Early in 2021, a young lioness named Nempusel entered our operating area from Amboseli Park. She was a first-time mom, and she gave birth to her cubs right next to several bomas. We’ve seen other new moms have their cubs in similar areas; these new mums don’t seem to realize having little cubs so close…
In our latest blog, Lion Guardians’ Research Scientist Nadia de Souza announces some exciting news for our program. We are thrilled to be one of the grantees of EarthRanger’s inaugural Conservation Technology Award! Technology has always been central to our work, as the Lion Guardians model is based on blending traditional ecological knowledge – a…
Conservation is about more than keeping animals safe – it’s also about protecting the people living alongside those animals. Here, Program Manager Luke Mamaai discusses our recent efforts to help keep local community members safe from COVID. Here in the Amboseli ecosystem, COVID is on the rise – we are seeing many cases, and unfortunately,…
With nearly 250 lions roaming our ecosystem, it can be hard to keep up with them all. In this post, Philip Briggs provides an update on a group we’ve keenly followed for years. In 2018, we enjoyed observing a trio of subadults – two sisters and a brother – disperse away from their natal range…
To protect lions and communities, it is critical to respond quickly when human-wildlife conflict erupts as well as to anticipate conflict before it even happens. Previous scientific research has found that lions’ activity patterns, attack rates, and hunting success vary across different phases of the moon, so we decided to dig into our own data…
Last year, our Program Manager Luke Maamai successfully completed his Master’s thesis in Conservation Biology at University of Kent. Below, Luke shares some main findings from his research, which offers new hope for lions in our ecosystem, and guidance for how we can continue to enable coexistence in a changing landscape. In order to understand…
Recently, our Assistant Manager Jackson Kikardi checked in with a local Lion Guardians-supported schoolteacher to see how things were going. Here, like in many parts of the world, local schools have been closed for the last several months to protect communities during the pandemic. During this closure, many Maasai schoolkids remained at home and turned…
Over the course of last year, communities in our operating area experienced more than 220 attacks on their livestock – that’s more than twice as many as we recorded in 2019. This increase is due to lots of factors: growing lion and human populations, an increasingly unpredictable climate, shifting cultural values leading to less responsible…
Mock hunts are an integral part of our conflict mitigation work. We are currently raising funds to triple the size of our conflict response team; to support this work, please visit our campaign page. Many of our best conservation tools come from communities themselves, and “mock hunts” are no exception. In the past, when a…
Our latest research has been published! Here, our Office and Data Manager John Merishi, who is Maasai, shares his perspective on the research and why it is so important. Livestock are central to Maasai culture and life. Pastoralists consider livestock to be their ‘bank account’, since they sell cows and goats to pay bills such…