Lion Guardians project expands again!

After requests from Group Ranch officials, community leaders and other stakeholders in the Amboseli ecosystem, we are proud to inform you that we have now expanded the Lion Guardians project  into another new area in the Amboseli ecosystem – Southern Olgulului! This area stretches along the Kenya-Tanzania border, South of Amboseli National Park, and acts as a wildlife corridor linking both countries. It is a well known human-wildlife conflict prone zone, which has experienced several lion killing incidents in the recent past.

Apart from lion killing, other poaching activities, committed by culprits from both countries, have also been detected along this stretch. Actually, an elephant was killed on the border last week while one escaped with an injury. We envisage that the Lion Guardians will play a vital role in reducing such threats to wildlife, and to lions in particular.  Here I am tracking for collared lions that may be in the area, accompanied by two feathered friends!

We have selected five Lion Guardians in this area, through an open and transparent selection procedure, and the community is very appreciative of the project. The new recruits have been properly trained, issued with equipment and have started working in their respective zones. We have already had a number of lion reports from the new Guardians, who we will introduce to you on the blog soon. Here are the five new Guardians as I train them on their forms.

We have set up an operational base in this area to specifically help the new Lion Guardians in fulfilling their work. We will work in conjunction with other conservation stakeholders in the area, and we were very glad that three days ago Amboseli National Park’s Warden paid us a courtesy call, and was pleased to welcome us into the area. We have now spread the project to all community lands in the Amboseli ecosystem and hope that this will help to prevent human wildlife conflict and the death of any more lions in the ecosystem. Here is one of the lions that we have already found thanks to the reports from the new Lion Guardians.

We will keep you updated on the lion distribution in this vital stretch of land as we build up our knowledge of the population with help from the Lion Guardians, and will let you know how all the guys are doing in their new roles as Guardians of their communities and the lions they live with.