More lions attack cows, but livestock owner is lenient
Category: Community work | Date: Nov 17 2008 | By: lionguardians
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!
Tags: attack, cows, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Livestock, Maasai, masai
Carnivores massacre livestock
Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Oct 02 2008 | By: lionguardians
It is a sad day for Lion Guardian Solonka’s community. Over 10 shoats (sheep and goats) were killed in his area of work with another 10 missing. Solonka was called in to help find the animals, and discovered carcasses all over the area. He found tracks from lions, hyenas and cheetahs around them.
In cases like this where different carnivores were involved it sometimes doesn’t matter which carnivore made the kill - the lions will be blamed and hunted in revenge. We hope the community will follow the advice of Solonka and resist taking out their anger on the lions after he worked so hard to help find the rest of the herd that had gone missing.
Solonka was exhausted after walking for over 24 hours searching for the lost animals. He can’t understand how the herder lost so many during the day.
Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Livestock, Maasai, masai, massacre
More new lions?
Category: Donations received, Lion Guardians work | Date: Aug 14 2008 | By: lionguardians
Lion Guardian Koikai has reported two lions close to Olbili, where he lives and works. When he passed on this information to the office, he said he thought they were a new pride. Our collared male Lentim is at Olosira, a hill close to Olbili, but Koikai think the ones he came across are probably new lions. Wouldn’t it be great if new lions like this had moved into the area?
I will deliver a receiver to Koikai soon so that he can track these lions, and find out if they are collared, or new individuals as he suspects. The good news is they have not caused any trouble to livestock owners. We really hope this continues, but as ever Koikai and the other Lion Guardians will be ready to try to dissolve any conflict that may arise between livestock owners and carnivores.
It would be great if we had the funds to buy each of our Guardians a receiver. This would make the program much more efficient as they would know for certain which lions they were tracking. As always, your donations are really appreciated, and are vital in order for us to continue the program.
Thank you to everyone who has made donations recently - Edward M, Dave B, Black C, Wanda H, Peter P, Caroline T, and Loki Q. We would not be able to continue our work without your support.
Tags: collar, conflict, donations, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Livestock, Maasai, masai
Your questions answered (part 3)
Category: Meet the Lion Guardians | Date: Aug 11 2008 | By: lionguardians
I’m going to answer some questions from Jeff Spindel, who I met while I was visiting America. He asks me to talk about my feelings about the differences between the way Maasai treat their cattle and what I saw of how Americans treat their cattle.
Jeff also asked me two other questions: when am I coming back to America and another funny question which I have tried to answer here!
Tags: America, cattle, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Livestock, Maasai, masai, popular, treatment, women
Hyenas kill calves and injure mothers
Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Jul 31 2008 | By: lionguardians
Lion Guardian Olubi spent the whole of the day yesterday and most of the evening looking for six lost animals - three calves and their mothers. The livestock belonged to one of his neighbors, who left them outside the boma in the bush overnight. Here is Olubi looking for tracks.
Unfortunately for the owner of the livestock, this lead to the calves being killed and their mothers being injured by hyenas. This illustrates very well the reason the Lion Guardians advise all herders to bring their animals into bomas overnight, like the ones below. Calves especially are easy prey for a hyena.
The owner was extremely unhappy about this incident, but he has no one to blame but himself and his herder, since it was him that left them out overnight.
I would like to thank blog readers for their recent donations - Hashi, Kit, Sporting T, Jessica, Pirjo, Ellen, Kim, Loki, Peter and Alison have all donated to the Lion Guardians in July. Thank you!
We would also like to send our special thanks to Jia and Richard for their sponsorship of Lion Guardians. If anyone feels they would like to donate a smaller monthly amount and join another reader or two to sponsor a Guardian please get in touch below!
Thank you!
Tags: attacks, carnivore, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Livestock, lost, Maasai, masai
Carnivore attacks prevented as lost livestock are brought home
Category: Community work | Date: Jul 26 2008 | By: lionguardians
Lion Guardian Mokoi was out in the bush tracking lions late yesterday, when he came across more than 18 calves on their own without a herder. He recognized the owner of the calves by their ear notches (every livestock owner has a different one to identify which cows belong to whom), so he managed to round them up and took them back to the owner.
One of the roles of the Lion Guardians is to help prevent conflict between people and wildlife in their communities, and one way they do this is to find lost livestock, left out in the bush. Lost livestock is often attacked by predators, which could lead to retaliatory attacks against the carnivores.
It is to be expected that more livestock will get lost around this time of year, due to lack of rains. This means that grazing pastures become scarcer and animals must wander further to find food.
However, the communities also have a role to play by making sure that their animals are safe. If this number of livestock were left out in the bush overnight, the owner might have found nothing left in the morning.
Tags: attacks, carnivore, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Livestock, lost, Maasai, masai
Feral dogs killing spree
Category: Community work, Lion Guardian reports | Date: Jul 04 2008 | By: lionguardians
We have received a worrying report from Lion Guardian Koikai. He says that feral dogs are killing young goats in his area and that so far the dogs have managed to kill more than seven animals in less than two weeks.
The community has asked Koikai to try and solve this problem for them, before they take the law into their own hands and kill the dogs themselves using poison. This would be very bad news for wild carnivores in the area that might eat the poison too.
We have been hearing this threat more and more from the local community lately. It seems that poisoning is the easiest way to get rid of any animal that is causing problems for livestock. We hope the community will be patient and will allow the Lion Guardians to solve the problem by other means before they resort to this hazardous way of destroying the dogs.
Tags: dogs, Kenya, killing, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Livestock, Maasai, masai, poison
Building better bomas
Category: Community work | Date: May 27 2008 | By: lionguardians
In traditional Maasai culture, a boma (kraal) is used to keep livestock away from raiders, and to an extent to provide a safe place for livestock away from predators. A boma is an enclosure made of thorn branches. We especially like to use branches from Acacia mellifera because it is very strong, and has hooked spikes that hold on to animals tightly. Livestock owners keep their shoats (sheep and goats) and cows in bomas at night time, and then let out to graze during the day.
In the past people did not think that carnivores were a big deal because if a carnivore broke into a boma, the owner would follow it and kill it. But since the introduction of conservation to this area people have seen the need to protect their livestock away from carnivores since they do not want to kill them due to the incentives they are getting to have wildlife around.
Since the introduction of Lion Guardians, they have been educating the community on the importance of having a good boma; not just a boma. Although cases of carnivores breaking into bomas is not that high compared to lost livestock, it is still a persistent problem in some areas, like Oldoinyo Wuas where a hyena has killed more than six shoats from inside a boma. The hyena apparently has taken livestock from two different enclosed bomas striking at several times of the night two to three times a week. Here is a goat left by one of the attacks, and behind it you can see the boma, which is very weak.
Yesterday the fencing team which includes Ernest, myself, the local community and Lion Guardians Lenkina and Mokoi, and the volunteer Lion Guardian for that area, Solonka, started work on the first of the two bomas to make it predator-proof. Solonka has been volunteering for more than a month just to earn the prestigious position of a Guardian in his community. The work involves cutting down big thorny Acacia branches, dragging them to the boma, and then piling them on the fence of the boma to make it taller and wider. It is really hard work! Here is Lenkina building up a wall of the boma.
And here is part of the finished wall of the first boma.
Today we are going to the second boma to reinforce it. I would like to thank Dana for her donation. We feel very encouraged for our second day of work, knowing we have the support of the Lion Guardians blog readers. Thanks once more - the guys are really happy.
Tags: boma, Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Livestock, Maasai, masai
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Donations Received
- Nov 29th Richard V. USD80.00
- Nov 27th Hashi H. USD10.00
- Nov 26th Sauwah T. USD44.00
- Nov 26th Pauline H. USD20.00
- Nov 25th Jia L. USD80.00
- Nov 24th Irene O. USD110.00
- Nov 24th Pirjo I. USD55.00
- Nov 21st Pirjo I. USD40.00
- Nov 17th Jessica F. USD16.50
- Nov 17th Nina T. USD130.00
- Nov 12th Pirjo I. USD44.00
- Nov 9th Malcolm F. USD27.50
- Nov 9th Loki Q. USD45.00
- Nov 5th Hashi H. USD33.00
- Nov 4th Sauwah T. USD33.00
- Nov 1st Black C. USD5.00
- Oct 29th Richard V. USD80.00
- Oct 28th Richard G. USD44.00
- Oct 26th Hashi H. USD16.50
- Oct 26th Lois B. USD11.00
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