Lion Guardians

Category: life in camp | Date: May 07 2009 | By: lionguardians

Yesterday we were called to the scene of an injured elephant, which had been spotted limping badly close to our camp in Ol Donyo Wuas. The elephant had been speared in the foot because he had been raiding farms in search of food and water.

KWS/Sheldrick Trust vets from Tsavo West National Park were called to the scene, and eventually he was in a good position to dart. Everything went well, and the vets treated the spear wound on his leg.

Game scouts from the Maasailand Preservation Trust were on hand to make sure he was kept cool with water.

When the vets were happy that the wound was treated fully, they made some final checks before rousing him from the anaesthesia.

Here he is, waking up, and moving off into the bush. We are told he will be just fine! Thank goodness for a successful outcome to this potentially tragic story!

We’ll keep you posted if we hear any developments about how he is doing.

Sorry for the slight hiccup on posts for the last few days. I think it is what is called a technical fault, which has now been rectified! It does mean that any comments you made about Antony’s new home in England have been lost though. Sorry about that!

Tags: elephant, injured, Kenya, kws, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, sheldrick, speared, vet

6 responses so far

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

Barely two months after a female elephant was found speared and had to be put down because of her injuries, another female elephant has had to be taken away from her misery. She had a very badly swollen front foot that had rotten up to the bone. We are told she had been speared because she was raiding farms to find water.

When I visited the elephant to see the extent of her injuries, she could not even run away or attack anything. She was really suffering and one could not help but sympathize with the poor animal.

Such incidents are bound to arise with the continuing drought here, with people and wildlife competing for the same small amount of water. The only things we can do are hope for rain and try to intervene before sad conflicts like this arise.

At the moment there are only 9 Lion Guardians covering a huge area of over 1200 km² so we cannot attend to all places and communities to prevent attacks like this, but we do our best.

Thank you for all your help and support for the Lion Guardians. Your support and donations fill us with hope for the future.

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

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 09 2009 | By: lionguardians

I have some sad news to report. The elephant that was speared died last night. We went to see her this morning, and discovered she was a lactating female. We do not know if she had already given birth, or was pregnant, but either one would explain her unusual behaviour, which caused her to be speared.

She had been causing havoc in an agricultural area; destroying crops for the whole day. The community tried to chase her away but she kept coming back and eventually they lost their patience and speared her. She must have been very weak and in need of easy food.

Conflict like this is a sad consequence of living in such close proximity to wildlife. Sometimes animals and humans can’t live together peacefully, and although the game scouts of Maasailand Preservation Trust worked extremely hard to help the elephant, she was too weak to survive.

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

13 responses so far

Category: life in camp | Date: Jan 07 2009 | By: lionguardians

For the next two weeks I will be busy with a Swiss television crew who are out here in Kenya to make a documentary about Living with Lions (our umbrella organization) and the Lion Guardians program. They are with us at the moment to find out what we do, and try to see some interesting things.

So far they have been out tracking with the Guardians, and they also went to film the elephant that was speared. When they come back I hope they will bring good news of the elephant. We heard that a vet from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has been sent to help, so we are all hoping for good news.

For those fans of the Lion Guardians in Europe I will let you know when the documentary will be aired on TV.

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

One response so far

Category: Lions killed | Date: Nov 04 2008 | By: lionguardians

We are sad to report that another lion has been killed on our neighbouring ranch Olgulului, where we are soon to start the Lion Guardians program. The lion killed a big expensive bull, and in doing so injured its paw. A week later it killed a goat close to where the bull was attacked, and apparently was still limping. About 10 days after that it killed yet another goat in the same area and chased the young herder. It seems the lion was attacking livestock because it was weak, following the injury.

The lion’s carcass was found close to the area where the bull was killed, south of Amboseli National Park. It had been speared, and all the claws were missing together with the 4 canine teeth. We are so sad about this news. We hope that when we start the Lion Guardians on this ranch, attacks like this will stop.

Tags: dead lion, Kenya, lion, lion attack, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, lions, Maasai, masai, speared

5 responses so far

Category: Lions killed, lion killings | Date: Jun 18 2008 | By: lionguardians

We have some sad news to report. A lion has been killed by murrans at Olgulului, the ranch bordering Amboseli National Park, and the neighbouring ranch to Mbirikani, home of the Lion Guardians.

The reason for the killing was first unclear. Some rumors reported that the lion had killed two goats and that the murrans went after it in revenge. But after further investigations it became clear that they speared this lion for trade. Two of the murrans are beach boys at the Kenyan coast and it seems they killed the lion so that they could take the claws to go and sell. Here is the paw of the lion, that was left after the claws were removed.

This is awful news for us, as the population of lions in this area is already so low, and it is a tragedy to lose another lion. It was a female lion, probably about four years old, but not one known by the Lion Guardians.

One of the factors that has led to the decline in the number of lions in this area is the low level of employment, especially for murrans - the warrior age class. We are hoping that we can raise enough funds to start up the Lion Guardians program on Olgulului too. This would give at least some of the murrans employment and an interest in conserving lions, which they will then pass on to their communities. Your donations are vitally important at this critical time, so we can try to save the few remaining lions in this area.

Tags: Amboseli, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, murrans, speared

15 responses so far