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

Olamayiani – the blessed one, Mingati – one who is fast and doesn’t lag behind, Miterienanka – one who is quick to claim (win) glory by killing a lion. These are just some of the most popular lion names a moran (a Maasai warrior) can receive from spearing a lion.

In Maasai culture the first warrior to spear a lion in a successful hunt is given a name that represents the characteristics of both the warrior and the lion he speared. A lion name conveys upon the young warrior recognition and prestige amongst his community and peers. A warrior with a lion name feels that something great has happened to him. When the successful warrior brings the lion’s mane and tail back to his manyatta (his home in the community) to be put on display, he is treated and celebrated as a hero. Other warriors who don’t yet have their lion names yearn to have this same recognition and so dream about the day that it will be their turn to bring home the lion trophy.

Young warriors such as these two spear lions in order to gain a lion name

When a Maasai boy is born, he has two names. One name reflects his father’s family. He also has a given name, which is usually chosen to honor a family friend, or someone respected by the family. If for some reason this given name becomes tainted, the boy’s father can give him a new name, but the family name never changes. Once a boy has been circumcised (usually between ages 16 to 18), he stops being called by these names. He is from that point on addressed with the generic name “Moran”, unless he has somehow already killed a lion, in which case he is called by his lion name. So there is more pressure than ever for a young Moran to distinguish himself from his other nameless peers and get a name that recognizes his strength, fearlessness and ability to protect his community.

The Lion Guardians are giving young warriors lion names in recognition of the work they do as lion conservationists

However, the Maasai communities are beginning to discourage lion killing, due to the rapidly dwindling lion population; therefore many new warriors are not being given the opportunity to earn themselves a lion name, which is something that they have been dreaming about since childhood. In Eselenkei group ranch, just as a passing experiment, Lion Guardians started calling a few young Moran by lion names, even though they had not yet killed a lion. We found that the younger boys and girls of the community began addressing these young Moran by these lion names, and soon thereafter, the older members of the community did so as well. The idea caught on like wildfire and soon their peers in their age-set also wanted to have lion names. But we also found that there were still several warriors who felt that they wanted to prove themselves and their bravery in order to earn their lion name. For these warriors we have been assigning them Lion Guardian tasks, and if they are able to show that they understand conservation and are able to protect a lion, then they get a lion name that reflects the characteristics of the lions they are protecting. So it is a win-win situation for all. They are now earning the respect and admiration of their community for having protected a lion. This is just yet another example of how the Maasai are willing to adapt their culture to changing times while still holding on to the core principles and the essence of being a Maasai Warrior, a Moran.

Since the devastating drought in 2009 that created an imbalance between predators and plains game and which wiped out a very big percentage of both livestock and wildlife, the entire ecosystem has been trying to return to equilibrium. This year, the heavens have been very good in giving us the much needed rain, almost exceeding expectations. Experts in meteorology say the rainfall in most parts of the country this year is 4% above normal.

A Lion Guardian tracking lions in the shadow of an impending storm

When the short rains came, and they came at the right time, they were not short but heavy downpours of well distributed rainfall across the entire ecosystem. As a result, everywhere you look is green and beautiful. The usual eye catching geographical features like Mt. Kilimanjaro and the attractive volcanic lava along the Chyulu range are now looking extremely awesome.

Mt. Kilimanjaro in all of its glory

Depredation and the ever present human-wildlife conflict have drastically reduced as a result of availability of prey for predators. Plains game and other wildlife species are making their way out of the National park as usual, at this time of the year, and elephants are plentiful in Selenkay Conservancy. The warriors have also been returning with their livestock back to their permanent settlements and families. The good news is that so far there have been very few attacks on livestock, so no lion hunts have taken place.  This is in sharp contrast to the first rainfall in 2010 after the devastating drought – which resulted in the few surviving wildlife dispersing, so the lions turned to the few remaining cattle that had become even more valuable to their owners, and as a result, lion hunts were plentiful and the Lion Guardians had their work cut out for them.

Lions are feasting on the abundant wildlife that come with the rains

In related news, as a result of the heavy rains pounding the area upstream, the Eselenkei River burst its banks and thereafter changed its course to run right through our camp! It was completely flooded and a few areas will have to be rebuilt. Meanwhile, the Lion Guardians are doing everything possible to maintain the hard earned and existing peaceful climate around the ecosystem.

Two new lions have been spotted patrolling Amboseli National Park. Whenever these two brothers, Amboga and Companion, move into a new area, the resident male lions there move out. Amboga and Companion are now the new kids on the block in the park. They have made the northwestern side of the park their home and have managed to chase Kip, one of the resident lions known to Lion Guardians, out of the area and into the communal land along the Kenyan-Tanzania border. As a result, Kip has been terrorizing Maasai bomas and killing livestock frequently. He now resides in Kitirwa conservancy and makes occasional forays into Tanzania.

Amboga

Recently, he killed several shoats (goats and sheep) and cows in Tanzania and then crossed over to Kenya. On another occasion, he killed a cow and subsequently injured a Maasai warrior (murran) who was part of a group hunting him. Kip was able to escape. Several times the Maasai have hunted for him unsuccessfully. A few days ago, he was shot at with guns along the border in Tanzania, he luckily escaped again and crossed over to Kenya where he terrorized more bomas (Maasai livestock enclosure) along the boundary. He is currently a wanted lion in this area.

Kip

Clearly, even though he is alive for now, he is under the spot light and could be living his last days. What is hard to understand is why Kip, whom is not very old, doesn’t hunt the abundant wildlife that resides in and around the park. Why he has developed a soft spot for livestock meat is only known by him. If he consigns himself to Kenya he stands a better chance of surviving because there people are more tolerant to predators compared to their Tanzanian counterparts.

Kip

After the poisoning of Nosioki and her cub, there was a meeting yesterday in Matapato to discuss the incident. People were calm since the two suspects that had been arrested a few days prior were released on the eve of the meeting in a surprise move by KWS. Before the release the Group Ranch was furious, they didn’t know arrests were possible due to the fact that previously, 3 lions had been killed in this area with no arrests made. Therefore, they were very happy for the release.  The elders from the Group Ranch where the suspects come from begged for forgiveness of the conservationists present ( MPT, Big Life Foundation, Lion Guardians, and KWS) while vowing such an incident will never take place again. They decried the act saying it was cowardly and has no place in the Maasai tradition, saying instead ’when a brave Maasai is annoyed he uses his spear’.

Conflict-resolution meeting

During the meeting, the elders revealed that a few months ago unbeknownst to us, they decided to set aside Osewan (a thicket full of different wildlife species) as a conservancy with an elected committee in order to receive an income. They invited several conservation stakeholders present (those mentioned above) to work closely with them to help increase levels of tolerance towards wildlife and to develope this fledgling conservancy still in its nascent stage. They announced to all and sundry that they will curse anyone who will use poisoning within their territory and will hand him over to the authorities for possible prosecution. Two District Wardens present also decried the use of poison and lion killing in the area in general.

Cremation of Nosioki and her cub

Leaders from both Olgulului Group Ranch and Mailua Group Ranch were present in the well attended meeting that recognized the critical role and vigilance by the Lion Guardians in the field. This was a very good meeting considering the usual tempers that flare wherever the agenda is livestock-lion related. We left the meeting with mixed feelings, worried with the precedent that will be set by the sudden release of suspects but buoyed by the glimmer of hope that a  conservancy will bring to the future of the area. Whether this will happen or not, only time will tell.

The Maasai, as a community, form a distinctive social unit sharing a culture, language and social structures. Structures such as age-sets and clans form the most important framework for both the social and political organization of the communities. Through them, every person has well defined roles, responsibilities, rights and obligations in relation to every other person in society. Traditionally, the Maasai’s social structure is based on a series of age-sets. Age-sets are the link that unites all the men and woman of a given age into a single comprehensive social institution.

Approximately every 14 years a new age-set (olaji) of warriors is initiated. When new generations of warriors are initiated the existing warriors move on to become junior elders. As each boy is circumcised between age 12 and 14, he is incorporated into a generational age-set. He and his cohorts pass through the stages of warriors to junior elders then to senior elders and finally to retired elders each lasting an undefined time frame. The senior elders have the primary responsibility for the traditional administration in Maasailand. Junior elders implement the instructions of their senior elders. The warriors (murran) are the defensive unit of the community and protect them against cattle-rustling neighbors and attacking predators. The warriors are well suited for this role. Members of an age-set must respect their sponsors/patrons (i.e. the senior elders to the warriors), but routinely experience tension and competition with the adjacent age-sets that immediately precede and follow them (i.e. the warriors to the junior elders).

Warriors singing

Currently a new generation of warriors has come of age. Many of them are now actively participating in the ‘meat eating sessions’ where Maasai traditional and cultural values are instilled on them. Tradition demands that the new warriors learn the art of survival, cattle raiding and warfare against neighboring tribes and attacking carnivores. This is where our greatest fear lies. In the past, killing a lion was a valuable act and proof of bravery. It carried with it prestige, status and respect in equal measure. The dwindling lion population within the Amboseli ecosystem cannot afford any more age-set related traditional killings. The two previous age-sets almost wiped out the lion population in the area.

Newly initiated warriors dancing

The Lion Guardian program, is working to create awareness and community mobilization against the current killing of lions. We incorporate the warrior age-set into lion conservation and research: in the process we inculcate them with values that allows the traditional warriors to hold on to their cultural practices of proving their strength and endurance by spending days in the bush tracking lions while at the same time, discarding retrogressive practices such as the spearing of lions, which is detrimental to the declining lion population in general and tourism as well.

Our program has already begun undergoing a slow transition in line with the current warriors to junior elders traditional transition. We have been honored that a few of our older Lion Guardians have been recruited into the ranks of MPT’s community game scouts. In their places, we have taken on board a few promising fledgling warriors belonging to the newly initiated age-set. One of our new recruits has just been elected by his fellow age mates as their age-set leader.

Our newest Lion Guardian(far right), and leader of his age-set

We are thrilled to be teaching these young, newly minted warriors about lions, conservation and hope for the future. The new Guardians are being trained by the senior Lion Guardians in a multi-faceted approach aimed at minimizing the issue of traditional lion killing. This is of particular concern because many of the newly initiated warriors are waiting for the coming of the rains when strong livestock return to the permanent homesteads. This is a time of feast and celebration as all the new warriors are together. Traditionally, it is during this time when warriors prove their strength and courage to the community, as well as woo young women by spearing lions. In the past decade, the most lions have been killed during the rainy seasons. The rains are just beginning now. In anticipation of this, we have, over the past few months, begun to hire and train as many of the new warriors as we can afford. We have now welcomed two new warriors to the Lion Guardians team and are actively trying to incorporate more.

The beginning of 2010 marked an extremely difficult time for our Lion Guardians. First, a prolonged devastating drought wiped out over half of the herbivore population – both domestic and wild. Livestock, which are the backbone of the Maasai economy, were drastically reduced by both the drought and the subsequent diseases which affected the survivors once the rains did come. The lions fared quite well during the drought, as they didn’t even have to hunt for their food – wildebeest, zebra and other prey species were dropping dead everywhere from starvation. This widespread loss of wildlife brought about an imbalance between predators and plains game. The few remaining primary prey species that were strong enough to survive the drought left the area as soon as the rains came. And those that stayed were strong enough that lions found it hard to find them and bring them down. As a result, the Lions therefore targeted livestock, as they were much easier prey. The Maasai pastoralists meanwhile vigorously guarded their remaining livestock, each of which had become tenfold more valuable as a result in the drastic reduction in herd size; conflict was clearly inevitable. Our Lion Guardians found themselves with a dual mission – they had to protect livestock from being killed by lions as well as defend lions from being killed by Maasai Morans in retaliation.

Even though their physical and mental strengths were tested to the limit, our Lion Guardians performed extremely well in 2010! With the help of other stakeholders within the Amboseli ecosystem, the Lion Guardians managed to stop over 44 lion hunting parties, most of which would have resulted in lion deaths had they not been stopped. Also, the Lion Guardians helped find 4,808 of the 5,635 lost livestock reported to them, most of which would have been killed overnight in the bush by predators if not found…deaths which would have no doubt resulted in further retaliation by the pastoralists. This translate to an 85% success rate, an impressive figure by any standard! The Lion Guardians also helped fortify over 100 bomas visited by carnivores at night, part of our effort to increase communal tolerance towards lions. In addition to creating lion protection “buffer zones”, the Lion Guardians also help create conservation awareness while acting as teachers of better animal husbandry within their communities.

Another major highlights of 2010 is that, with the help of our donors, we were able expand our Lion Guardians’ coverage to southern Olgulului, a conflict-prone zone that saw tens of lions being killed in the start of 2010. We recruited 5 new Lion Guardians and since they have started, not one lion has been killed in this stretch of land that is reknown for lion killing.

Also in 2010, we successfuly held the first ever Lion Guardian Games. Click here to read about it and click here to see a video of the games’ highlights. And now, at the end of an extremely productive year, to show the Lion Guardians our appreciation of the hard work they have done, we are providing each Lion Guardian with a D.Light S 250 solar lantern/phone charger. They will be able to use their lanterns in their searches for lost livestock as well as to provide illumination in their homes at night – rather than having to use smoky paraffin lanterns.

Please help us cover this and other important project related expenses such as salaries, phone credit and fuel.  If each person that follows us via our blog or Facebook donated even  $10, we would be able to cover the annual salaries of 8 Lion Guardians!  Please help us to continue our work – your support makes the difference!  Click here to donate (make sure to specify Lion Guardians)!

We would like to take this opprtunity to wish all our friends a prosperous Happy New Year and we look forward to your continued support in 2011!

All the best from Eric and the Lion Guardians

Recently, we have received several reports from our Lion Guardians and the Selenkay Conservancy game scouts of a male lion calling.  Our Lion Guardian team decided to do a “call-in” in an attempt to identify the lion. To do a call-in, we  play a variety of animal calls over a loudspeaker at night such as lion territory calls, buffalo distress calls, and a cacophony of excited hyenas.  If we are lucky, nearby lions, curious about the sounds, will come to investigate.  To keep them in the vicinity long enough for us to get pictures and identify them, we usually tie some sort of bait to a nearby tree or bush for them to snack on.

A curious lion shows up to see what is going on

The male lion that replied to the call-in turned out to be Ndelie, one of our collared male lions, who generally likes to spend his time between Kuku and Mbirikani Group Ranches.

Ndelie mugging for the camera

Curiousity...

We were surprised to find him there due to the fact that Selenkay Conservancy is quite far from his normal stomping grounds.  His presence reconfirms what we have been finding out this year; lions living outside protected areas have massive ranges.  We have also been finding that they hang out in groups of 2 or 3 but never in larger prides. This is their strategy for survival in areas that saw several past generations of lions being persecuted. Talk about survival instincts!  Ndelie was very nervous, and after spending a little time with the bait, he left the scene.

But what made the call-in even more interesting was the number of additional visitors it attracted. The first to respond was a serval cat.

A serval cat shows up

It took her a while to get comfortable with our car and she was also nervous from having just heard a lion roar at that particular spot not so long ago (she didn’t know that it was just a recording). But eventually she took her rightful share of the bait and thereafter left the scene. Then in the morning, when it is easier to see any enemies lurking about, it was time for another regular visitor to call-ins, the black back jackal.

A free meal!

It too took its share of the bait and then left, albeit reluctantly.

When the sun was a bit higher, another interesting visitor came; it was a pale chanting goshawk.

The Pale Chanting Goshawk eats mainly lizards, as well as large insects, small mammals and birds.

It first assessed the bait then did just what the other predators before it did, it began feeding.  Obviously, this late visitor made our long overnight vigil worthwhile.  But my question is, is this a normal occurrence or is it because the festive Christmas spirit is in the air?

Happy Holidays to all from the Lion Guardians!

Yesterday Lion Guardian Leparakou reported that the male sub adult lion Managop has been spending a lot of time near to the Eselenkei Lion Guardians camp, which is close to Porini Camp in the Selenkay Conservancy.

Managop usually associates with his companion, another sub adult male called Loosiron, but it seems they are spending a little time apart at the moment.

Both Manangop and Loosiron were born in late 2007, and are from the pride of two collared females who often reside in Amboseli National Park, but also go into community land outside the park, sometimes causing problems by taking livestock. 

Manangop and Loosiron split from this family in July 2010 and have been mainly found together since then, often in the Selenkay Conservancy, though we think they have ventured far and wide. Manangop’s Maasai name means he who has travelled to many places. We hope he will stay around this area for a while!

We told you a while ago that with the help of Lion Guardians Mokoi and Kisimir we had finally found male lion Sikiria, who likes to wander far and wide. We were able to download his movements from his collar and we are pleased to tell you we now have the results mapped out for all to see!

Project biologist Stephanie Dolrenry has added Sikiria’s previous movements to the map so that you can see where he has been from September 2009 to the end of October 2010. And what a journey he has been on! He has visited 8 different Group Ranches and 2 countries!

It is amazing to see how far he has travelled, and it really shows you how our conservation efforts must be widespread in order to protect lions like Sikiria who live outside protected areas, in community lands.

So far the Lion Guardians cover three Group Ranches – Mbirikani, Eselenkei and Olgulului. With more funding we would like to expand the project to even more Group Ranches, and every single donation will bring us closer to this goal. And all you have to do is CLICK HERE! This link will take you to our partners Panthera who will pass on 100% of your donations to the Lion Guardians project. Please make sure you allocate your donation to us in the drop down menu.

Thank you very much from all the Lion Guardians who have been protecting Sikiria and the other lions that live in these conflict-prone community lands. Asante sana!