Lion Guardians

Lion Guardian Mokoi has again saved the day in his local community by helping track and find over 100 lost sheep and goats. The animals had wandered off in search of pasture and water, which is becoming scarcer every day, and the local people were very worried they would get attacked by lions or hyenas. The community were all very happy that Mokoi found their animals, and praised him for his work.

Sadly we have not experienced good rain for the last three months and this water shortage is leading the community to be pessimistic about their future and the future of their livestock. The land is extremely dry and in some areas there is hardly any grass left.

At least the Lion Guardians are feeling positive about their work – helping out herders by finding lost animals that might otherwise be attacked, and trying to reduce problems with carnivores as much as they can.

Please, if you think you can support us by making a donation, this will be greatly appreciated by all of the Guardians and the communities they help. Your donations pay the Lion Guardians’ wages, help buy equipment and train new Guardians among many other things. Without the donations we receive through this blog, we would not be able to continue with the project.

Thank you for any support you can give us, from all of us here in dry Maasailand, and thank you to all of you who have donated to us already.

Our Lion Guardian in Ol Donyo Wuas area, Solonka, has reported that a cow has been killed by lions, just 10 kms south of our camp. Solonka went to the site to verify the claim and try to find out which lion was responsible for the kill.

Although our male lion Lentim’s signal was not very close we suspect he could be the one who killed the cow. There was just one lion track from the cow carcass, and we know that this area is Lentim’s territory and he is usually on his own.

 

We are lucky that Lentim has a GPS collar, so if you want to have a look at his movements and see where he has been you can do! Just click here! Here you can see a map of where he has been. We think he must be the culprit – don’t you?

Our Lion Guardian in Ol Donyo Wuas area, Solonka, has reported that a cow has been killed by lions, just 10 kms south of our camp. Solonka went to the site to verify the claim and try to find out which lion was responsible for the kill.

Although our male lion Lentim’s signal was not very close we suspect he could be the one who killed the cow. There was just one lion track from the cow carcass, and we know that this area is Lentim’s territory and he is usually on his own.

 

We are lucky that Lentim has a GPS collar, so if you want to have a look at his movements and see where he has been you can do! Just click here! Here you can see a map of where he has been. We think he must be the culprit – don’t you?

Our Lion Guardian in Ol Donyo Wuas area, Solonka, has reported that a cow has been killed by lions, just 10 kms south of our camp. Solonka went to the site to verify the claim and try to find out which lion was responsible for the kill.

Although our male lion Lentim’s signal was not very close we suspect he could be the one who killed the cow. There was just one lion track from the cow carcass, and we know that this area is Lentim’s territory and he is usually on his own.

 

We are lucky that Lentim has a GPS collar, so if you want to have a look at his movements and see where he has been you can do! Just click here! Here you can see a map of where he has been. We think he must be the culprit – don’t you?

We had some worrying news last night. Four lions on the neighbouring ranch to ours – Kuku, where we have some study animals with collars had killed four cows. The local community was furious, and had gathered a large group of warriors together to go out and hunt for these lions. They had all got spears ready and were very angry. We even heard reports that spears were thrown, but we are pleased to say that the lions escaped unharmed, thanks to the intervention of staff from Campi Ya Kanzi, the lodge located nearby.

This news was reported to us by Lion Guardian Melubo who works near the border between our ranch Mbirikani and Kuku. We were very worried by this news, particularly as it could have been our GPS-collared lions Ndelie and Mbalueni, who you can track online via our lion tracking website.

Thank goodness the warriors were calmed down, and did not kill four lions. This would have been a great blow to our lion population.

A child has been attacked and injured by a lion near Amboseli National Park. The young child was herding goats when he wandered close to a female lioness hiding in long grass with her young cubs. When he came too close she jumped out of the grass and attacked him. It seems she was trying to protect her cubs. He suffered claw wounds on his side around his ribs and was rushed to the closest hospital for treatment. He has now been discharged, and we hear he is doing fine.

When we heard the news we were worried for the boy, but also for the lioness, as warriors were talking of getting together to go out and kill her. We are very thankful that Soila of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants and lion researchers in the area were able to mitigate the conflict, and the lioness was saved. Here is a photo of another lioness, who was protecting her cubs.

It is very rare for lions to attack people, except in defense when being attacked by people, and this is a strange case. In Tanzania it is quite common in certain areas for lions to attack people and there have been a number of cases reported where villagers have been attacked and killed by lions, but here in Kenya we are lucky that this is a very rare occurrence. You may have heard about the legendary man-eating lions of Tsavo, but this was a very odd case and it is not common to hear of such behahaviour here.

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!

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.

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.

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!