With the current well distributed short rains having made the whole terrain verdant, wild ungulates found perfect reason for a holiday outside Amboseli National Park. They streamed out as they usually do into the open plains and ranches adjacent to the Park. Hundreds of elephant families from the park were the first to make forays…
eselenkei
The on-set of the rainy season
Since the devastating drought in 2009 that created an imbalance between predators and plains game and which wiped out a very big percentage of both livestock and wildlife, the entire ecosystem has been trying to return to equilibrium. This year, the heavens have been very good in giving us the much needed rain, almost exceeding…
Frequent sighting of leopards in Selenkay Conservancy
Long ago, there use to be many leopards in the area of Eselenkei Group Ranch but due to various reasons their numbers have declined, and they have become completely scarce. Unlike cheetahs that are found in big numbers, and can be seen during the day, leopards are extremely elusive and are hard to see. Being…
Biggest pride resides in Eselenkei
For survival reasons, lions outside protected areas hang out in groups of between two to three. By splitting, they stand better chances of survival from persecution after depredation of livestock. However, for the first time in the history of Eselenkei conservancy, a pride of eleven resides in it. Our female lioness Selenkay, has had two…
Nosioki and cub are dead
My fears have now been validated. I regret to inform you that Nosioki, our motherly female lioness is no more! A few days ago, I wrote about the lion-livestock conflict in Osewan. This area has been of great concern to the Lion Guardians given the fact that it is just outside of Lion Guardian zones, on a…
2010 in Review
The beginning of 2010 marked an extremely difficult time for our Lion Guardians. First, a prolonged devastating drought wiped out over half of the herbivore population – both domestic and wild. Livestock, which are the backbone of the Maasai economy, were drastically reduced by both the drought and the subsequent diseases which affected the survivors…
An interesting turn-out at a call-in
Recently, we have received several reports from our Lion Guardians and the Selenkay Conservancy game scouts of a male lion calling. Our Lion Guardian team decided to do a “call-in” in an attempt to identify the lion. To do a call-in, we play a variety of animal calls over a loudspeaker at night such as…
Conflict increases between lions and livestock
Hello to all our readers, and sorry the Lion Guardians blog has been quiet for a while. We are all extremely busy right now, as conflict between lions and livestock owners is at an extremely high level at the moment, especially on Eselenkei and Olgulului Group Ranches. The Guardians and Coordinators are working hard to calm angry…
Lion Guardians find two magnificent male lions
Hi everyone. This is Eric. Our team was out in the field visiting the southern Olgulului area where we hope to expand the Lion Guardians project to. The community members came out in good numbers to meet our team and seemed very pleased with our plans for expansion into their area. On seeing satisfaction written…
Snakes and lions
As well as lions, we are coming across a lot of snakes at the moment. The Lion Guardians have been spotting them in holes, up trees and in grass, others on the road, and even one flying through the sky – read more to find out how! Late one evening while the Lion Guardians team…