lion conservation

New site tracks lion for us!

We are very excited about a new website that has just been launched by the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project, which shows exactly where one of our collared lions Ndelie has been in the previous few days. Ndelie’s collar transmits GPS signals to a satellite, which then sends this information on his location to the site!…

Lion kill

Yesterday we were very lucky to see one of our collared female lions Nemasi catching a young oryx to feed her and her 3 cubs.   The cubs are now about 6 months old, and were all eager to eat the feast that their mother had caught for them. Lion Guardian Kapande has been tracking…

My local main street

If you have been following this blog for a while, you will have probably seen quite a few photos of the landscape around the Chyulu Hills, on Mbirikani Group Ranch where our Lion Guardians program is based. It is a beautiful place to live and work, and when it is not too cloudy we can…

Feral dogs killing spree

We have received a worrying report from Lion Guardian Koikai. He says that feral dogs are killing young goats in his area and that so far the dogs have managed to kill more than seven animals in less than two weeks. The community has asked Koikai to try and solve this problem for them, before they…

Advertising lions

How much respect and money would I get if I was a king? And how much attention would I be given if I was a great hero? If I was famous and appeared in many advertisements and one day I fell sick, do you think the advertiser would help me out? I have been thinking…

Another Lion Guardian falls ill

This month seems to be a tough one for us Guardians. For the third time in a month we have a Guardian fallen ill. Earlier in the month Mokoi had a very bad problem with his eye, which meant that he couldn’t close it, and it seemed to almost pop right out of the socket.…

Cheetah attacks reduced

As always we held our end of month meeting where Lion Guardians from all parts of the ranch come together to discuss what has happened in their areas over the month. Most of the Guardians reported less lion sightings, except for Melubo and Kapande who have both been able to track lions in their areas…

Tracking down lions

We are still training up the new Lion Guardian Solonka, to make sure he is proficient in all the different skills he needs. Although most Maasai murrans are very used to identifying the tracks of different animals, we need to make sure that new Lion Guardians are able to give us accurate and detailed information about the…

Maasai marriage

Marriage in Maasai culture is one of our most important traditional activities. A man has to be married as soon as he undergoes the circumcision ceremony. A Maasai murran is not able to choose whom he is going to marry. If a murran’s father has a good friend with a daughter, then the fathers will…

The burden of a Maasai woman

 I think it is only here in Maasailand that women are the beasts of burden. They have a lot of responsibilities; land tilling, herding cows, collecting water and firewood and even building houses. Recently I came across a new house being built from local materials. In the photo you can see branches collected from the…