Steven from the Laikipia Predator Project came down to Mbirikani last week with expert tracker, Morani. Steven and Morani spent a week with the Lion Guardians developing their tracking skills even further for a new part of their work – spoor counting.
Although the Lion Guardians are all expert trackers, Steven and Morani helped them with counting large herds of animals, which they need to be able to do for their spoor counting work. Imagine how hard it is to see how many wildebeest have crossed a particular path, when there are over 20 in the group, just from looking at their tracks! It’s a difficult skill to learn. Can you tell what animal made these tracks?
Steven and Morani taught the Lion Guardians on Mbirikani a lot – we hope that they will be able to come down again and teach our new Guardians on Eselenkei and Olgulului these important skills too.
Here’s one sorry story of caged cats: http://www.yle.fi/alueet/helsinki/helsinki/2009/10/korkeasaaren_leijonat_sotajalalla_elainlaakarin_kanssa_1086938.html
I don’t know which translator is better, so I just tried Google Translate, and the result is laughable as always. The title is not about daggers, it is about lions being on war path (or, literally, “war foot”) with their veterinarian. The caption under the picture has its grammar all mixed up. The right translation would be “to the lions in Korkeasaari Zoo, the veterinarian is an uninvited guest”. And so on. I dont’ have time to translate it all, so I just list some Finnish words the Google translator could not match with anything English: “lauma” is pride; “jälkikasvu” is offspring; “kahdeksankuinen” is eight months old; “liukastua” is to slip (on ice or such); “emo” is mother; “kohtakokas” is fatal; “amurinpantteri” is panther from Amur; “kaupungineläintarha” is city zoo.
by looking at the tracks, i bet the prints belong to a big feline like a lion or a leopard. why? because they do not have claw marks.
Well.. I can reveal that these tracks actually belong to a spotted hyena! You can tell by the lopsided-looking back pad, and the outside toe prints are shaped a bit like bananas.. and if you look closely there are some impressions just next to the toes – claw marks!
Thanks for the article link Timi.