Lion Guardians

Category: Lion Guardians work | Date: Apr 03 2009 | By: lionguardians

Today it was the monthly Lion Guardians meeting. All the Guardians arrived to tell us about their news from each of their areas. Lion Guardians Koikai and Melubo reported that they have been finding some collared lions that usually live on our neighbouring ranch Kuku over on our ranch recently. They come over every few weeks, but they have been known to kill livestock in the past, so we hope they do not cause any problems over on our ranch when they visit.

Lion Guardian Mokoi told us he has a pride of 7 lions in his area, and that none of them have collars! These lions might have come over from Amboseli National Park to look for water. Mokoi will keep monitoring this pride to see where they go.

Kapande has been tracking our collared male Kesayou and his two companions and Olubi has told us of a new lion that was drinking water in a place called Isinet, where no lions have been seen for the last 20 years!

We then spent some time training the Guardians with a new form we are giving them, which they will start working on in the next few weeks. We are going to use the forms to estimate the number of predators and prey in their areas, so that we can have a better idea of the population of lions and other animals. The Guardians will fill in these forms every week, so we can see trends over time. Here Lion Guardian Ritei works on his form.

Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, meeting, spoor count

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Category: Lion Guardian reports | Date: Jan 02 2009 | By: lionguardians

On the 31^st December it was time for our end of month meeting. This meeting was special because it also marked the end of the year. All the Guardians came to camp and told us their news from the last month, and from the whole year. Everyone was happy and the news went well, except that all the Guardians and the whole community are worried that if it does not rain again soon, then all the livestock will die. We did have some rain in November and a little in December, but it has not been enough, and the land is starting to dry up again.

To celebrate New Year’s Eve we bought a sheep and a goat for the Guardians to feast on, and had a party until we saw the 1st January. There was singing and dancing, and everyone had a great party. At the moment we have a Swiss television crew here who are making a documentary about Living with Lions and the Lion Guardians program. I will tell you more about these people in my next post. Here are the Guardians being filmed during the meeting.

I would like to say thank you to everyone for your support and for being with us until the end of 2008. I hope 2009 will be a great year for you and for the Lion Guardians. Happy New Year! Here are some of the Guardians preparing the meat to be roasted for the New Year’s Eve feast.

I would also like to say welcome to those of you who have not visited our blog before, especially those of you who saw the piece about us on Canadian TV. Hello, and welcome to the blog! Thank you very much for your interest and donations to our project.

Tags: Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, meeting, new year

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Category: Community work | Date: Dec 29 2008 | By: lionguardians

As many people all over the world do at this time of year, I took some time this festive season to go and see my family and friends back home. It was great being with my loved ones. My mum bought a goat, and we invited all our friends for a big feast. I was able to leave all my thoughts of work behind me, and just dine and drink with my friends and family.

This is also the time when lots of students and young murrans meet to discuss issues affecting the community. Despite being off duty, I attended two of these meetings. One was about the possibility of creating a local conservation area, which would be great for our wildlife and would also create more job opportunities for young people. Here is one of the meetings in action!

The second meeting was more for the young elite murrans to discuss the different positions and jobs they hold, and the impacts they have had since they got employed. Two of our Lion Guardians were present at this meeting and I am pleased to say that the invited elders were all very happy with the Lion Guardians program for giving uneducated warriors a chance in life, so they have another option apart from killing lions.

Now, I am back in office preparing for the Lion Guardians end of month, and end of year meeting. I hope you all had a great time during your holidays and are looking forward to the new year!

Tags: christmas, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, meeting, murran, youth

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