We had a few particularly memorable lion reports in the last few months; Stephanie, our Co-Founder and Director of Science, explains why they were so meaningful to our team. Recently, we were delighted to see the now-adult offspring of Nenkopewa and Martii, grandchildren of Selenkay and Lomunyak, great-grandchildren of Asama. Guardian Lekundu had tracked two…
An Old Friend Returns
A familiar visitor strolled through camp recently. Here, Lion Monitoring Manager Philip Briggs recounts the details. I gasped, inhaling sharply, as I was suddenly shaken out of my meandering dream. But I quickly became aware of the sound that brought me to this inconvenient and dark place in the wee hours of the morning. The…
Why Conservation Solutions Need To Be Radical
Amazon. IKEA. ValuJet. And…Lion Guardians? Our organization might not seem like it has much in common with these business giants; we are certainly not a huge corporation, nor a household name. But like each of them, we have taken big risks, shaken up our industry, and seen big rewards. In fact, our perspective is that…
Our family continues to grow
It is always exciting to welcome new faces to the Lion Guardians family! Since the beginning of the year, we have hired two new Guardians to help conserve lions and preserve communities in our operating area. Lankoi Partoti Mancha is a 24-year old member of the Iltuati age-set [the current group of morans, or warriors].…
Introducing Kikardi
Introducing Kikardi Jackson Kikardi – a new addition to our senior management team – joined Lion Guardians last year, but we have been so busy in the field that we are only now sharing our excitement about him coming on board! Before joining us, Kikardi was working as a field operations manager for Soils for…
A meeting with Murrans
Murrans [warriors] are not only critical to Maasai culture; they’re also key to the success of our organization. That’s partly because members of this age class make up the majority of the Guardians themselves, but also because they are an important and active part of the community that Lion Guardians serves. We have begun to…
Building Confidence and Commitment Through Collaboration
Earlier this month, the Lion Guardians team was thrilled to host a six-day customized knowledge sharing session for seven participants from the Niassa Carnivore Project (5) and Niassa National Reserve (2) in Mozambique. These groups are on the front lines of conservation where they operate – where 60,000 people live within the protected area –…
Sowing Seed(ball)s of Coexistence
Following our successful event in August, we recently hosted a second community engagement activity at a local primary school. More than fifty children gathered together with several community members and representatives from the Lion Guardians team for an event filled with fun and excitement! Our first goal was to celebrate the benefits of community-driven conservation…
A memorable moment during the Lion Census
For over a hundred days, the Lion Guardians phone has been abuzz with messages and the air has been filled with exciting conversations about lions – even more so than usual! That’s because Lion Guardians has been involved in a key conservation effort currently underway across Kenya, the National Lion Census. This project has been…
Four New Guardians Join Our Team
This year, we have experienced extremely high levels of conflict, mostly as a result of heavy rainfall and a booming lion population. And although the communities have been extraordinarily tolerant, we have hired four new Guardians to help proactively mitigate conflict in our operating areas. Our office manager Merishi recently got a chance to catch…