Carnivore attacks prevented as lost livestock are brought home

Lion Guardian Mokoi was out in the bush tracking lions late yesterday, when he came across more than 18 calves on their own without a herder. He recognized the owner of the calves by their ear notches (every livestock owner has a different one to identify which cows belong to whom), so he managed to round them up and took them back to the owner.

One of the roles of the Lion Guardians is to help prevent conflict between people and wildlife in their communities, and one way they do this is to find lost livestock, left out in the bush. Lost livestock is often attacked by predators, which could lead to retaliatory attacks against the carnivores.

It is to be expected that more livestock will get lost around this time of year, due to lack of rains. This means that grazing pastures become scarcer and animals must wander further to find food.

However, the communities also have a role to play by making sure that their animals are safe. If this number of livestock were left out in the bush overnight, the owner might have found nothing left in the morning.