After a brief dry spell which began around June this year, some areas within the Amboseli ecosystem are now experiencing rain. The dry spell was very mild and in contrast to the devastating drought experienced in the last two years, very few pastoralists moved their livestock to temporary settlements as there was still plenty of grass available. No livestock deaths were experienced through starvation.

Here in the Selenkay Conservancy where one of the Lion Guardians camps is based, the grass is green and the animals are plentiful. Due to the rains, the movement patterns of the animals have changed, making the usual animals we see like plains game, kudu, ostriches, elephants, giraffes, bat eared foxes, jackals, civets, servals, striped and spotted hyenas, porcupines, lions and cheetahs more abundant, and meaning that we are also getting special sightings such as toroises and honey badgers too! It truly is alive with wildlife!

With some wildlife species especially zebra and wildebeest heavily pregnant and expected to calve soon, the level of depredation is also expected to reduce drastically. Livestock have already begun calving and this will also result in pastoralists’ happy faces as they will be able to milk their cows for the first time in two years. What a sigh of relief!