Lion Guardians

Osewan is a re-known thicket that extends well beyond the jurisdiction of Lion Guardians. The Maasai section that inhabit most of this area are called Matapato and are yet to benefit from the fruits of conservation, thus highly intolerant to predators that kill their livestock. This is the same area in which one of our most beloved, well behaved and friendly female lions, Nosioki, and her cub were poisoned in October of last year. Even though, together with other stakeholders, we convened several community meetings in an effort to eradicate poisoning, we are still worried.

Nooldoinyo

Pua, the resident male lion of Nosioki’s pride and the male cub that mysteriously survived the poisoning incident, have both been a permanent feature in this particular area, probably believing that Nosioki will one day suddenly show up. A few days ago, they were joined by 5 sub-adults from a female called Nooldoinyo, who also receives occasional visits from Pua. When these youngsters make a kill, they roar in an effort to invite their mother to the party and at times, they are known to even roar during the day. From our experience, this could invite trouble because every livestock lost will be attributed to them and retaliation might not be far off! Just a few days ago, they killed 10 goat kids in the same area and the 11^th kid escaped by climbing a very tall ant-hill to outwit these youngsters. Understandably, people were not happy but we managed to cool them down.

Pua the resident male of Noisoki's pride

Another group of lions from Eselenkei Group Ranch, who are also Nosioki’s off-spring, are known to inhabit part of this thick bush in Osewan. A male lion called Manenkop from Selenkay Conservancy has been making occasional visits in search of company but has now been there for the last 2 months. This brings the total population of lions in this particular communal area to a staggering figure of 11! This is an immensely high concentration of lions in a communal area without adequate monitoring. This is the same area in which we lost five lions in a span of six months last year. We therefore urgently need money to immediately employ at least 3 Lion Guardians from the Matapato section to monitor this area in which our current guardians are restricted. The protection and safety of this significant proportion of lions that we monitor will now depend on your willingness and ability to be part of the solution.

Manenkop

For survival reasons, lions outside protected areas hang out in groups of between two to three. By splitting, they stand better chances of survival from persecution after depredation of livestock. However, for the first time in the history of Eselenkei conservancy, a pride of eleven resides in it. Our female lioness Selenkay, has had two cubs from the previous litter graduate to sub-adult status and now has four little cubs. Her sister Elikan has two cubs as well. The resident male lion called Ndelie, makes the total number of lions an impressive eleven.

Selenkay and cub

This is a new record number of lions outside the Amboseli National Park. These lions have moved from Mbirikani to Eselenkei because of the ideal and favorable climate. There are plenty of prey species and Lion Guardians are doing daily monitoring in and across the conservancy. Tourists from the nearby Amboseli- Porini camp are having a field day with such a big number of lions. Traditional lion hunts have been prohibited and the community MPT game scouts are present to enforce the rules. Thus the existing climate gives lions plenty of reasons to stay, hunt and mate as well as nurturing their little ones to maturity.

Elikan after a kill

However, these lions are also showing a worrying trend. Since moving from Mbirikani to Eselenkei, they have killed seven cows so far, all of which are worth more than $4,000. This is cause for sleepless nights. It beats logic to understand why this pride is killing livestock in an area full of wild prey. It is our hope that they will stop killing livestock during the day and hunt what is rightfully theirs for the taking…wild prey. If they succeed in doing this, they stand a better chance of raising their second litter of cubs to maturity, which in turn will bring much joy to the Lion Guardian family.

Eselenkei pride cubs enjoying a cow

For several weeks , Kip (a collared male lion that lives around Amboseli N. P.) has terrorized Maasai bomas on the Tanzania border. After killing livestock in Tanzania on several consecutive nights, it was clear there was a predictable pattern.  He has been the target of several hunts but has luckily escaped unscathed.  However, the anger towards him increased ten-fold when, at one of these hunts, he retaliated and injured one Moran before escaping. In another hunt two bullets missed him by a whisker and he crossed back over into Kenya. Anger about his attacks did not decrease, despite the fact that he was no longer in the area. To these pastoralists, getting rid of problem lions is the only rational economic response to a costly nuisance. The lingering anger culminated last week with the death in Tanzania of an adult male lion who wasn’t Kip.

We suspect the lion killed was one of Tato's young males (the two lighter lions). Tato herself was killed in Tanzania in April.

Several lions went into a boma in Tanzania and killed a cow.  Kip’s previous incursions caused tolerance levels to reach their limits, so this cow’s death resulted in the morans organizing a lion hunt.  An adult male was killed, and the other lions got away. The dead male lion has yet to be identified but we believe that it may be a member of Tato’s pride – who are also usually resident in Amboseli park and whom many of you have most likely seen on your trips to Amboseli (Tato herself was killed earlier this year in Tanzania in a similar scenario).  The authorities in Tanzania were notified of this recent incident both before (when the hunt was being organized) and after (once the lion had been killed).

The dead lion after the trophies have been removed

There exist different wildlife legal regimes in both countries:

The Tanzanian laws are tolerant of lion killing by community members and all that the community is required to do is to relay the information of the conflict to the relevant government authorities. Permission to kill the problem lion is granted provided community members bring back the lion trophies (teeth, paws, mane, skin and tail) to the authorities.

Kenya, owing to the critical position it finds itself with regards to rapidly decreasing lion numbers, has tight rules and regulations, and lion killing is not tolerated except in extreme situations.

However, we have been recording increasing numbers of  lion deaths in Tanzania through either poisoning or spearing, of lions usually resident in Kenya. There is an urgent need for solutions to be found and implemented along the Tanzanian/Kenyan border if further lion deaths are to be prevented. The recent cross-boundary community meetings (coordinated by the African Wildlife Foundation and attended by all the local stakeholders, including Lion Guardians, Big Life Foundation (through MPT and Honeyguide Foundation) ,Enduimet WMA,  TAWIRI, and KWS) concluded that conflict mitigation needs to be enhanced and tolerance levels towards lions improved or else very soon the entire Amboseli ecosystem will find itself without any lion population to talk about.

In July 2011, we began to expand the Lion Guardian program into southern Olgulului, an area where at least 12 lions had been killed in the first half of the year.  Since we began our expansion into that area, no further lions have been killed.  We would now like to expand our reach to the area south of the Kenya/Tanzania border.  Please do your part by helping to fund our expansion into this critical area. CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT LION GUARDIANS.  I, the Lion Guardians, and the fewer than 100 remaining adult lions in the area thank you in advance for your support!

A few days ago we received a report that a lone male lion had injured one donkey and three cows and killed another cow in Mbirikani. All this from just two bomas. We followed his tracks on foot for 15 kilometers without any diversion or rest, eager to find out who this male lion was that had caused so much destruction.

After a while we came to a place called Nkoisuk where we were greeted by a strange sight – an ostrich that had been attacked, and even partially eaten, but was still alive. It seemed that the lion had jumped onto the back of the female ostrich and did not even care to break her neck. He fed on it until he was completely satisfied and continued on his journey as if nothing had happened, and all this while the ostrich was still alive! We were completely baffled by this behaviour. Here is the poor ostrich.

The size of his tracks, his strategy while passing by human settlements, his choice of territory and the fact that he was alone all pointed to one individual – Lomunyak. We carried on following the tracks, until we found the spot he had been resting. It seemed he had run off from the place just a minute before, probably after hearing us approaching. Though we were unable to see him, I have no doubt in my mind that it was Lomunyak. He has been elusive for several months now, so we are very glad to find him again.

Eric tells us about the sad second spearing of a lioness on Mbirikani, but brings us the good news that calm is now retuning to the area:

The Maasai community has been known since time immemorial to be completely dependant on their livestock. The love they attach to their livestock is second to none and cannot be measured. It’s their life and soul. The retaliatory killing of lions (termed olikiyoi) by Maasai pastoralists is therefore not something new to anybody familiar with their tradition. In Mbirikani Group Ranch, members have been tolerant of lions for the last 6 years owing to the success of the Predator Compensation Scheme, Maasailand Preservation Trust, Lion Guardians and other conservation approaches. Stakeholders within the Amboseli ecosystem have been very proud of Mbirikani.

However, over the last weeks the peaceful environment has been shattered. After our Lion Guardians team, MPT game scouts and KWS rangers successfully stopped more than 10 lion hunting parties, a political motive drove things out of control. The leadership of the group ranch for reasons as yet unknown, incited members of the communities of Mbirikani to go out and kill lions. Narika, the lioness with 3 cubs was the first to go. As explained in our account of this sad event, the Lion Guardians and MPT scouts had been ordered to stand down by local leadership. Without their critical intervention, the situation was a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, this was not to be the end of the story.

A few days later, the new young moran age group (known as Iltuati) who are soon to come through to full moran-hood, took advantage of the political message. They had their own agenda – to prove to all that they are now ready to assume the role of warriors, or morans, a defensive unit for the community.

The group found Mbeuti, a lioness who divides her time between Kuku and Mbirikani Group Ranches. She had her 2 cubs who are 13 months old with her. The morans chased them for about 2km. Thankfully the cubs escaped and Mbeuti managed to put up a fight, seriously injuring one of the morans, but she was eventually killed. We were all devastated. All the 20 culprits were immediately arrested. Here is Mbeuti and her cubs.

The Lion Guardians team, MPT and KWS are currently working to resolve the political impasse that has gripped Mbirikani Group Ranch, and we are pleased to report that things are looking positive, and it seems calm is returning to this previously peaceful area. No lions have been killed here since Mbeuti’s death and we are hoping she was the final victim in this sad episode. We will bring you more news as we can, but as you can imagine this is a very busy time for us. We all very much appreciate your support during this extremely difficult time.

Hello everyone, especially those of you who made donations towards the Lion Guardian Games, which were due to be held between Christmas and New Year. Unfortunately the lack of herbivores and presence of weak cows returning after the drought meant that there was a sudden increase in attacks on livestock by carnivores, and even more unfortunately this lead to a number of attempted lion hunts.

The Guardians were all urgently needed in their zones – the risk of taking them all away from their communities, even for a day, was agreed by all to be too great, and we had to postpone the Games. The Lion Guardians have been working non stop ever since, to make sure that no more lions are killed. We would like to congratulate them on their impressive efforts, and are hoping that things are now slowly calming down.

We are tentatively hoping to hold the Games in mid-March, but of course the welfare of the lions is paramount, and it is better that we are certain that the communities are happy and no lion hunts are taking place before we finally make a date for the Games.

Thank you all for your patience and we will promise to keep you posted with any further developments! Fingers crossed for a calmer time for the Guardians soon!

Amboseli National Park has been severely suffering during the drought that has affected the whole of the Amboseli ecosystem, including Mbirikani, Eselenkei and Olgulului Group Ranches where the Lion Guardians work. Many hundreds, if not thousands of wild herbivores have been dying and moving away from the area, leaving it severely lacking in prey for lions and hyenas.

The carnivores have been turning to Maasai livestock instead, as their natural prey is so limited. Conflict and tension is high, and the Lion Guardians in the area have been doing all they can to reduce retaliatory attacks from herders against the carnivores. It has been an extremely busy time for the Lion Guardians who are still on high alert.

However, the huge area of Olgulului, south of Ambosli National Park is not covered by the project yet, and tension is extremely high, with lion hunts ever imminent – a worrying situation, which has unfortunately led to a number of lion attacks, and some deaths (see Lion Guardians blog and Maasailand Preservation Trust’s blog).

In order to reduce this, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) have started to relocate zebras and wildebeest from Naivasha to Amboseli, to provide some natural prey for the carnivores. We hope that this will indeed help to reduce conflict between predators and people, but we also must start to employ Lion Guardians – members of the Maasai communities to work with their families and friends to protect their livestock better, educate them about the importance of carnivores, and monitor the lions in the area.

Please help us to do this by making a donation to the Lion Guardians project on this blog, or raising awareness about the Lion Guardians by telling your friends and spreading the word!

Thank you!

A few days ago Lion Guardian Parkesian from Olgulului reported that he had seen 4 lions earlier that day – two adults and two cubs. When we got to Parkesian’s area, the sun was already going down so we hurried to the place he had spotted them.

We got the signal of Nempakai, an older lioness who’s been collared and known to our project for quite some time, though in the past year she has chosen to primarily live inside Amboseli National Park. Recently though, we’ve found her leaving the park, possibly in search of a good place to have her cubs as she was seen to be quite heavily pregnant early in November. Here she is earlier in the year in Amboseli, with another female’s cub from her pride.

We followed Nempakai’s signal, and found her with another very large female and two older cubs, just like Parkesian had said. We followed them for a while, and then suddenly realized they were heading straight for a livestock enclosure (boma)! We rushed ahead of them to warn the boma inhabitants that the lions were coming towards them, and made a lot of noise, using the car horn and lights to scare them away.

They were very bold, and didn’t seem to mind the disturbance at all, but wandered a little distance away into the darkness. We rested at the boma for an hour or so, waiting to see if they would come back. They didn’t come into sight again, so we went to find them, following Nempakai’s signal into an area of fresh grass with lots of wild prey such as zebra, gazelles, and wildebeest. When we got closer we were happy to find them all enjoying a freshly killed zebra! Thank goodness they had chosen wild prey this time!

It was a good night for the Lion Guardians team – we managed to keep the lions away from the boma and avoid any nasty conflicts, and we were also very excited because it looked like Nempakai may have given birth in the past few weeks!

We’ll be keeping a close eye on her, even though she can be tough to monitor because she moves around so much, but with the Lion Guardians team spread out now over three group ranches we hope to be able to keep track of her, and will report any news we get straight to you!

A few days ago Lion Guardian Pilenanka came across a zebra that had been killed by lions not far from camp. We went down to see the carcass, and found that not very much had been eaten, and realised the lions would probably come back to the kill that night. We decided this was the perfect opportunity to put up the camera trap, and see whether the lions came back to their kill!

We carefully set up the trap by a nearby tree, and left it overnight to see who arrived at the scene of the kill. When we came back to the site the next day we found the trap had been opened up and was hanging off the tree, and covered in hairs, bite marks, blood and saliva!

The camera was switched off, and we feared that it had been completely destroyed, by what looked from the tracks to be a huge male lion!

We rushed back to camp to see whether the camera had been able to take any photos before it was attacked. It was then that we found out who the culprit was – our collared male lion Kesayou!

Unfortunately he was on the wrong side of the zebra to get a very good photo, but we have got 2, which we can recognise him from. Kesayou is extremely camera shy, and obviously did not want to be photographed while eating the zebra!

Luckily the camera still works, and once it is cleaned up it should be perfectly fine again. Next time we will have to put the trap out of his reach!!

Thanks for your concern for the young herder who was attacked by a lioness protecting her cubs. We have heard that he is doing fine, which is really great news.

I also wanted to remind you all to watch us on BBC2 this Sunday at 9pm. The programme is called Explore: The Rift Valley and we feature right at the end (as the grand finale)! So make sure you stay tuned until the end!

The Lion Guardians are all arriving in camp today for the end of month meeting tomorrow, so it is very busy here, with warriors everywhere demanding cups of tea! One of them has been walking since 4 in the morning to get here!

I’ll let you know how the meeting goes after tomorrow.  

Hope you all have good weekends!