Lion Guardians

Category: life in camp | Date: Sep 21 2009 | By: lionguardians

Last night was full of noise and disturbance. No, it wasn’t some rowdy Maasai warriors having a party… it was elephants! In the last few days the elephants have decided to come to our camp and are spending their time breaking branches, pulling up trees and causing a tremendous racket!

But the strangest thing that we found this morning was that an elephant had set up his own café outside our kitchen! He had removed a chair, presumably through the window, and also taken a mug, a bottle of water, our jar of lovely fresh coffee and our coffee plunger (which sadly he managed to break)!

What an odd sight we found in the morning - it was almost as if he had wanted to make himself a cup of coffee and have a sit down after so much tree-breaking!

We’ll keep you posted on the latest from these noisy visitors!

Tags: coffee, elephant, elephants, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

2 responses so far

Category: lion research fieldwork | Date: Aug 27 2009 | By: lionguardians

On Monday we received a report from one of the guides from Amboseli Porini Camp, which is near our new project on Eselenkei Group Ranch. (Thank you so much for the report Amboseli Porini!) They told us they had seen a collared lion in Amboseli National Park, so we rushed over to see who it was.

Our suspicion was that it was Nempakai, who used to reside on Mbirikani with a large pride of 9 others, but hasn’t been here for many months now. We picked up her signal almost immediately and after some searching we found her relaxing with another female with three cubs. Here is Nempakai and one of the cubs.

Then just a few metres away we spotted 2 lovely young male sub adults, and another female, making a pride of 8.

And not only that but a few hundred metres away was a large if slightly bedraggled looking male. What a great sight!

We wonder whether Nemapaki and her pride will now stay in the park or venture back over to Mbirikani. Amboseli is extremely dry. Here you can see a dead zebra next to bones from another animal, with another carcass in the distance.

The place is littered with dead wildlife; buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and sadly elephants are dying too.

The drought is seriously harming the wildlife and Maasai livestock in this area and our Guardians are struggling to cope with their communities’ problems. Lion Guardian Koikai told us yesterday that at a boma close to him they had 12 dead cows in one day, and had burnt 26 dead cows the previous week. The Maasai people here are finding it extremely hard at this time.

Tags: Amboseli, drought, elephant, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

4 responses so far

Category: life in camp | Date: May 07 2009 | By: lionguardians

Yesterday we were called to the scene of an injured elephant, which had been spotted limping badly close to our camp in Ol Donyo Wuas. The elephant had been speared in the foot because he had been raiding farms in search of food and water.

KWS/Sheldrick Trust vets from Tsavo West National Park were called to the scene, and eventually he was in a good position to dart. Everything went well, and the vets treated the spear wound on his leg.

Game scouts from the Maasailand Preservation Trust were on hand to make sure he was kept cool with water.

When the vets were happy that the wound was treated fully, they made some final checks before rousing him from the anaesthesia.

Here he is, waking up, and moving off into the bush. We are told he will be just fine! Thank goodness for a successful outcome to this potentially tragic story!

We’ll keep you posted if we hear any developments about how he is doing.

Sorry for the slight hiccup on posts for the last few days. I think it is what is called a technical fault, which has now been rectified! It does mean that any comments you made about Antony’s new home in England have been lost though. Sorry about that!

Tags: elephant, injured, Kenya, kws, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, sheldrick, speared, vet

6 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Mar 02 2009 | By: lionguardians

Barely two months after a female elephant was found speared and had to be put down because of her injuries, another female elephant has had to be taken away from her misery. She had a very badly swollen front foot that had rotten up to the bone. We are told she had been speared because she was raiding farms to find water.

When I visited the elephant to see the extent of her injuries, she could not even run away or attack anything. She was really suffering and one could not help but sympathize with the poor animal.

Such incidents are bound to arise with the continuing drought here, with people and wildlife competing for the same small amount of water. The only things we can do are hope for rain and try to intervene before sad conflicts like this arise.

At the moment there are only 9 Lion Guardians covering a huge area of over 1200 km² so we cannot attend to all places and communities to prevent attacks like this, but we do our best.

Thank you for all your help and support for the Lion Guardians. Your support and donations fill us with hope for the future.

Tags: elephant, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, speared

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 29 2009 | By: lionguardians

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.

Tags: Amboseli, attack, elephant, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, maneaters, masai, research, Tsavo

8 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 09 2009 | By: lionguardians

I have some sad news to report. The elephant that was speared died last night. We went to see her this morning, and discovered she was a lactating female. We do not know if she had already given birth, or was pregnant, but either one would explain her unusual behaviour, which caused her to be speared.

She had been causing havoc in an agricultural area; destroying crops for the whole day. The community tried to chase her away but she kept coming back and eventually they lost their patience and speared her. She must have been very weak and in need of easy food.

Conflict like this is a sad consequence of living in such close proximity to wildlife. Sometimes animals and humans can’t live together peacefully, and although the game scouts of Maasailand Preservation Trust worked extremely hard to help the elephant, she was too weak to survive.

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

13 responses so far

Category: life in camp | Date: Jan 07 2009 | By: lionguardians

For the next two weeks I will be busy with a Swiss television crew who are out here in Kenya to make a documentary about Living with Lions (our umbrella organization) and the Lion Guardians program. They are with us at the moment to find out what we do, and try to see some interesting things.

So far they have been out tracking with the Guardians, and they also went to film the elephant that was speared. When they come back I hope they will bring good news of the elephant. We heard that a vet from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has been sent to help, so we are all hoping for good news.

For those fans of the Lion Guardians in Europe I will let you know when the documentary will be aired on TV.

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

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 05 2009 | By: lionguardians

Yesterday we heard the news that an elephant had been speared four times near the edge of our ranch. We also heard that the scouts that had found the elephant had lost it in the bush, and the pressure was on to find it again. A plane was sent to search for the injured elephant so that it could be treated by Kenya Wildlife Service. Luckily the elephant was found, and we all hope that KWS will be able to treat it, and it will survive its injuries.

We don’t know the circumstances that surround the spearing but water is still in short supply here, so it is possible that the elephant was causing trouble with the communities while in search of water.

I will update you with more news about this when I receive it.

Tags: elephant, injured elephant, Kenya, kws, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, speared elephant

2 responses so far

Category: Community work | Date: Oct 22 2008 | By: lionguardians

The rains still have not come to the Chyulus. This means that both livestock and wildlife are still very thirsty, and are becoming weak. This is a dangerous time for animals here.

The wildlife on this ranch had two ways to get water. They could walk to a river way off in the southern part of the ranch, or get water from breaks in the water pipeline. Recently though all the broken pipes were repaired, so this means of getting water has been removed. Instead they resort to drinking from private water troughs, sometimes breaking them. The community cannot afford to pay for water for wildlife too, since it will mean additional costs to their monthly water bills. So conflict is high, and we are all left in a difficult situation, as the rains still do not come.

The idea of tagging elephants with SIM cards and creating an artificial geofence (mentioned by Hashi Hanta) sounds great, but would not work here. The elephants here do not have collars, and we are not inside a protected area - this is wild Maasailand, and animals may roam where they please. It would also be very expensive, and we do not have enough money for the Lion Guardians - there is certainly not enough for this kind of measure, however successful it may be.

Let’s hope the rains come soon. In the meantime the Lion Guardians are working with their communities to reduce any conflicts that arise from the water shortage. Please help them and their communities by making a donation to, if you can. Thank you.

Tags: elephant, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, water

2 responses so far

Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Oct 15 2008 | By: lionguardians

Elephants are becoming a problem in Olngosua once more. Previously this area was troubled by a lone elephant that was scaring the local community. Now, the two Lion Guardians that live in this area, Mokoi and Olubi have reported that elephants have broken and dismantled water pipes from three different water troughs.

The community need this water desperately, and have asked for help from the game scouts. Representatives have been sent to the area to scare the animals with thunder flashes, and to help the community to repair the broken pipes and water troughs. This time of year, just before the rains it is extremely dry, and water is in short supply. This situation could become very dangerous for the local people if they cannot get water for themselves and their animals.

Tags: elephant, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai

7 responses so far