Murrans [warriors] are not only critical to Maasai culture; they’re also key to the success of our organization. That’s partly because members of this age class make up the majority of the Guardians themselves, but also because they are an important and active part of the community that Lion Guardians serves. We have begun to…
Sowing Seed(ball)s of Coexistence
Following our successful event in August, we recently hosted a second community engagement activity at a local primary school. More than fifty children gathered together with several community members and representatives from the Lion Guardians team for an event filled with fun and excitement! Our first goal was to celebrate the benefits of community-driven conservation…
Four New Guardians Join Our Team
This year, we have experienced extremely high levels of conflict, mostly as a result of heavy rainfall and a booming lion population. And although the communities have been extraordinarily tolerant, we have hired four new Guardians to help proactively mitigate conflict in our operating areas. Our office manager Merishi recently got a chance to catch…
Troubling Times for Lorpait
Our Guardians and lion monitoring team have been particularly busy on the ground this year, mitigating conflict and keeping lions and communities safe. Here’s some recent news from the field from our community manager Eric Ole Kesoi. Lorpait, a male lion born near the western side of Amboseli National Park, had an unusual early life.…
Better Bomas = Less Conflict
In the following dispatch, our program manager Luke Maamai explains how a collaborative project between Lion Guardians and Born Free Foundation will help local lions, livestock, and community members. Much of the decline in the lion population in Africa results from the illegal killing of lions using spears, snares and poisoning in revenge for livestock depredation.…
Big Local Progress on Wildlife Poisoning
Recently, a powerful National Geographic article depicting wildlife poisoning in Africa featured our work and that of many conservation partners, as well as the Kenya Wildlife Service. And while poisoning is a critically important conservation issue, we would like to share that we actually experience very little poisoning in the Amboseli-Tsavo group ranches where we…
Planting Seeds for the Future
Last week, we held an outreach event at a local primary school. Here’s a dispatch about the event from our office manager Merishi. The event was a follow up of the previous meeting that was held during the World Lion Day. During the first meeting, Lion Guardians and the participants agreed to participate in a…
Guardians: Defenders of the Community
Murrans [Maasai warriors] are tasked with defending all those in their community, and Guardians embody this role – they protect people, livestock, lions, and more. Our office and data manager Merishi sent us an update on one recent event where a Guardian went above and beyond to keep his community safe and intact. On the…
Guardian Kikanai – Reflections on the Trip to Tanzania for the Lion Guardians Games
As narrated to John Merishi by Guardian Kikanai Likampa The trip to Tanzania was excellent. I was delighted to have been chosen and also that the Lion Guardians team ensured that all was in place for a safe travel to and from Tanzania. I was also grateful that the Kope Lion team was so hospitable.…
Will you help us light up our tree?
via GIPHY As the year winds down, we would like to take this opportunity to reach out and ask for your continued support. With a growing lion population, we are adding more and more Guardians to our community. Our goal for 2017 is to have all our Guardians salaries fully sponsored. We are 51% of…