Lion Guardians

Category: Community work | Date: Nov 17 2008 | By: lionguardians

Barely a week after the last livestock were killed by lions, two more have been attacked, one of them sustaining deep head injuries. The culprits of these two cases are our collared lions Mbalueni and Mbeuti, who have come over from the neighbouring ranch Kuku. Here is the injured cow.

We showed the owner of the injured cow how we track collared lions, and with him we found out which lions were responsible. He was very interested, and said that he would not kill the lions if they came back, but would just chase them away. Here he is using the telemetry equipment to see which lion attacked his cow, and where they have gone now.

These two lions have crossed hundreds of kilometers to end up at our twin hills. The area is beautiful and green now the rains have come, and there is plenty of water for wildlife and livestock. Cows are slowly getting healthy again and soon lots of milk will be available. We hope the lions that seem to be now moving into this area will stop killing cows. Not all livestock owners are as tolerant as this man we met. Look at how the rain has transformed the landscape!

Tags: attack, cows, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Livestock, Maasai, masai

2 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Nov 10 2008 | By: lionguardians

Lion Guardian Kapande has reported that a cow has been killed by a lion just a few kilometers north of our camp. He had been tracking on foot, and was sure it was one of our collared lions Nemasi, the female with three cubs. Here is Kapande with the cow.

And here you can see the scratches made by the lion…

We went to investigate and take Kapande some radio collar tracking gear. Of course his own tracking skills were correct - and he picked up Nemasi’s signal not far away. Just last week Nemasi killed another cow in the same area. Although Kapande has not been well for the last week (he has been suffering from malaria) he carried on his duties, making sure that the community does not take any action against Nemasi and her cubs. Here he is tracking.

Two days later Lion Guardian Masarie reported that another cow was killed by three lions still further north.

Masarie was sure that the offender was another one of our collared lions - this time it was a male called Kasayio with two of his friends. Kasayio had been missing for a while and we are glad that he has finally come back to the area, but were not pleased that he has returned to kill livestock. Here is Masarie tracking to confirm that it was Kasayio that killed the cow.

There have been even more reports of lions killing cows recently. Most of the animals being killed are lost livestock that are left out in the bush at night. As it has been so dry the cows are wandering far to find grass and are not coming back to their bomas at night. We hope that the rains that are here now will bring grass soon, and this spate of cow killing will stop.

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

9 responses so far

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.

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

3 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Sep 16 2008 | By: lionguardians

I have been travelling over the weekend to a neighboring ranch called Eselenkei. On my journey I came across a livestock owner who was very angry because two of his animals had been killed by a carnivore that he claims to be very rare.

He told me that the attack had happened at around 5.30 in the early evening and that his young herder had seen the carnivores. As well as the two killed, four young calves were left with injuries, but luckily they will survive. So, what do you think these rare carnivores were? Here are some of the tracks that I saw. Can you help identify them?

Apologies for the slightly strange look of the blog at the moment - Wildlife Direct are currently working on the layout of the site!

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

5 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Aug 12 2008 | By: lionguardians

An unidentified number of lions have killed 2 cows in an area called Centre, at the border of our ranch Mbirikani and one of our neighboring ranches called Kuku. As you can see, not much remains of the cows…

This area is home to Lion Guardian Ritei who reported this news to us. He will be following this incident up with the local community and trying to keep track of where the lions are to make sure that the livestock owners do not retaliate after two of their cows were killed.

At the moment Ritei doesn’t know whether it was any of our collared lions that made the kill, or the new pride that moved into his area recently. He suspects the animals may be the new group. We will report to you more about these lions once Ritei gets more information from the community and after tracking them.

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

6 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Aug 07 2008 | By: lionguardians

Lion Guardian Melubo has reported that a cow has been killed and two others injured by a lion on a neighboring ranch, to the south of our camp. Melubo thinks that this attack was carried out by Ndelie, the male lion with the GPS collar, which allows us to monitor his movements on the internet.

We referred to the website that tracks Ndelie, and could see that he had indeed been around the area that Melubo reported the cows had been attacked.

Now that Ritei has found that the lions in his area do not have collars, Melubo has taken the receiver from him, so that he can find out where Ndelie is, so as to warn the community about possible future attacks on their livestock.

I am very glad you enjoyed the Lion Guardians’ answers to your questions. I will post some more of their video responses soon.

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

4 responses so far