Lion Guardians

Category: Lion Guardians work, Meet the lions | Date: Aug 05 2009 | By: lionguardians

You will probably remember the story of our collared female lion Nemasi and her 3 male cubs. Here is Nemasi and her cubs in March 2008.

In February we were very sad to come across a dead sub-adult lion on the side of a hill called Olasera. A herder had found the carcass while looking after his goats on the hillside. The lion had been dead for too long for us to identify who it was, or how it had died, but we suspected that it might have been one of Nemasi’s cubs.

It was possible that the cub had been killed by the male lion Lentim who had been spending time with Nemasi, and who is not the father of the cubs. Here are two of the cubs feeding in July 2008.

We spent a long time looking for Nemasi and her cubs so that we could see how many youngsters she had with her. One day we saw Nemasi with Lentim in the lava, but there were no cubs in sight. The Lion Guardians in the area kept finding tracks of 2 sub adults along with Nemasi’s tracks, so it was becoming more and more likely that it was one of hers that had died. But Nemasi remained elusive, hiding out in the lava, and never coming out so we couldn’t be certain about many offspring she had.

Last week we finally caught up with Nemasi, who was with her sub-adults out in an open area. Sadly she was only with two offspring. The dead lion on the hillside must have been one of hers. But the two remaining sub-adults were looking very well. They are both male, and are almost as big as Nemasi now! Here is the first of the male sub-adults:

And here is the second:

There is a huge amount of prey available for them at the moment, as there are so many weak animals around because of the drought, and the area that they were resting in was littered with wildebeest and zebra carcasses. They were certainly well fed, and very handsome! We can’t wait to see how these two young males develop, and where they will roam when they are old enough to leave Nemasi.

Keep reading the blog to find out! And, as always, thank you so much for your donations, without which we would not be able to continue to study and protect these amazing animals.

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

4 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardians work | Date: Mar 10 2009 | By: lionguardians

Yesterday we went with Lion Guardian Solonka to look for Nemasi and her cubs, to try to find out whether she still has all three with her, or whether perhaps the dead lion that was found was one of her cubs. We listened for Nemasi’s collar, first from this high point, where we found no signal.

Then we went to the side of the lava forest by the hill where the dead lion was found. Here we picked up her signal and also that of Lentim, the male collared lion she has been seen with recently.

We drove around the lava until her signal became even stronger. We got out of the car and started to look for tracks.

Solonka found some lion tracks, which we followed up the side of the hill.

Then, as we were tracking from the roof of the car we were lucky enough to see Lentim and another lion,  that we think was Nemasi, walking off into the thick lava forest in the distance. We did not see any cubs.

Tonight we will go out again to try and get a closer look. More soon!

Tags: dead lion, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, tracking, tracks

3 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports, Lion Guardians work | Date: Mar 06 2009 | By: lionguardians

A young lion has been found dead on our ranch. The carcass was found by a herder who was grazing his livestock in the area. He reported it to the Maasailand Preservation Trust who alerted us to investigate more. We are happy that the community is taking the initiative to report such things. It shows there is a good relationship between the community and the various organizations that are working towards wildlife conservation here.

The lion was very decomposed by the time we saw it, and was definitely more than four days old. We do not think it was a human-related death since it had all its body parts and there was no sign of any poisoning. It could be a young male trying to take over a pride, which was attacked and killed by another male protecting his territory.

It is also possible that this is one of the three cubs of our collared lion Nemasi. The Lion Guardians have recently tracked her in that same area, and she has been spending time with the collared male Lentim, who is not the father of the cubs.

We are currently trying to track Nemasi, so we can see how many cubs she has, but at the moment she is hiding in the thick forest that grows on top of the old lava flows, which we are unable to drive inside. It is very dangerous for the Guardians to track inside the lava on foot, as the forest is so dense that they would have to be very close to a lion to see it properly.

We will keep you updated on this story as soon as find out any news.

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

4 responses so far

Category: Lions killed | Date: Nov 04 2008 | By: lionguardians

We are sad to report that another lion has been killed on our neighbouring ranch Olgulului, where we are soon to start the Lion Guardians program. The lion killed a big expensive bull, and in doing so injured its paw. A week later it killed a goat close to where the bull was attacked, and apparently was still limping. About 10 days after that it killed yet another goat in the same area and chased the young herder. It seems the lion was attacking livestock because it was weak, following the injury.

The lion’s carcass was found close to the area where the bull was killed, south of Amboseli National Park. It had been speared, and all the claws were missing together with the 4 canine teeth. We are so sad about this news. We hope that when we start the Lion Guardians on this ranch, attacks like this will stop.

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

5 responses so far