The on-going human-wildlife conflict in Amboseli moved a notch higher yesterday with a complete show of bravado never seen in the recent past. Monday in the middle of the night a lioness, Amyjane, had jumped into a boma adjacent to the park, killed a donkey and cow, and was speared in the front left leg. The morans responsible for the spearing…
The third annual Lion Guardian Games were held on the expansive plains of Oldoinyo-Wuas among the foothills of the Chyulu range. Lion Guardians were looking forward to this day with great anticipation and excitement and they were not disappointed. True to its nature, the games lived up to their usual competitive billing. Drawn from all corners of…
Osewan is a re-known thicket that extends well beyond the jurisdiction of Lion Guardians. The Maasai section that inhabit most of this area are called Matapato and are yet to benefit from the fruits of conservation, thus highly intolerant to predators that kill their livestock. This is the same area in which one of our…
Olamayiani – the blessed one, Mingati – one who is fast and doesn’t lag behind, Miterienanka – one who is quick to claim (win) glory by killing a lion. These are just some of the most popular lion names a moran (a Maasai warrior) can receive from spearing a lion. In Maasai culture the first…
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…
Two new lions have been spotted patrolling Amboseli National Park. Whenever these two brothers, Amboga and Companion, move into a new area, the resident male lions there move out. Amboga and Companion are now the new kids on the block in the park. They have made the northwestern side of the park their home and have…
After the poisoning of Nosioki and her cub, there was a meeting yesterday in Matapato to discuss the incident. People were calm since the two suspects that had been arrested a few days prior were released on the eve of the meeting in a surprise move by KWS. Before the release the Group Ranch was…
The Maasai, as a community, form a distinctive social unit sharing a culture, language and social structures. Structures such as age-sets and clans form the most important framework for both the social and political organization of the communities. Through them, every person has well defined roles, responsibilities, rights and obligations in relation to every other…
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…
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…