For a few days, we kept on receiving reports about a problematic limping lion. He has been sighted several times and is known to have an appetite for livestock meat. Not good news! His story is very interesting though…. Many years ago, before conservation moved into the area, a pride of lions killed several goats…
A blog from Antony – the tough task ahead
This is my first month back in the office and a lot is happening. I have heard that lots of lions are being killed in the south of Olgulului. This area has no Lion Guardians to monitor lions and other carnivores presently. Partly because we are looking for funds to expand the project to this…
Another angry lion hunting party is stopped
Eric, the Lion Guardian coordinator on Eselenkei and Olgulului group ranches gives us the latest news from what is still a battlefield between lion and Maasai: In what has become a daily occurrence over the last two months, our Lion Guardians team has yet again worked together with our conservation partners to stop a lion…
The art of tracking!
The Lion Guardians have been conducting ‘spoor counts’ for almost a year now (spoor is a word meaning animal tracks) as part of their weekly routine. Each Guardian has two set routes of roughly 6km long and he walks each route once a week. From the very beginning of the route to the end, the…
How to donate to the Lion Guardians and where your money goes
I’d like to remind all our blog readers how they can help lion conservation by making donations to the Lion Guardians project on this blog. Every single donation made through the Lion Guardians blog goes towards the project. A lot of the funds raised go towards the project’s daily running costs, such as paying the…
Lion Guardian Games update
Hello everyone, especially those of you who made donations towards the Lion Guardian Games, which were due to be held between Christmas and New Year. Unfortunately the lack of herbivores and presence of weak cows returning after the drought meant that there was a sudden increase in attacks on livestock by carnivores, and even more…
KWS move zebras to Amboseli
Amboseli National Park has been severely suffering during the drought that has affected the whole of the Amboseli ecosystem, including Mbirikani, Eselenkei and Olgulului Group Ranches where the Lion Guardians work. Many hundreds, if not thousands of wild herbivores have been dying and moving away from the area, leaving it severely lacking in prey for lions…
Liz joins Lion Guardians
Thank you to everyone for their fantastic comments on the previous blog – Antony is back! Your encouragement and support is as always greatly appreciated. We would also like to welcome another new face to the Lion Guardians project. Liz Carabine has joined the ever growing Lion Guardians team to manage the project as well…
Antony is back!
It has been a month since I left Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. I have really enjoyed the past four weeks, being with my family and picking up from where I left last. Here I am at Oxford University. How different the two places are! One of the most important things to me was…
New lion cubs!
We are delighted to report that Mbirikani lioness Nimaoi has had her first litter of three cubs! Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project Biologist Kylie has been keeping a close eye on them, and though Nimaoi has been hiding them away most of the time, she has been able to catch a few glimpses of the cute…