One of the last photos of Amyjane alive

Then as fate would have it, the veterinary officer that was supposed to treat her was summoned very early in the morning to attend to a rhino that had died due to a gun wound from poachers in the Chyulu Game Reserve. While awaiting the vet to arrive, we responded to another depredation report we received from Lion Guardian Jackson in a nearby zone.

During that time, a herder brought livestock inside the park for water very close to where Amyjane was hidden. When she saw the herder, she growled and the livestock scampered for safety, thus prompting the herder to summon the morans from the nearby cultural boma. They responded immediately and tracked the lion within 10 minutes and speared her ten times till she succumbed to death.

At this time we had just finished verifying Jackson’s report and were on our way back to check on Amyjane, with five Kenya Wildlife Service rangers we picked up on the way. As we were approaching the site where we last saw her (about 50 meters away) we found a lion paw freshly cut. We immediately started to fret, but we also thought that maybe it belonged to another lion that might have been killed earlier that morning.

Worried, we rushed to the site where we had last seen Amyjane just an hour ago, but she was nowhere to be seen! We immediately reached for the receiver to track her collar, but unfortunately after five minutes of searching we came up empty handed. At this time we returned with the KWS rangers to where the paw was found and started tracking the perpetrators foot prints. Using my traditional tracking skills we followed their fresh tracks for about five minutes until we reached Amyjane.

Her body was dismembered; specifically the torso was cut in half and placed 50 meters apart likely to conceal the killing. Her head and all of her paws were missing. This was proof that her killers were in a hurry to leave the site, accompanied by their intentions to sell the fresh trophies to the nearby tourists who visit the park. Interestingly, the tail which is the most important part of traditional lion killing celebrations was still intact: meaning that the killing was not traditionally motivated. It was a ghastly site to see, especially given the fact that we had just seen her alive a few hours ago. I was horrified and heart broken at the same time.

Amyjane’s dismembered body

After joining Amyjane’s torso to verify it was one lion that was killed we decided to follow the fresh tracks of the warriors, which led to the nearby cultural bomas. What was interesting is that the cultural boma, which is always a bee-hive of activities (especially during the high season), was so conspicuously silent that one could hear a pin drop!

Amyjane whose pride has known misfortune over the last few years is the latest victim. Her sister mysteriously died two years ago and left her the duty of bringing up nine small cubs. She successfully brought six of those cubs to maturity, while one was killed by an elephant.  Another was killed by a pair of resident male lions and the third was speared at the gate of the same cultural boma in which her mother’s killers live. Currently, she has three very small cubs whom she left with her companion, who also has three cubs of the same size. We hope that she will be able to bring up all six cubs, but it will be a very difficult feat.

Amyjane’s companion will have a difficult task in trying to raise all of the cubs to maturity. The cubs pictured here are from a litter she had in 2010.

During the past week in Olgulului Group Ranch, lions have gone on a rampage and killed three cows, three donkeys and seriously injured six cows, all resulting in three lion hunts. Lion Guardians managed to stop all the three lion hunting parties in the respective zones. This is due to our diplomatic and non-accusatory approach. But, unfortunately Amyjane was hunted inside the park (outside of our jurisdiction) where existing tensions between the community and KWS has lead to a decrease in tolerance.

Eric used his tracking skills to locate Amyjane’s body and track her killers to the nearby boma.

Currently, the situation in Amboseli is tense and the relationship between the community and KWS is at its lowest ebb and we fear for the future of the local wildlife. The previous conflict resolution meeting on Aug 6^th, failed to arrive at an amicable consensus between KWS and the Maasai community. The Maasai community gave KWS 21 days to respond to their petition requesting a fair distribution of the park revenue.  If the morans are bold enough to hunt in the park in broad daylight and kill a collared lioness now, I shiver to think of what will happen if the trust between the community and KWS is severed over revenue-sharing. The parks wildlife will not survive without communal support and Amboseli National Park will be no more than a glorified zoo!!

Hopefully KWS and the local Maasai community can come to an amicable agreement in order to stop more senseless killings like that of Amyjane.

Lopono after his victorious 100 meter dash

Stick throwing was won by Kamunu Saitoti, also from Eselenkei, after a neck to neck with Maen Koole from Southern Olgulului. The previous winner of this event, Lenkai Nkiinti and his rival Timoine Olamayiani were eliminated before the final.

Kamunu exhibiting his excellent stick throwing skills!

When it came to the Morans (the Masai Warriors) testing their skills in spear throwing accuracy, Kutata Mutenkere from Eselenkei emerged the winner amidst ululation from his colleagues and admiration from every one present.

Kutata spear throwing

Distance spear throwing was the next event on order for the day. The young diminutive Mingati Makarot from Mbirikani proved to all that strength and skills are not related to size and age as he scooped one of the most coveted prizes by beating a talented field of older, able bodied Morans.

Mingati with a look of determination just before he let his spear fly

Olgulului scooped the football award as a consolation after beating Mbirikani in the final before a sizeable crowd of cheering funs.

Once all the events were completed special awards were given to individual Lion Guardians recognizing outstanding performances for their consistency, knowledge of lion movement, number of quality reports submitted, hard work, reliability, biggest impact created, conflict mitigation, number of lost livestock and young herders found in the bush, and for doing special things above and beyond the call of duty.

The prizes and awards were presented to the winners in a glittering ceremony at the foot of the Chyulu Hills by Lion guardian Director Dr. Leela Hazzah and Soila Sayliale of Amboseli Elephant Trust along with invited guest and MPT senior staff represented by senior Co-coordinator Daniel Ole Sambu. After several encouraging speeches and praise of their hard work, Guardians celebrated their victory by singing and dancing, followed by the consumption of expertly roasted goat meat at our main camp. In conclusion, these games were even more successful than the previous edition both in competitiveness, attendance and prizes given. Above all, the spirit exhibited by the Guardians during the competition made many envious of their work. We would like to extend our thanks to all of you for making it a success!

The Lion Guardians

We would like to extend our thanks again to Kate, Anna, Jacqueline, Sylvia, Marianne, Brenton, Patti Eugene and all of the BIGCATS texters. Also to Eco-Sys Action for the specially designed Lion footballs!

The Lion Football designed by Eco-Sys Action

One of the new youthful Lion Guardians in Southern Olgulului is Parkepu. He represents the Mbaringoi zone which is situated centrally within the Kitirua concession area. Being a young, honest and hardworking moran, he has impressed us with his willingness and ability to learn within no time. Though he is a man of few words he has been good in monitoring one of the biggest prides in Southern Olgulului, a pride of 12 lions.

One of his strong traits is his respect not just for his immediate seniors but also to any community member around his age. Being almost of the same age as the new morans we expect to use him to stop them from any lion killing in the future. Karibu Parkepu!

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Kenya Wildlife Trust (KWT, part of Ker and Downey Safaris) for sponsoring all the Lion Guardians in Southern Olgulului and allowing us to share their base camp. Their support is invaluable and we would like to say a big Asante Sana to them from all the Lion Guardians!

His complete honesty is revealed when he is not sure of something – he will always ask what you mean and seek your advice. He is very clear and understandable. Every time our Lion Guardians team have been out to verify his lion reports, they have been verified exactly as he gave the reports.

Nicknamed ‘Kitashu’ by his age-mates because of his bravery, we expect him to play a critical role in his conflict-prone zone of Emerua-Oldule which will also act as the base for the new moran age-set manyatta. His influence will come in handy during the forthcoming transition period when the new morans will start their journey into warriorhood. Welcome Ngida to the Lion Guardians team!

A typical traditional Maasai moran, Jackson is a reputable tracker who knows all the lion corridors in his zone. Already he has tracked a lioness and her 2 small cubs, and found their zebra kill.

Being magnanimous and generous at heart, he comes from a family blessed with leadership qualities as exemplified by the fact that his elder brother is the chief of the senior morans. Jackson is a very welcome addition to the Lion Guardians team.

Already, due to his wisdom and honesty, we have trained him in tracking collared lions using radio telemetry and issued him with a set of telemetry equipment, and he has thrown himself into monitoring the lions in his area. He is a respected moran both in Kenya and Tanzania and he has been able to give us vital information about what goes on across the border, getting this information freely from fellow morans in Tanzania. He was the first person that informed us of a recent lion killing incident in Tanzania, and has been updating us on a regular basis.

Maen has a very likeable character and is an easy person to get along with. To crown it all, he knows the lion hide-outs in his zone like the back of his hand. He will clearly emerge as one of the leaders of the Lion Guardians owing to his great oratory skills. Welcome to the Lion Guardians team Maen!

Apart from lion killing, other poaching activities, committed by culprits from both countries, have also been detected along this stretch. Actually, an elephant was killed on the border last week while one escaped with an injury. We envisage that the Lion Guardians will play a vital role in reducing such threats to wildlife, and to lions in particular.  Here I am tracking for collared lions that may be in the area, accompanied by two feathered friends!

We have selected five Lion Guardians in this area, through an open and transparent selection procedure, and the community is very appreciative of the project. The new recruits have been properly trained, issued with equipment and have started working in their respective zones. We have already had a number of lion reports from the new Guardians, who we will introduce to you on the blog soon. Here are the five new Guardians as I train them on their forms.

We have set up an operational base in this area to specifically help the new Lion Guardians in fulfilling their work. We will work in conjunction with other conservation stakeholders in the area, and we were very glad that three days ago Amboseli National Park’s Warden paid us a courtesy call, and was pleased to welcome us into the area. We have now spread the project to all community lands in the Amboseli ecosystem and hope that this will help to prevent human wildlife conflict and the death of any more lions in the ecosystem. Here is one of the lions that we have already found thanks to the reports from the new Lion Guardians.

We will keep you updated on the lion distribution in this vital stretch of land as we build up our knowledge of the population with help from the Lion Guardians, and will let you know how all the guys are doing in their new roles as Guardians of their communities and the lions they live with.

The Guardians, and scouts from Selenkay Conservancy have even been involved in calming a number of situations where morans have been angry at the loss of their livestock. We are very grateful for the hard work the Lion Guardians and the Selenkay Conservancy scouts are putting it in at this tense time.

We think that the reason that  there are so many attacks on livestock is that as the land is now drying up again a lot of the wild prey has now moved back to Amboseli National Park, meaning that the majority of prey left is cows, sheep, goats and donkeys. The lion families are also splitting into smaller groups, which means that there are more separate attacks, and more angry livestock owners. Often the lions are not having time to eat any of the animals they have killed before being chased away, so they must strike again in a different boma to find food, causing yet more havoc and anger.

We will keep you updated on the situation as well as we can. Thank you for reading and for your support.

Our team was out in the field visiting the southern Olgulului area where we hope to expand the Lion Guardians project to. The community members came out in good numbers to meet our team and seemed very pleased with our plans for expansion into their area. On seeing satisfaction written in their faces accompanied as always by beaming smiles, we left.

On our way back, we met Parkesian, our Lion Guardian in Meshenani. He told us that he had just seen two male lions not very far from where we were so we decided to go and check out the report. A few kilometers deep into Olgulului Group Ranch, we found two male lions deep asleep. Respecting their slumber, we allowed them to rest. On trying our telemetry equipment we immediately knew who they were. It was one of our collared male lions called Maringa and his usual companion ‘Mr. Nose’ or Pua!

Both detected our presence and proximity to them but were not in the least bit concerned, and they soon went back to sleep. They looked so much at ease and at peace with themselves as if they had killed recently and this was their resting day. Both looked very healthy. We are beginning to think that these two lions must be related because they are so often found together. Adaptation is critical to survival, and lions outside protected areas are adapting by adopting unusual behaviours, like hanging out in small groups as opposed to prides.

Both of these lions are known to frequent Eselenkei but are resident in Olgulului and hardly ever go into Amboseli National Park. They have an admirable record with regards to human-wildlife conflict as their livestock kill numbers are modest. The good news is that elands have started calving, particularly in areas that Maringa and Pua frequent, especially Selenkay Conservancy, which will mean plenty of easy prey for lions.

There is nothing as exciting and as satisfying as seeing lions completely at peace with their environment and without any conflict to talk about. When I first saw Maringa at close range while on foot I thought he was a very handsome lion, but now I have seen him at even closer range from a vehicle I think he looks even more handsome than I thought then! How I pray that all the remaining lions see many more sunsets, like these two, and thank you to all those of you who are helping this to happen with your support of the Lion Guardians project. Asante sana!

The Lion Guardians tracking skills were perfectly accurate. Nempakai was with another lioness, and a very sweet little cub!

The cub was very playful and having a great time stalking mum and practising her prey killing by biting mum’s neck!

It was a lovely sight to behold and we are very glad to share it with you too!