Now that the expansion to Southern Olgulului is complete, we thought we should introduce you to the fine young men who will be protecting the lions of this area and reducing conflict between people and predators. One of the most useful additions to the Lion Guardians team is Maen Koole. He represents the Ngararampuni zone…
Lion Guardians
Lion Guardians find lions and injured zebra
As we try to establish the details of the lions residing in Southern Olguluui we were fortunate enough to see one of the largest prides in Southern Olgulului, comprising 3 females and 9 cubs. We found them in a grassy area looking visibly hungry. The cubs are almost one year old and portraying the playful…
We find the missing lion!
Sikiria is an interesting lion. He has the kind of collar which means that once we find him, we can download all the GPS details of where he has been, without having to do more than press a few buttons! It sounds easy! BUT Sikiria loves to roam far and wide, and we haven’t been…
Identify this animal!
Today, we received a report from one of our newly selected Lion Guardians from Southern Olgulului – Parkepu. He saw a male waterbuck that was killed by a lone male lion in the morning. We promptly responded as is always the case. We went to the site and saw the carcass. The lion had only…
New warriors blessing ceremony
The traditional blessings of the new moran (or warrior) age-set called Iltuati took place recently at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. This is a traditional blessing ceremony that must be undergone by every Maasai age-set at the beginning of its transition to the next stage of life. It was meant to have been held last…
Elephant chases lions and other animal activity!
During our expansion to Southern Olgulului, on the way back from a visit to Amboseli National Park’s headquarters we found a baboon acting like a traffic policeman! He was sitting in the middle of the road and stayed there for half an hour with vehicles passing right by him. It was a fascinating sight. You…
Lion Guardians project expands again!
After requests from Group Ranch officials, community leaders and other stakeholders in the Amboseli ecosystem, we are proud to inform you that we have now expanded the Lion Guardians project into another new area in the Amboseli ecosystem – Southern Olgulului! This area stretches along the Kenya-Tanzania border, South of Amboseli National Park, and acts…
The great search for a lion collar
One of the types of collars that are put on lions in order to track them is a kind that is set to drop off the lion on a particular date. One of our male lions, Maringa, had one of these collars, and as the date of ‘drop off’ became closer, it was critical to…
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…
The elephant shoe thief returns
You might remember that a while ago a rather inquisitive elephant took a liking to one of my shoes, which I had foolishly left outside my tent one night. The elephant took it into the bush and investigated it thoroughly before deciding that it was inedible and threw it away into a thorn tree, where…