Lion Monitoring
Annual Spatially Explicit Capture Recapture Survey
Each year, Lion Guardians carries out short, high-intensity lion surveys using a well-established scientific approach (SECR) to estimate how many lions are in the area, their sex ratios, and how they use space. These surveys add an extra layer of accuracy to our year-round community monitoring by providing an independent, standardized snapshot of the population. By combining local knowledge with this widely used method, we can track our lion numbers, their change over time, and ensure our results are comparable with lion populations monitored elsewhere in Kenya and across Africa.
Year-round Lion Monitoring
Lion Guardians conducts consistent, year-round monitoring based on opportunistic sightings, with lions located, observed, and individually identified whenever encountered during routine field activities. This continuous field work to monitor lions is especially important for tracking the movements and behaviour of conflict-prone lions, while also documenting key demographic processes including births, deaths, dispersal events, and immigration into the system. Together, these records provide a detailed, longitudinal picture of population dynamics that complements our short-term intensive survey and supports responsive conservation management.
Conflict Mitigation
Conflict Mitigation Toolkit
One of Lion Guardians' long-standing key objectives is promoting human-lion coexistence through effective conflict mitigation. To achieve this, we have developed an innovative conflict mitigation toolkit that combines Indigenous knowledge with scientific methodologies. Learn more on our Conflict Mitigation page.
Human-Wildlife Coexistence
Understanding Lion Dynamics for Conflict Mitigation
Lion Guardians helped develop Problem Animal Control Protocols (PAC) that guide how communities and conservation partners in Kenya identify and respond when lions, elephants, or other wildlife cause conflict or danger. The protocols include clear steps for handling situations like serious human injury, livestock loss, and retaliatory hunts, helping everyone act quickly and safely. By providing clear step by step protocols, coordination among stakeholders is improved during stressful conflict events, and conservationists and managers are able to make informed decisions and build more positive relationships between communities and wildlife.
Elder-to-Herder Mentorship Program
For the Maasai, livestock herding is a vital ancestral practice that helps protect animals from predators. Our Elder-to-Herder Mentorship program brings community elders to schools and gathering places to teach youth traditional herding techniques, strengthening their understanding of pastoralism’s cultural importance. The program builds a strong foundation of responsible herding—essential for peaceful human–wildlife coexistence across the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. By passing this knowledge to the next generation, elders help preserve Maasai culture while equipping youth to herd livestock away from conflict hotspots, understand wildlife behavior, and prevent human-lion-livestock conflict.
Poisoning Awareness Campaign
Poisoning is a growing concern in the Amboseli ecosystem, and one of the most serious threats to lions and other wildlife as it often causes rapid and widespread losses following conflict incidents. Lion Guardians runs a poisoning awareness campaign that works directly with communities to highlight the dangers of poison to people, livestock, wildlife, and the wider environment, while promoting safer and more effective responses to conflict. Through education, early reporting, and coordinated response, the campaign helps prevent poisoning events and supports coexistence between people and wildlife.
Community Benefits Program
To strengthen community ownership and stewardship, we work with communities in our operating areas to define the benefits that best support conservation and coexistence across the Amboseli–Tsavo ecosystem. We intentionally link conservation action to tangible community benefits, ensuring communities see direct value in living with lions, these benefits help reduce human–lion conflict and support coexistence. Support includes hiring and paying schoolteachers, providing livestock medication for animals injured by lions and other predators, contributing to school fundraisers, partnering with local clinics to purchase antivenom for snakebites, helping communities access medical care, and investing in Lion Guardians staff through professional training and courses.