Herding Helps Create Wildlife Hotspots

African wildlife and herders have a complex – and sometimes strained – relationship. But at Lion Guardians, we’ve always believed that pastoralism and conservation are not merely compatible, they can actually be beneficial to each other. A fascinating new study supports this point of view, suggesting that wildlife in Africa may actually owe some of…

Dispatches from the 2018 Lion Guardians Games

In July, twelve Guardians travelled to Tanzania for sightseeing and to meet up with the extended Lion Guardians family – Ilchokuti from Kope Lion and Lion Defenders from Ruaha Carnivore Project – for the annual Lion Guardians Games. The participants enjoyed both collaboration and competition…everything from sharing stories from the field to a fierce tug-of-war competition! They…

Dispatches from the 2018 Lion Guardians Games

In July, twelve Guardians travelled to Tanzania for sightseeing and to meet up with the extended Lion Guardians family – Ilchokuti from Kope Lion and Lion Defenders from Ruaha Carnivore Project – for the annual Lion Guardians Games. The participants enjoyed both collaboration and competition…everything from sharing stories from the field to a fierce tug-of-war competition! They…

Troubling Times for Lorpait

Our Guardians and lion monitoring team have been particularly busy on the ground this year, mitigating conflict and keeping lions and communities safe. Here’s some recent news from the field from our community manager Eric Ole Kesoi. Lorpait, a male lion born near the western side of Amboseli National Park, had an unusual early life.…

Better Bomas = Less Conflict

In the following dispatch, our program manager Luke Maamai explains how a collaborative project between Lion Guardians and Born Free Foundation will help local lions, livestock, and community members. Much of the decline in the lion population in Africa results from the illegal killing of lions using spears, snares and poisoning in revenge for livestock depredation.…

Kimana’s Mystery Lion is Identified!

Earlier this year, Big Life Foundation – with support from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – took over the management of Kimana Sanctuary, and we were excited to report that a lion was beginning to use the protected area and nearby wildlife corridors. Naturally, we were intrigued to find out more! When Big Life initially called upon…

Big Local Progress on Wildlife Poisoning

Recently, a powerful National Geographic article depicting wildlife poisoning in Africa featured our work and that of many conservation partners, as well as the Kenya Wildlife Service.  And while poisoning is a critically important conservation issue, we would like to share that we actually experience very little poisoning in the Amboseli-Tsavo group ranches where we…

Planting Seeds for the Future

Last week, we held an outreach event at a local primary school. Here’s a dispatch about the event from our office manager Merishi. The event was a follow up of the previous meeting that was held during the World Lion Day. During the first meeting, Lion Guardians and the participants agreed to participate in a…

How Some Lions Learn a Dangerous Habit

Like some other smart and social species, lions often learn from each other. This so-called “social learning” is generally advantageous for animals, since it enables helpful behaviors to spread through groups; dolphins learn from their mothers to use sponges as tools, monkeys learn to wash sweet potatoes from other members of their troop, and fish…

Familiar Faces in the Eselenkei Conservancy

In January of this year, we were surprised to find two young males, Gurme and Lormesasu, entering the heart of our handsome reigning king Martii’s territory. These teenagers have dispersed from the slopes of the Chyulu Hills, nearly 65 kilometers away. We are pleased to see them moving safely across the ecosystem and – as…