Amboseli lions and deadly drought

On Monday we received a report from one of the guides from Amboseli Porini Camp, which is near our new project on Eselenkei Group Ranch. (Thank you so much for the report Amboseli Porini!) They told us they had seen a collared lion in Amboseli National Park, so we rushed over to see who it was.

Our suspicion was that it was Nempakai, who used to reside on Mbirikani with a large pride of 9 others, but hasn’t been here for many months now. We picked up her signal almost immediately and after some searching we found her relaxing with another female with three cubs. Here is Nempakai and one of the cubs.

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Then just a few metres away we spotted 2 lovely young male sub adults, and another female, making a pride of 8.

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And not only that but a few hundred metres away was a large if slightly bedraggled looking male. What a great sight!

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We wonder whether Nemapaki and her pride will now stay in the park or venture back over to Mbirikani. Amboseli is extremely dry. Here you can see a dead zebra next to bones from another animal, with another carcass in the distance.

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The place is littered with dead wildlife; buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and sadly elephants are dying too.

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The drought is seriously harming the wildlife and Maasai livestock in this area and our Guardians are struggling to cope with their communities’ problems. Lion Guardian Koikai told us yesterday that at a boma close to him they had 12 dead cows in one day, and had burnt 26 dead cows the previous week. The Maasai people here are finding it extremely hard at this time.

5 Comments

  • Anna M says:

    Thank you for the pictures of the great looking lions (it must be something with Amboseli males) but one of the few I’ve seen there also had that bedraggled look about him, at least the females still finds him attractive ! So sad to see pictures of Amobseli looking ghost like, full of carcasses, a silent and prolonged tragedy is slowly taking place over there as well as on many other places, it must be hard for all to see and the Massai to live through… thanks for the great job you do.

  • sauwah says:

    so many carcasses for predators to consume, Nemapaki and her pride has made a good decision. hope the rain will come soon and stay for a long while for the land to heal and grass to grow.

  • Brenton H says:

    Would you be able to tell us about the new Lion Guardians on Eselenkei please? It would be great to know more about them?

  • Hi Brenton – yes absolutely. We’re writing up some profiles about the new Guardians right now and hope to bring you them soon. Thanks for reading!

  • umar says:

    God protects the lions n u soldiers fighting for them, dnt give up this fight guys n thnks for what u are doing.. Amboseli’s face was not very pretty wen i saw it in july, hope the rains have returned with life.

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