Lion Guardians

Today I am bringing you some really good news! I am sure that all of you are familiar with the last lion killing that happened in June outside our ranch. We were all very angry and saddened that murrans on our neighboring ranch would kill a lion in order to sell its claws. This is all that remained of the lion when we got to it.

The good news is that the culprits were arrested and taken to court. We have just heard that last week they appeared before a chief magistrate and pleaded guilty to involvement in the lion killing and being in possession of 11 lion claws that they were intending to sell.

We are told that the two murrans were each sentenced to either 36 months in jail or to pay a fine worth 100,000 Kenyan shillings each. This is really great news for us; it shows that justice is coming for the lions and the people who are wiping out the little population that is left in Maasailand today will not get away with it.

The story appeared in a Kenya Swahili newspaper called Taifa Leo. We hope that this means the word will be spread far and wide that lion killing will not go unpunished, and that other murrans will learn from this tragic lesson.

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Tags: court, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lion killing, lions, Maasai, masai

This month seems to be a tough one for us Guardians. For the third time in a month we have a Guardian fallen ill. Earlier in the month Mokoi had a very bad problem with his eye, which meant that he couldn’t close it, and it seemed to almost pop right out of the socket. At first he treated it with herbal remedies, but it did not get any better. Eventually he took your and our advice and visited the clinic. He was given some treatment and his eye has started to get better. It is not back to normal yet, but he is definitely on the mend.

Also this month Koikai injured his chest when he fell down running away from an elephant, while he was out tracking lions. I took him to the clinic immediately and he is now better. Here are Mokoi and Koikai.

Now it is Lion Guardian Ritei who is unwell. He came late for the end of month meeting and he apologized for his lateness saying he fell ill while he was preparing to come to camp. Here he is with his favourite animal!

He was so dedicated to the Guardians, and to representing his community that he got a bike to bring him to the meeting, and I had to take him back with my bike afterwards- he was too weak to walk. He seems to be feeling very weak and unwell. I hope he gets better soon.

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

Yesterday the story of our lions and the urgent need to save them was in the news, thanks to a press release from National Geographic. You can read the story on the National Geographic site, and also read about the new big cat fund that they have launched. There is also a video about the Lion Guardians on the National Geographic website, if you want to watch me and the Lion Guardians in action!

There are links to some of the different news sites that have run the story on the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation blog. It has featured on sites like FOX news, USA Today, ABC news and MSNBC. I hope this will lead to more people visiting this blog and donating money to the Lion Guardians program.

We have noticed less traffic on the blog recently, which also means fewer donations for us! Even though it’s the summer vacation time in many parts of the world, we still need the same amount of money to keep the program running! It was great to get some more comments on the blog - I’m really glad our hard work is appreciated. Where would we be without your support? Speaking of which, thank you to Peter P E for you donation.

I will try and take my camera to take a photograph of my mother when I go home next, and will tell you all about my family in another post - I have a big family, so there is a lot to tell!

And here is another photo of the lion, which is one of Nempekai’s pride of 10, which has been around the group ranch lately, but is now back in Amboseli National Park.

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Tags: Amboseli National Park, big cat fund, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, national geographic

It was yet another tiring day for the Guardians, working in the scorching sun fencing bomas. A hyena has attacked in the same area again, killing one sheep. The community was very angry and told us that they wanted to kill the hyena, and that they did not want us to work on their boma to make it stronger. There were also reports that a leopard was in the area, which jumped over a boma fence, and killed a goat too. Here I am with Lenkina, pulling branches to the boma.

After some discussions, the livestock owner allowed us to try again to strengthen the fence where the hyena broke through, and we did our best to make it as solid and strong as we could. Our fingers are crossed as we wait out another long night of uneasiness with the community. This may be the last chance for the hyena now. It sounds like the community will not tolerate any more livestock attacks from it. Mokoi helps by dragging branches to add to the fence.

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Tags: boma, hyena, Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, warriors

After the training with the NRT scouts, where we all learnt a lot about lions three Lion Guardians; Mokoi, Olubi and Lenkina slaughtered a goat for our guests. We had to give them a chance to slaughter the goat in their traditional Samburu way so that they could take the goat blood while it was still warm, before it clots. After that, we skinned the goat and roasted it in our Ilkisongo way (Ilkisongo is our section of Maasai). They were amazed at how we stick the meat on thin sticks and stand them up in holes next to a big fire, waiting for charcoal to get hot.

They were served the delicious roast meat while it was hot and were left licking their fingers! It was a totally different experience for them, as where they come from they just place the meat on the flames and it ends up burning. So they learnt more than just about lions on their tour down to the Chyulus - also about how to not burn their meat!

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

Today was the end of our two days of lectures with the Northern Rangeland Trust. They had come all the way down from the North of Kenya to learn all about lions, and wanted to visit the Lion Guardians to find out how we deal with the conflicts between people and carnivores. This made us proud because we are being read about far and wide. We were also very glad they came because we too got to learn a lot about lions, that we didn’t already know. The lectures tackled lion biology and ecology, how to tell a lion’s age and how to identify a particular lion incase one is causing trouble to the local community.

They also dealt with carnivore conflict, and we visited a livestock owner who’s goat had been killed by a cheetah the night before. We went out to find tracks and learnt how to recognize those of different animals.

We also found out all about a particular problem they have in the North - man eating lions. We have never had such a case here in the Chyulus and the Guardians were surprised. On our side we learned a great deal about lions and their status in Samburu and Laikipia districts. All our staff at camp attended the lectures and we were amazed that we had lived with lions for such a long time, and would not have been able to tell their age even after killing them! Now we are all concerned with conserving lions, and are glad we know much more about them. A big thanks to Seamus who took his time to take us through the training.

You can now ask me any questions regarding lions and I will try to answer you! After the lectures were finished, we handed out Maasai shukas (blankets) to our guests, as it is a Maasai tradition. We also had a goat party, and stayed up late discussing the origins of the Maasai; but more on that tomorrow.

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

I have been away from the blog for a few days as I had to go out to collect weekly forms from the Lion Guardians. I still had three different places to go before evening fell, so I thought I should start by visiting Koikai.

When I arrived at Koikai’s neighbourhood, Olbili, I found there was a big meeting of murrans (warriors) happening. The agenda of the meeting was apparently to discuss murrans not being involved with group ranch affairs. They feel like they are sidelined, and are not given the chance to express their opinions on community matters. The only place where murrans can get jobs and be involved in the community is through the Lion Guardians program.

Here are some of the murrans after the meeting, competing to see who can jump the highest, a tradition of the Maasai murrans. They also compete to see who can throw their spears the furthest.

Koikai asked Lenkina, another Lion Guardian from Ilchalai to come over for the meeting, so that they could both talk about the Lion Guardians program to the murrans. Here are Koikai and Lenkina, with Koikai’s sister.

I was also able to speak to them about lion conservation, and the work of the Guardians. Here I am talking to the murrans.

I was glad that I could talk to them about lion conservation, as it is so important that these murrans, who might otherwise go out to hunt lions, are aware of the benefits of conserving them.

I would like to thank Fiona R, Richard V, Hashi H and Lisa R for their donations. The Lion Guardians are extremely grateful for your contributions towards their program.

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

A few days ago I went on an epic adventure to track lions with Seamus. Finding lions is not an easy task, even when they have radio collars, and we had some difficult incidents during our 14 hour day of lion tracking. I particularly didn’t like the drive through an area of spiky Acacia trees covered with huge thorns and biting ants, with the massive, yellow, unbelievably strong webs of Golden Orb-weaver spiders stretched between them. On a number of occasions these giant spiders were left crawling up the windscreen towards us after we destroyed their webs, making me more than a little uneasy!

After getting through this we managed to finally find a male lion - Kesayio, who was lying in some thick bush, seemingly on his own, but very near to a herd of cows who also seemed to be on their own with no herder in sight.

We were also able to track Lentim, another male, but he was extremely good at hiding and we didn’t catch a glimpse of him, even though we were very close.

We also found 2 collared females. First we found Nemasi - who had small cubs with her and was very shy. This is the only photo I was able to take, of one of her cubs.

Later in the day we found Nempakai, who was in a pride of 10. Her pride was much more relaxed around us, and I was able to take a lot more photos of the sleepy cats. Here is Nempakai..

And here are five members of her pride.

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Tags: fieldwork, Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions

Today is another day in the office, entering data from the Lion Guardians into the computer. The weather is good outside, but in the shade of the office it was cold and my feet were so freezing that I had to put on shoes, and put my computer on my lap to get some warmth. Amy has gone out with Seamus to track lions. I hope she will come back with some more photos of our local prides for you to see!

This month marks the beginning of cold weather here. But not nearly as cold as the weather I experienced in New York last year, when I went to attend a fundraising auction for the Lion Guardians and the Predator Compensation Fund. I couldn’t believe how cold it was then! Some parasites flourish in this type of weather; ticks especially are a nuisance right now, and will be the biggest problem to livestock and to us during field trips.

This photos show my desk in the office and to the right of my computer is a photo that was taken while I was in New York last year, of myself, Laurence and a friend of his at the auction. A perfect reminder of my trip.

Anyway that was my day; what about yours?

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

The Chyulu Hills are probably one of the best places I have been in my life: cascading hills that are always green and beautiful, amazing views of the ground below, and clean air that is uncontaminated by pollution.

Different animals, such as giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, eland, gazelles, impala, elephant and oryx roam the vast beautiful plains between the Chyulus and two twin hills known in Maasai as Ilmoa. Ilmoa means twins in Maasai, and you can see why they were given this name.

The hills are made of volcanic lava flows and cinder cones, and the Chyulus are home to the longest lava tube in the world! Thick vegetation covers the lava flows and makes it a perfect hiding place for lions. It makes it very difficult for the Guardians to track collared lions around these areas!

We are having a problem with receiving comments on the site at the moment, please be patient, the site is still getting back on its feet after the migration!

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Tags: chyulu hills, Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai