Lion Guardians

Thank you for your concern and advice about the ongoing problem elephant. When I have any more news on this I will make sure you hear it first. In the meantime, I will post a video of Olubi, the Lion Guardian who is working in the area to prevent conflict between the elephant and the people in the local community.

He thanks Jia, one of our blog readers who has sponsored him. He says that knowing that someone who hasn’t even met him is supporting him from the other side of the world is extremely encouraging for him, when he is working to protect the lions. It makes him feel he is not alone when he is doing his work and he really appreciates it.

If you would like to sponsor one of the Lion Guardians, or make a donation to help our work, please fill in an amount in the column on the right of this page and help us continue with our work conserving lions. It’s really simple - all you need is a credit or debit card, and you can help us and the wildlife we are working to save. Thank you!

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

During our end of month meeting, Lion Guardian Olubi reported that the single elephant that has been in his area is still there, two weeks after he reported that it is posing danger to herders and women that go out to collect firewood.

I followed your suggestions and have contacted a number of people about the issue, but we are still waiting for somebody to help by removing the animal from the area.

If something is not done soon, the community will surely spear this animal, so as to avert human death.

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

A cow has been reported to have been killed by a lion in Olbili. These reports came from Lion Guardian Koikai when he got back to his area from the our end of month meeting.

One of the community members, Ole Sambu Oltaika reported this to him on hearing that he was back come home. We will update you more on this once we have a full report of the incident. One thing is clear: it is not our female with cubs Nemasi, as we know she is not near that area.

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

Today we held another successful monthly meeting for the Lion Guardians, and this month all of them were able to attend. Even Masarie who is suffering from an eye infection arrived on time, and was able to share his news from the zone he works in.

Here are some photos of the Guardians at the meeting. As you can see the weather here at the moment is hot and sunny. I hope it is like that where you are too!

The Guardians reported the news from their areas about lions, other carnivores and any conflicts their communities have been having with wildlife.

As always they were glad to hear that the blog is being read by people all over the world, and that donations are still coming in the help them continue with their work. They told me that it gives them encouragement when they are carrying out dangerous or very hard work, to know that people all over the world are taking an interest in the work they are doing and are supporting them, and they thanked the readers for their kind donations.

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

Yesterday we reported that a carnivore had tried to break into a boma. Lion Guardian Ritei went to investigate and reported that it was indeed a lion that had attacked the boma, as the community had thought. He went out tracking and did not pick up a signal from any of our lions’ radio collars, so he believes this is not one of our collared animals. Below is Nemasi, a collared female.

He spent the night in the area to see if the lion would come back a second night, and he heard loud roaring in the area for the whole night. It is great news that we have another new lion around, although we must try to make sure it will not cause problems for this community. We hope that a collar can be put on, so that Ritei can keep track of its movements and warn the community of its presence.

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

Yesterday it was reported to me that a lion was trying to break into people’s bomas (thorn branch enclosures where they keep their livestock) early in the morning. Thankfully the community managed to chase it away without harming it, and no livestock were injured either.

If the reports are true, it is worrying that this lion was trying to break into a boma, as it will surely anger and scare the community even if no cattle or goats were killed. We don’t have a photo of the lion, but here is one of our collared lions, Nempakai.  

I have not had this report confirmed by the Lion Guardians yet. Once they have visited the community we will be able to find out whether it was in fact a lion (sometimes if it is dark people mistake other carnivores for lions) and if it was, whether it is one of our collared lions or not. Stay tuned for the latest news!

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

I went out yesterday to look for one of our collared lions, a female called Nemasi. We found her relaxing with her cubs playing around her. It was great to see her, and I was really happy that she was quite close by and her cubs were doing well and growing. Here are a few photos of Nemasi and her cubs.

It is great that we have a new generation of lions growing up here on Mbirikani ranch. I really hope the Guardians can continue with their work in protecting them so that these cubs can also have offspring one day, and the lion population here can start to grow. If you can help us by making a donation to the program, please do. As I always say, we need your help to continue running the program, to make sure these cubs and all the other lions have a future here. Thank you!

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

Most people think that being a Kenyan you must know English or at least our national language Swahili. But in Maasailand few people, probably less than 30% can speak Swahili. Our mother tongue is Maa, and unless someone has been to school they will not have learnt any languages apart from this, not even Swahili.

We mentioned a while ago that Lion Guardian Koikai is trying to learn English and practises it all the time on anyone he can! When we interviewed him a few weeks ago it was another opportunity for him to give his English a go. Here he is trying out some of his language skills!

Except for Koikai, none of the Lion Guardians speak English, as it is only taught in schools, and few people can speak it in this community. A few of the Guardians speak a little Swahili which they have picked up because they need to communicate with the non-Maasai that they live near to. As you can probably tell, my languages come in handy quite a lot, and I often find myself translating between Maa, Swahili and English!

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

Friday marked the arrival of a new generation of Maasai warriors, or murrans. A ritual called “Enkipaata” was marked in our district to see if the new murrans were ready to go under the knife (circumcision) and become the next Maasai army. This celebration happens every 13 years, or sometimes longer.

The murrans to-be were made to spend a night in the bush on their own with no one to guard them or protect them. The next morning elders go and see if they are alright and check whether they were able to endure the night without blankets and not fearing any wild animals.

These photos show the murrans being blessed by the elders because they have been able to spend the night out in the bush on their own. It signifies that the warriors are now ready to be able to take care of their community, and I hope of the wildlife that they live with too. The circumcision ceremony will take place a few months after this ritual.

When such an occasion happened last I was 7 years old, so I wasn’t allowed to attend. Now I am 23. You can imagine how old I will be when the next ceremony happens!

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Tags: ceremony, circumcision, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, warrior

Today I am going to answer some questions that Paula asked me. She wanted to know how many lions we have saved, is it enough, and what are my greatest challenges that keep me awake at night. I asked Lion Guardian Koikai these questions last week, but I will give you my answers too.

It is hard to say how many lions we have saved. The Lion Guardians stop lions from being killed in different ways. They save them directly by stopping hunting parties, and they have done this 10 times, so we know that they have saved at least 10 lions, as if a lion hunting part goes out you can guarantee they will kill at least one lion, maybe two.

The Lion Guardians also stop lions from being killed indirectly, by reducing conflict between lions and people - so people are less likely to go out and kill lions in retaliation when their livestock are killed. It is hard to say how many lions we have saved by helping the communities in this way, but it must be many.

Is it enough? I don’t think we it will be enough until lions stop being killed over the whole of the ecosystem. At the moment if a lion moves out of our ranch it is risking its life, because murrans on other ranches are still killing lions. Until we have expanded the Lion Guardians program to the whole ecosystem, and onto other ranches I don’t think it will be enough.

And what keeps me up at night? The challenge of funding. The Lion Guardians program relies on your donations to continue running - it is as simple as that! If we can’t run the program here, we will not be able to expand it to other areas and save the lions on our neighboring ranches. This really keeps me awake at night!

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