Ever since she was collared 1 ½ months ago, our female lioness named Selenkay has been missing. We have searched for her practically everywhere but all in vain; it seemed she disappeared into thin air! The Lion Guardians both on Eselenkei and Mbirikani Group Ranches, conducted an intensive ground operation to look out for tracks…
masai
CBS 60 minutes – lion poisoning
Last night CBS showed the follow up to their 60 minutes program on the misuse of Furadan, to poison lions and other wildlife in Kenya. Click here to read about the program and watch the video. We are very grateful to CBS for publicizing the devastating effects that Furadan poisoning has had on lions and…
Hyena menace
As we told you a few days ago, the devastating drought is contributing to an increase in human-wildlife conflicts. In the last couple of weeks, reports have been streaming in from our volunteering Lion Guardians. During one week, over ten donkeys were killed by hyenas in different corners of Eselenkei Group Ranch. Lack of enough…
A message from Antony – 3 months on
It has been three months since I joined the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. Before, I never knew what it meant to collect data and why someone must use specific methods to do it right. That is now history. Thanks to Dr. Lucy Tallents who has been working tirelessly to make sure that…
Lions, bomas, laptops? Thank you!
Thank you for your concern about the ongoing drought here and for your donations over the past few months. We would like to thank Cass N, Brian M, Black C, Richard V, Lois C, Anne C, Loki Q, Diane K, Jessica F, Pirjo I, Sheri H, Katherine J, Samantha V, Scott R, Jace A, Sauwah…
Devastating drought
The drought is worsening day by day. It has not rained properly for two consecutive years, and the pastoralist Maasai community who inhabit the group ranch have moved their livestock in three directions in search of greener pastures. The cows are all becoming very thin, and many are dying. The first group moved their livestock…
Guardians help prevent conflicts with wildlife
At the workshops we held recently with the new potential Guardians, we asked them to each pick the weakest boma (livestock enclosure) in their area – one that had been recently targeted by predators or that they thought needed the most urgent re-building. We wanted them to find bomas that would benefit most from being given…
Introducing the Tara Pride!
Thanks for your suggestions about names for our new pride of lions. After long discussions about what to name the Eselenkei pride of lions which includes collared female Nosieki, the Lion Guardians and team have settled on a Maasai name which is befitting for this pride: the Tara Pride. An interesting thing about this…
Collaring our second lion!
We recently received a report from one of our volunteering Guardians Lopono, that lion tracks had been found over two hours drive from camp. We started our journey in the scorching afternoon sun and on the way collected a further three volunteering Guardians, Kisioki, Naini and Lenkai who had also found tracks in the area.…
More tests for new Lion Guardians
The Lion Guardians team recently conducted three workshops for our thirteen new Guardians who are hoping for employment. We trained and tested them on their tracking skills and reading and writing abilities, as well as carrying out some human-wildlife conflict role-play scenarios with them. The Maasai warriors were eager to learn as well as demonstrate…