Lion Guardians

Category: Community work, life in camp | Date: Jun 26 2009 | By: lionguardians

We would like to tell you about the area that our new research and Lion Guardians camp is based. The local Maasai Group Ranch is called Eselenkei, which is communal land owned by the Maasai, mainly used for grazing livestock. This map shows you the ranches around Amboseli National Park, which is near to the border with Tanzania in the south of Kenya.

Some 15,000 acres of this land have been leased by Porini Ecotourism, a non-profit company, to create the Selenkay Conservancy, an extremely successful wildlife reserve, which not only protects the flora and fauna in this important wildlife dispersal area around Amboseli National Park, but also helps the local communities by creating employment, as well as many other benefits including helping to build schools, sponsor local children through tertiary education, creating boreholes to provide fresh water, and enabling controllable grazing within the conservancy during times of great need, like the recent drought the local people have been facing here.

Gamewatchers Safaris owns and runs a tented safari camp for tourists called Porini Camp on the conservancy, which generates income and employment opportunities for the local community, and pays a fee to Porini Ecotourism to cover the running costs of the conservancy.

In partnership with the local Maasai communities, Porini Ecotourism and Gamewatchers Safaris use the available community resources to improve and provide alternative source of livelihood in an area with no previously obvious tourist attraction where the local community depended only on livestock rearing for a living. We would like to extend our thanks to Porini, and to the local Maasai community for welcoming us into the area.

We are very glad to be working in an area where the local communities are excited and willing to help with further conservation measures here, and we have some more great news about lions in the area! Keep reading for updates on our local lions and how the Lion Guardians project is getting young warriors involved in helping conserve the lions in their areas, and reduce human-wildlife conflict.

Tags: Amboseli, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, porini, selenkay conservancy

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Dec 19 2008 | By: lionguardians

On our last night at Eselenkei conservancy we went on a search for lions before heading back to Mbirikani Group Ranch. We had been told various times by the guys at the camp that lions could be seen easily, even though none of them have collars. We started our search at around 9.30pm and the first animal we saw was a genet. It was a bit shy so we could only see the long round tip of its tail and the elongated snout. I have posted a picture of a friendly genet that comes and sits in our office so you can see what they look like. (This one likes eating biscuits)!

After just a few metres we saw a serval cat. She was in the process of hunting and due to the long grass we could not see the prey. We proceeded along to find our lion. Wilson Kasaine who was the spotter guide saw some movement and we stopped. Just 200 meters ahead was a female lion. In the distance we could see some wildebeest and zebras running away. Within a second she disappeared. The guys knew their way around the place well, so we drove around the thick bush. After about 10 minutes we saw her lying down, trying to master the movement of her prey.

One of the guides happened to know a little bit about this lioness, who they think has some cubs of her own. She is the only survivor from her litter - her three siblings were killed three years ago on Eselenkei, and her mother has only been seen once after the killing of the other cubs.

The thing that surprised me the most was that this lioness is not scared of cars. She came right up close to the car, something lions on Mbirikani will never do. They are so shy that we are never able to get close to them.

Just a reminder - if you want us to send you a gift certificate, you must request one in a comment on the blog as well as giving the donation. A big thank you to everyone who has bought a certificate so far. There is still time, if you want a gift certificate!

Tags: cubs, eselenkei, genet, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, mbirikani, porini

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Category: life in camp | Date: Dec 17 2008 | By: lionguardians

We are in the process of establishing a new camp on Eselenkei group ranch, where we are going to start the Lion Guardians program. I have just been to visit Eselenkei, to see the place that we will be locating our camp, and we were very lucky to be able to stay at nearby Porini. Porini is a tented camp for tourists located north of Amboseli National Park. It is one of those amazing natural places that you would want to visit on vacation. It is located in a protected area of bush full of wildlife. Birds like the White bellied Go Away bird entertain you as you have your breakfast, and the views are beautiful.

We were treated like VIPs by the staff at Porini. I will never forget the hospitality of the guys I met, and I wish that I could have met them earlier. If I had, my life would have been more fun filled! I am very much looking forward to expanding the Lion Guardians to this new area.

Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, but to see some photos of this beautiful place you can go to the Porini camp website.

Tags: Amboseli, camp, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, porini

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