place that we will be locating our camp, and we were very lucky to be able to stay at nearby Porini. Porini is a tented camp for tourists located north of Amboseli National Park. It is one of those amazing natural places that you would want to visit on vacation. It is located in a protected area of bush full of wildlife. Birds like the White bellied Go Away bird entertain you as you have your breakfast, and the views are beautiful.

We were treated like VIPs by the staff at Porini. I will never forget the hospitality of the guys I met, and I wish that I could have met them earlier. If I had, my life would have been more fun filled! I am very much looking forward to expanding the Lion Guardians to this new area.

Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, but to see some photos of this beautiful place you can go to the Porini camp website.

Tags: Amboseli, camp, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, porini

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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.

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

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