May 22- Lion Guardians
Customized Lion guardians footballs!
The annual Lion Guardian Games 2013 edition will be held from the 12th-14th June 2013 at the pristine Selenkay Conservancy. The Lion Guardians will be accommodated in our newly built Central Training Camp which borders the famous Amboseli National Park. We are excited because these games will be a first for many of our new Lion Guardians – and especially significant because the Lion Guardians Ruaha Team will be attending – adding a whole new level of competition of two different cultures as Barbaig compete with Maasai.
The Lion Guardians Games is an occasion for the Guardians to share their experiences in the field, make new friends and develop a network of information sharing in the course of monitoring lions that criss-cross their respective zones. In the past three years, these games have been very successful due to the fact that the competitive spirit of the traditional Maasai warrior is at the heart of each event. Upon hearing that the games are going to be held soon, the Lion Guardians are all eager, excited and raring to go. Preparations are underway for the 100 meter sprint, stick and spear throwing and traditional dancing. The games will be graced by the presence of the entire Wildlife Guardians Board of Directors as well. The anticipation, the excitement and the spirit to compete against each other makes the games a competition worth waiting for with bated breadth.
We are once again grateful to Eco-Sys Action for sponsoring the games for the third year in a row as well as for providing these customized Lion Guardians footballs (soccerballs)!
May 20- Ruaha Carnivore Project
Maasai men and our Mapogoro Conflict Officer, Suleiman (in RCP shirt).
Yesterday we took a group of young Maasai men and our Mapogoro Conflict Officer, Suleiman (in RCP shirt) into Ruaha National Park. It was a great trip–we saw 15 lions in five different sightings! To date we’ve taken more than 300 villagers to visit the Park and see carnivores in non-threatening situations.
May 20- Ewaso Lions
We are excited to announce our new Lion Watch program! Here we aim to connect tourism, research and conservation by working with safari guides and tourists to scale up our work in northern Kenya. Read our article about how we plan to unite tourism and conservation.
Rosemary from Sasaab Lodge receives her Lion Watch training certificate. (Photo by Tony Allport)
May 20- Niassa Lion Project
Community meeting on Monday in Mbamba Village to start off the dry season. Great participation by everyone and a really positive start. Chiefs are starting to take responsibility for conservation and lead discussion onhow conservation community fund would be spent and people employed. Feeling positive!
Community meeting in Mbamba.
Update! We’ve surpassed our $14,000 goal!
May 20- Niassa Lion Project
Update:
Wow… we made it!
Our special thanks to you all for the tremendous support. We have just finished rebuilding our camp and reaching our campaign goal is the perfect way to start the dry season back in Niassa. We hope to have internet access soon under our sausage tree and will update you all from the banks of the Lugenda river.
Many thanks again for helping us complete this documentary.
Kind regards,
Keith
Original Post: We need your help completing our documentary! Our founders, Ben and Colleen Begg, have created a film about our journey to gain a deeper understanding of the community in which we live and work, so that we may become more effective conservationists. After developing trust with our local people, we were permitted to film a traditional and spiritual ceremony, which would be fantastic to share with the world.
To date we have entirely self-funded the production of this film. We now have a rough cut but we don’t have the resources to complete the final edits, music, narration and mix. We need your help to bring this 50 minute documentary film to life. For more information, or to commit to a donation, head to our contribution page.
May 15-Ewaso Lions
Is the future bright for Kenya’s lions? The East African newspaper talked to Ewaso Lions to find out:
Lion cub in Kenya
May 14- African People and Wildlife Fund
Success!
In 2012, we exceeded our goal of 200 Living Walls on the Maasai Steppe. We now have 220 Living Walls in place in 6 villages, protecting more than 50,000 head of livestock, directly impacting approximately 4000 community members and keeping lions safe on a nightly basis. No lions have been killed at homesteads with Living Walls since the start of this program in 2008.
In addition to overseeing our Living Wall installations, Elvis Kisimir (at right in green) also manages a growing team of big cat conflict officers. These local community members monitor conflicts with the big cats across the Maasai Steppe, responding to calls for help when livestock are lost at pasture and in danger of being consumed by a large carnivore. By preventing conflicts, we are saving big cats and helping to protect local livelihoods.
May 10- Niassa Lion Project
Our second experimental elephant-beehive fence in Mbamba village is doing well – 240m, 12 hives (6 active and 6 dummy). Four beehives were colonized in March. Initial results are encouraging – there are 6 neighboring fields being monitored, only one with a beehive fence. There have been 32 incidents with elephants and only one has been in the beehive fence field when the rope was down. Too early to get too excited but hard not to hope! Well done Mbumba.
Elephant-beehive experimental fence.
May 8- Living With Lions
Living with Lions is currently being highlighted as one of the World Association of Zoos and Aquarium Conservation (WAZA) Field Conservation Projects. WAZA is the unifying organization for the world zoo and aquarium community whose members are leading zoos, aquariums, associations and corporate partners from around the world. Visit the WAZA Living with Lions project page .
Lioness with zebra taken by James Warwick
May 6- Ruaha Carnivore Project
The first cow to be dipped in about three years emerges from the reopened cattle dip.
RCP Helps Village Cattle Dip Reopen
On Saturday, April 20, the Ruaha Carnivore Project provided at cost the insecticide needed to reopen the cattle and goat dip in the village of Makifu, just outside of Ruaha National Park. The cattle dip has not operated in about three years because of the lack of insecticide.
Tick-borne diseases are a major cause of cattle illness and fatality in sub-Saharan Africa. And because the vast majority—60 percent—of livestock losses in our area are due to illness and injury, not depredation, preventing those illnesses will make pastoralists better able to absorb the much-less-frequent loss to depredation and thus more tolerant of carnivores.
The insecticide provided by RCP for the Makifu cattle dip will last for several weeks and will treat thousands of cattle, goats and sheep.
May 4- Ewaso Lions
On Saturday, May 4th, Ewaso Lions is held our 4th annual Running for Lions half marathon in Samburu. We were so excited to see the community come together under the banner of lion conservation. Thank you for your help in raising $500 for the event! It was small bit of money for a huge positive community event. This year there were two races: a 21km half marathon for elders and warriors, and a 7km race for women (the community requested to separate races for men and women). The races take place in the stunning Westgate Community Conservancy just west of Samburu National Reserve, here in northern Kenya. We sponsored the race this year with Sasaab Lodge, Westgate Conservancy, and Carter Safaris. As usual, the prizes consisted of goats! Life in Samburu is hard — security issues, human-wildlife conflict, drought — so Running for Lions offers people a day to come together, have fun, and raise awareness about the positive benefits of lions and wildlife. Thank you for making this year’s race the best yet through your donations. Visit our facebook page to see more of the photos!
Runners take off in the 2011 Running For Lions race. (Photo by Tony Allport)
May 1- Lion Guardians and Ruaha Carnivore Project
Dr. Steph Dolrenry, Director of Carnivore Biology and Eric Ole Kesoi the Community Liaison Officer for LG Kenya, came down to Ruaha last month to conduct some further training with the LGs here. One part of that training was setting up spoor routes. “Spoor?” Spoor is an English (U.K.) word for animal tracks. Over a period of two weeks, together with the LGs, we walked over 200 kilometers through the LG zones setting up spoor counting routes. For each zone, of which there are four, a 10-12 km long transect was established. The LGs will walk these transects once a week and collect data on the presence of lions, the various carnivores that compete with lions (leopard, cheetah, wild dog, and hyena), as well as available lion prey (wild pigs, impala, kudu, giraffe and eland) found in their areas by recording the tracks they find. Visit the Lion Guardians Blog to learn more about our Spoor adventures!
Left to right: George (Coordinator), Steph, Eric, LG Kiro laughing at how far we have walked (25kms!) on the GPS.
April 27- Niassa Lion Project
A wonderful blog showing how children in Houston ,Texas enjoy the same activities as children in one of the most villages in Mozambique. Well done Houston Zoo and Velasquez Elementary school. We are different but still the same. Visit the Wild Conservation Blog at the Houston Zoo!
Students at Velasquez school in Houston finger painting a wildlife mural.
Students in Mozambique finger painting a wildlife mural.
April 22- Living With Lions Mara Predator Project
There’s a lot of information on this Lion SSP page about all the projects going on (including ours!), but what about some technical know-how about lions themselves? Take a jump over to our Lion Database to identify lions by their whisker spot patterns, manes, and noses, among other features. Identifying lions while in the field and by looking at camera trap photographs helps us to keep track of our lion populations and be aware of their locations. Having this data is step one of establishing effective conservation projects that rely on the awareness of population density and movements in conjunction with awareness of local peoples and their immediate carnivore concerns.
Mara Predator Project whisker identification diagram
Update!
April 17-20- Ewaso Lions Kenyan Kids on Safari Camp
Here is a selection of photos of our Kenyan Kids on Safari Camp held in Westgate Conservancy, Samburu. It was a tremendous success and great fun for the children and organizers of the event. Thank you Sasaab Lodge and Westgate Conservancy residents for their support towards this exciting program that changed the lives of 24 young children. Visit our Facebook album to see all of the photos!
Spotted a lion!
April 19- Ruaha Carnivore Project
Here at RCP we are celebrating the completion of our 50th predator-proof boma (livestock enclosure)! This boma was a first for us: our first boma in the village of Isele, and the first boma built as a result of cheetah depredation. The owner recently lost NINE goats in two separate cheetah attacks in his boma made of brush. Our predator-proof bomas are 100% effective at preventing depredation, and they are a big reason why negative attitudes about carnivores in this area are changing.
Ruaha Carnivore Project’s 50th boma
April 15- Niassa Lion Project
Mbamba boy guarding land in Machamba, Mozambique. Everyone spends a lot of time this season protecting their crops from baboons, elephants, warthogs and bushpigs.
Taken by Agostinho.
April 11- Ewaso Lions – We’ve installed more Lion Lights!
We installed another Lion Light to deter lions and hyenas from going after livestock in Kalama Conservancy.
Sometimes solutions to human-lion conflict can be found in unlikely places. You may have heard of Richard Turere: the 13 year-old Kenyan boy who invented an ingenious system for safely keeping lions from attacking livestock. Knowing that lions were scared of people carrying torches (flashlights) at night, he rigged a series of automated flashing LED light bulbs around his livestock pen. The blinking lights trick lions and other predators into thinking a herdsman is present, so they don’t attack livestock. These “Lion Lights” have been fine-tuned and scaled up, and are being used in various parts of Kenya. Ewaso Lions currently uses five Lion Lights in two different areas and just added another in Kalama Conservancy, and so far they have been 100% successful in keeping livestock safe from lions. By preventing lions from attacking livestock in the first place, this eliminates the incentive for people to kill lions in retaliation. Learn more about our Lion Lights, and check out more information on Richard Turere from CNN and from his TED talk video.
Update!
April 9- Ruaha Carnivore Project Director Spoke at The Houston Zoo
Photo credit Mwagus Safari Camp.
Our director, Amy Dickman, hung out with The Houston Zoo this week, speaking with both the public and the zoo staff about her adventures in the field. Amy told some fascinating tales from experiences with both the wildlife and the local peoples, elucidating that the core components of conservation involve a multidimensional approach that keeps in mind the effect of wildlife decisions on the surrounding people. We heard about the local Barobaig tribe being intensely private, so much so that there are only a small few academic scribblings on their culture from the last 30 years. After trying for 18 months to establish a productive communication with them, it was the solar panels at Amy’s camp that brought in visitors…who wanted to charge their cell phones! By establishing a relationship with this tribe, Amy was able to gather accurate information about lion killings in the area and learn that the Barobaig culture has social benefits (like cattle, status, and women) from a successful lion hunt. These cultural benefits are taken into consideration if conservation projects are to make positive, longstanding efforts. Amy’s work with the Barobaig tribe has seen tremendous results in only 5 years. Working with the people to find incentives that work on multiple levels benefits both people and wildlife for long-term planning. Spending time with local men who, in the past, hunted lions, and giving them social incentives (status, monetary benefits, education) to protect the wild cats has helped both lion populations and local peoples.
One of the Barobaig tribesmen displaying his new cattle fence, supplied by the Ruaha Carnivore Project.
Amy also deals hands on with the lions in the area, collaring as many as she can, and at $5000 a pop, these collars don’t come cheap: they have GPS tracking and are built for rugged action. Collar data in conjunction with the newly active field cameras (which you can sponsor!) allows Amy to make unexplored areas more visible to the academic and local communities, garnering more information about behavior, habitats, and various wildlife populations. Amy and her team have a huge set of responsibilities; if you’d like to support us, you can donate to us through The Houston Zoo or sponsor one of our field cameras. Find more information on events like this at the Call of the Wild Speaker Series web page, or take a look at The Houston Zoo’s Wild Conservation Blog. Want to know a bit more about Amy’s encounters? Check out the video below where she explains her first night in Ruaha…with an adult male lion as an unexpected tent partner!
April 17-20- Ewaso Lions Kenyan Kids on Safari Camp
Started in 2009, the Kenyan Kids on Safari Camp allows children to see wildlife firsthand inside the Samburu National Reserve. Surprisingly, many young people who live adjacent to the reserve have never been inside. We give the kids digital cameras and binoculars so they may take their own photos, which we then print so they can share and remember their experience.
A friendly encounter with an elephant.
Kids from the Wildlife Club at Lpus Leluai Primary School on their first game drive.
In 2013, we are initiating a new and exciting experience for children in Samburu. This month, we will hold a Kenyan Kids on Safari Camp in Westgate Community Conservancy. From April 17—20, children will be taken on bird walks, game drives, watch wildlife films and documentaries, and participate in workshops and sporting events. On the final day, four local primary schools will participate in a Wildlife Drama competition. Read more about Kenyan Kids on Safari in our blog.
April 8- Lion Guardians
Lion Guardians has put up its Annual Report for 2012 for all those interested in detailed program information. They have included necessary basics such as how success is measured, efforts in monitoring lions, and details on scientific data collection, and also added relevant stories from the field, information on human-wildlife conflict in the area, and personal insights into the individual lion guardians and their efforts in the program. Not just full of statistics, this pdf is an informative and positive read!
Here are just a few highlights of the past year:
- For the first time in nearly a decade, the lion population on the group ranches of Amboseli is growing! Since 2010, the majority of cubs have survived to sub-adulthood and some of the female cubs born in early 2010 already have cubs of their own. If this trend continues, the lion population will double in just a few years!
- We expanded the program to two new areas with high rates of lion killing – the West Kilimanjaro ecosystem of northern Tanzania and the Ruaha ecosystem in southern Tanzania, the latter in partnership with Panthera and the Ruaha Carnivore Project.
- David Attenborough visited the Lion Guardians to narrate their story as part of the new BBC Africa series (scroll down to our Febuary 9th update).
April 6- African People and Wildlife Fund Annual Spring Benefit
APW’s 2013 Annual Spring Benefit “Celebrate to Educate Tanzania’s Youth” was on April 6, 2013 at the Baltusrol Country Club in Springfield, New Jersey. Visit our Spring Benefit page for RSVP information or to contact us about the event in the future!
Tickets must be reserved in advance. Print out your RSVP card and mail to: African People & Wildlife Fund P.O. Box 624 Bernardsville, NJ 07924
Or, call APW at 908-642-1540. Want us to send an invitation to a friend? Use our easy template! Thank you!
March 30- Ewaso Lions
With the recent severe lion conflict occurring within the Nakuprat-Gotu Conservancy, Ewaso Lions initiated an exposure tour for residents to visit Westgate Community Conservancy to learn about the conservation activities taking place there, which might be adapted and applied in Nakuprat-Gotu. 
Nakuprat-Gotu is located to the east of Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya. Ewaso Lions organized the exposure tour in February in conjunction with the Kenya Wildlife Service, Nakuprat Conservancy management, Samburu National Reserve and Westgate Community Conservancy. Following discussions within Nakuprat in late January, it was apparent that general conservation awareness among the community was low, and there were concerns over carnivore predation of livestock. Importantly, community members wanted to get involved and become informed. We decided to bring together the residents of this conservancy and take them to Samburu National Reserve and Westgate Conservancy for an exposure tour. For more information on what was discussed, check out Ewaso’s article on the tour.
March 24- Ewaso Lion Project, Kenya
Solomon comes from Kipsing and went to school in Westgate, where he emerged as one of the top children.
Solomon is the third student that we have sponsored for a 4 year term of schooling. We are excited to support such bright, young minds!
March 20- Ruaha Carnivore Project, Tanzania
We’re very excited to announce the launch of the Ruaha Explorers Club, a camera trap sponsorship program benefiting the Ruaha Carnivore Project. These are the camera traps we use to collect data on large carnivores and other species, often in previously unexplored areas in Ruaha National Park and adjacent land, so you will be exploring the area as we do. Sponsors can name their cameras, and the images they capture are posted on their own Facebook page. Cameras stay in place for approximately 30 days, then are moved to another spot. Our first sponsored camera is the Norman Cam. Norman’s sponsor has invited everyone to join her expedition, so check it out. If you’re interested in sponsoring a camera, message us on facebook for more information. Safari njema!
A zebra passes by Nehal’s Cam.
Check out those gams by the Norman Cam!
March 18- Ewaso Lion Project, Kenya
We have been busy working in the Ngare Mara region and other areas in Nakuprat-Gotu Conservancy following the rise in conflict with lions since January.We’ve installed 3 of Tuarere’s Lion Lights in the area, held a number of community meetings and last night took our Wildlife Cinema and showed a film (courtesy of Living with Lions) on lions and conflict, and how to improve bomas. We had more than 130 people from Ngare Mara attend our film showing!
March 15- Niassa Lion Project
Check out our Conservation Agriculture team! Comprised of volunteer farmers, this group of people is testing ways to increase field productivity using conservation agriculture techniques such as mulching, mixed cropping, no tilling, and better seeds. This is part of our program to increase food security and provide benefits from conservation.
The Conservation Agriculture team set up this farmer field school on a week long course run by CARE/WWF in Montepuez, Mozambique.
March 08- Lion Guardians and Ruaha Carnivore Project
We are progressing well with literacy training in the Ruaha Lion Guardians program, a collaboration between Lion Guardians, The Ruaha Carnivore Project, and Panthera. The majority of the Barabaig Community, including our Lion Guardians, have had no formal schooling and cannot read or write in Barabaig (their mother tongue), Swahili (Tanzania’s chosen language), or English (the business language of East Africa and much of the world). We are running literacy trainings to help the Guardians understand and legibly fill out their data collection forms and have advanced to weekly sessions at our Lion Guardians’ urging. Though literacy seems like a staple in the world we live in, many individuals have not had access to education and our Guardians started lessons with learning to write their own names. The training sessions have been full of both laughter and hard work, progressing from the alphabet to learning to recognize, spell, write, and read words. Our plan is to expand the literacy training to any interested in the surrounding community once we have successfully helped our Lion Guardians.
February 27 – Ruaha Carnivore Project
The veterinary medicines program has officially launched! Thanks to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Conservation Endowment Fund for the grant to purchase vet meds which will help provide high-quality medicines to the Ruaha-area people who have worked with the Ruaha Carnivore Project. We want to be able to thank those pastoralists who have helped us fence their bomas (livestock enclosures) and invested in predator-proofing and this is a fantastic way to show our gratitude. The majority of livestock loss in this area is due to illness and injury rather than wildlife depredation, so this medication will help reduce the loss of animals to disease and allow for continued economic security.
RCP Director Amy Dickman presents Mzee Hategeda, a Barabaig man from Kitisi, with his subsidized medicines. He is the first beneficiary of the program.
February 21 – Ruaha Carnivore Project
Here is the final line-up of RCP’s Simba Scholars, ready to start their four-year scholarships at Idodi Secondary (the equivalent of high school in the United States). Whereas primary school is free in Tanzania, secondary school is not. The cost of secondary school often is prohibitive, especially for children of pastoralist families, many of whom subsist on less than $2 a day. Each Simba Scholar receives full tuition, exercise books and school equipment for four years, as well as bedding and a mattress as it is a boarding school. This is a huge advantage for these children, some of whom come from very severe poverty – one of the students used to wear all his clothes at once for primary school as his family couldn’t afford even a bag for him to keep his clothes in. These scholarships will give the students a chance for a better future: Two want to become nurses, three want to become doctors and another wants to become a teacher. From left to right, the Simba Scholars are Nicko (sponsored by Longney Primary School), Kuwanga (sponsored by the AZA Conservation Endowment Fund), Ginyanya (sponsored by Ro Dickman), Isaya and Herieth (both sponsored by the Handsel Foundation) and Grace (sponsored by Exmouth Community College).
February 19 – Ewaso Lions Project
Researchers spend countless hours in the field documenting animal behavior in unfamiliar and even dangerous wilderness. So why not hand over animal observation to those who know the landscape best? National Geographic explorer and lion conservationist Shivani Bhalla did just that. As the “eyes and ears of the Bush,” Shivani has enlisted the help of Samburu warriors in northern Kenya to help collect data on daily lion and wildlife sightings. Since the program’s start in 2010, Warrior Watch has tripled in size is expected to continue growing. Having never been given the chance to attend school, the warriors asked for reading and writing lessons in return for their services. See the video:
February 18 – Ruaha Carnivore Project, Tanzania
We have picked our first six Simba Scholars! Villagers in this area see few tangible benefits from living so close to Ruaha National Park, because tourists typically fly into the Park and do not leave the Park during their visits. We surveyed locals to find out what benefits they would like to see, and better access to education was one of their priorities. Our Simba Scholarship programme provides pastoralist children with secondary educations at boarding school. Primary schooling in Tanzania is free, but secondary is not, making it difficult for families that exist on less than $2 a day to afford. Our first six Simba Scholars start their secondary schooling next week! For more information on our Simba Scholars, please visit Ruaha Carnivore Project News.
February 15 – Lion Program Speaker Events in the US
Niassa Lion Projects Dr. Colleen Begg will be part of the Cincinati Zoo’s Barrows Conservation Lecture Series on March 27th: “Meeting Face to Face to see Eye to Eye: Promoting Coexistence between Lions and People in Niassa Reserve, Mozambique”. Information and tickets are available online at Cincinnati Zoo. Colleen Beggand her husband, Keith, have worked on researching and conserving carnivores in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Mozambique. In 2003 they founded the Niassa Lion Project in the remote wilderness of the Niassa Reserve in Mozambique. Through film, photography, research, and field conservation they are working to secure the large carnivores in their remote region to conserve one of the Earth’s “Last of the Wild” places. Ruaha Carnivore Project’s Dr. Amy Dickman will be part of two events - Blank Park Zoo’s Conservation Series on March 28th -tickets available at online at Blank Park Zoo and then on April 9th, she joins the Houston Zoo for their Call of the Wild Speaker Series – tickets can be reserved at Houston Zoo’s Wildlife Speakers. Dr. Dickman is the Kaplan Senior Research Fellow in Field Conservation at Oxford University, and has over 15 years of experience working on large carnivores in Africa, specializing in big cats. In 2011, she was awarded the Rabinowitz-Kaplan Prize for the Next Generation in Wild Cat Conservation.
February 9 – Lion Guardians
UPDATE: Episode 6 (and others!) are available for download online on iTunes. Lion Guardians featured in the new BBC Nature series “Africa”. We are pleased to share the news that the Lion Guardians program will be featured in an upcoming episode of the BBC series Africa (February 6th in the U.K. and Februrary 9th in the U.S.). Inclusion in any BBC Nature program is a great honor but we are especially proud to be featured in Episode Six, The Future, which highlights several promising and innovative conservation initiatives underway to protect Africa’s iconic wildlife and wilderness areas. Filming of the Lion Guardians’ approach to conservation took place last October. The BBC film crew spent several days with us and captured some amazing footage. Watch for the re-airing of these episodes in the US on Discovery Channel.
Sir David Attenborough learning about the Lion Guardians program from Lion Guardian Olubi
February 8 – Gorongosa Lion Project
Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique recently unveiled a new website where you can explore the park and related conservation initiatives in the region. Take a look at the Gorongosa Lion Project page for an overview of the project.
January – Ewaso Lion Project
In just one week in northern Kenya, one lion has been shot and killed and one nearly killed by men with knives – all as a result of human-wildlife conflict. An adult female was reportedly shot and killed in an area called Nagum, near Buffalo Springs National Reserve in Isiolo District. It appears that she was killed in retaliation after a group of lions killed eight goats inside a small village. A second lion was nearly killed for eating a young cow in Archer’s Post town, but we managed to prevent the men from succeeding, and she left the town to return to Samburu National Reserve. Shivani, Jeneria and a member of Reserve staff literally drove between the lion and the approaching men to stop them from killing her. This was Kofafeth, an 11 year-old female from the Ngare Mare Pride in Buffalo Springs National Reserve. This string of conflict incidents illustrates the extremely tense situation currently between local communities and lions in the Ewaso Nyiro ecosystem of northern Kenya. In the past few months, conflict has risen in frequency and severity across the area, largely as a result of the heavy rain season, during which natural prey disperses and predators turn to livestock. Most issues are occurring outside our study area, so we have the additional challenge of working in unfamiliar areas with communities who have not had much sensitization to carnivore conservation. Our team has been pushed to its limits in meeting with local communities to prevent retaliation, and working to help prevent further lion attacks on livestock. We have are working 14-hour days, covering thousands of kilometers, and coordinating response efforts as best we can. One intervention we are trying is a new innovative predator deterrent called Lion Lights, which blink around livestock bomas at night to scare away lions. In Ngare Mara village, adjacent to Buffalo Springs National Reserve, a pride of lions has made numerous attacks, killing or injuring livestock. Fortunately, local leaders reported these incidents before taking action against the lions, and in response we installed three Lion Lights. So far, there have been no attacks on livestock where the Lion Lights are installed. For more, check out Ewaso’s article.
January 21 – Niassa Lion Project
The Niassa Lion Project is finding solutions for local people to live peacefully with wildlife. Elephants can be very destructive to crops and dangerous to local farmers. This builds a resentment and fear of wildlife. The bee fence will redirect the elephants, and reduce the negative interactions between people and wildlife. The Niassa Lion Project’s Community liaison Mbumba and members of the Mbamba village are effectively detouring elephants from the Mbamba village’s crops with their beehive fence lines. At least 3 of the 12 initial hives have already been colonized by bees, and possibly more soon. The community reports that 10 elephants ran away from the fence last week. This is part of our program to increase food security and engage communities in conservation activities. The success of this non-lethal control method will help lions and all wildlife in the long run. So exciting!
Emerging Issues
Paola Bouley, a colleague from the Gorongosa Lions Project in Mozambique, once said: “I honestly believe a place without lions is no place worth living”. Enjoy the beauty of this Gorongosa Lions video:
Gorongosa Lions from Gorongosa National Park on Vimeo.
November 19 – Niassa Lion Project
Our first three Lion scholarship recipients who will have a full scholarship to go to Mecula Secondary school next year -65km away. The local Mbamba school only goes to Grade 7. Not a single child in the village is in secondary school. These three boys were the best in their class. As long as they pass and do well we will continue to support them. Thank you to a WCN donor who is supporting these three. We will continue to mentor and look after them and see how they do. At the moment they are intimidated but with all our support we hope they will thrive.
November – Ewaso Lion Project
Annual KWS Carnivore Conference held in Nairobi Ewaso Lions attended and presented at the annual Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Carnivore Research and Conservation Conference in Nairobi from July 26th and 27th. It was an excellent opportunity to hear updates from our partners in large carnivore conservation across Kenya, and to inform the group of our latest activities in Samburu. This was our 5th time to present at this annual conference. I provided an update on our conservation research and community programmes between 2011 and 2012. The update included progress such as lion monitoring in Samburu, the completion of a pilot study using camera traps, and new methods that the project has adopted in data collection. I ended my presentation by describing some new projects we are embarking on including Lion Watch, where tour guides from the reserves will use smart phones to get to know the lions of the area and share information with their guests, and Wazee Watch which will complement our successful Warrior Watch programme by focusing on engaging village elders. Jeneria (pictured below) and Ngila gave presentations which were very well received. This was Ngila’s first time in Nairobi, his first time to give a presentation – and a presentation to the country’s key carnivore specialists! We are immensely proud of both Ngila and Jeneria. One of the KWS Senior Scientists even told the group, “It is great to have morans here giving presentations.”
VISIT OUR FACBOOK PAGE
Recent Comments