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 area and secondly, we need to get enthusiastic and hard working Guardians who will make sure that no lions are killed in the area.

I am really impressed with two particular areas in northern Olgulului – Risa and Inchakita, which used to record high number of lions killed around this time of the year in previous years. Now that I have met my fellow warriors Medidingi, Lentooma and Sumulei, who work as Lion Guardians in these areas, it is my sincere hope that lions will be rescued. This is Lentooma:

There is bound to be lots of conflicts in the next few months because the drought has reduced the number of wild herbivores, and lions are left to venture into people bomas and kill livestock. This leads local Maasai to retaliate due to the low number of livestock that remain after the past drought. Below is a photo of Lion Guardian Medidingi, who is doing a great job protecting lions:

Hence the Guardians need to be proactive to counteract and rescue lions before they get into people’s bomas. And this is exactly what they have been doing in the previous weeks; the good news is that no lions have so far been speared in the areas where the Lion Guardians are working, like Risa, where Sumulei works:

For this our thanks go out to the Lion Guardians and the communities of Risa and Inchakita and the other conservation organizations like the Maasailand Preservation Trust and Kenya Wildlife Service who are also working for this same aim.