Ewaso Lions

We are excited to announce the first two students sponsored by Ewaso Lions, Samson and Edward. These bright boys completed primary school at Lpus Leluai here in Westgate Community Conservancy. We are sponsoring them to continue their education at a highly ranked secondary school in Meru. Under the Ewaso Lions sponsorship, their tuition will be covered for 4 full academic years.

Students here often finish primary school but lack the funds to attend secondary school. Families are struggling more nowadays to send their children to secondary school after the severe and prolonged 2009 drought, which killed most of their livestock. Normally, parents send their children to school by selling a few cows to pay for fees and uniforms. However, at the end of 2009 most families in the Westgate area had no livestock left.

We work closely with Lpus Leluai Primary School and I have known the students for many years. We have involved them in our trees project, Kenyan Kids on Safari and more recently on our Simba Stories book. These children are bright and take these education opportunities seriously. They know that to be able to go to school is a privilege for them and they don’t waste these chances.

Samson and Edward were selected because of their diligent study ethic, their high school marks, and their keen interest in wildlife issues. Edward was the head boy in Lpus Leluai and Samson was the boy with the highest marks over the last few years. He is also our main artist in our Simba Stories book. After their primary school results came out, both boys realized that their families were unable to send them to secondary school.

Ewaso Lions students, Samson and Edward, with their mothers.

We are so grateful to Christina Tsantes, Kathy and Trey Vinson, Nina Fascione and Steve Kendrot for providing funds for their secondary school education.

Ewaso Lions recognizes the critical link between education and conservation. Tomorrow’s wildlife leaders must be equipped with solid education today, empowering them to make informed choices to tackle the challenges facing Africa’s wildlife and people.

We wish Samson and Edward all the best at their new school and we will be monitoring their progress closely.

We are slowly getting back on our feet here in Samburu and trying to recover from the devastating floods. I will write more soon about my personal experience of being caught in the floods, but for now I wanted to update you on where we are now.

The Save the Elephants research camp is slowly drying out and things are still being recovered from the bushes.  Some tents were pulled out from masses of mud and sand and a few belongings recovered.  The research centre is dry, power is on and the internet is also working.  A temporary camp has been set up with little pup tents on the hill near the camp.  The county council trucks also have arrived with water – finally there is clean water and the washing can begin.

I don’t think these computer disks are going to work so well.

Elephant Watch Camp staff are also working hard at removing all the remains of the camp and are also recovering things buried in mud more than 1 km away!  They have also set up a temporary camp thanks to tents dropped off by the British Army helicopter.

Oria Douglas-Hamilton, owner of Elephant Watch, at one of the destroyed rooms.

We received a generous donation of 1200 kg of maize meal, which arrived yesterday thanks to STE trustee Pete Henderson and the African Wildlife Foundation.  The Red Cross also responded to our appeal and arrived with enough blankets, mosquito nets and cooking utensils for the Samburu rangers and Save the Elephants.

Red Cross representatives (left) handed out supplies.

It is still raining in Samburu.  I did manage to drive to our camp in West Gate a few days ago through a temporary road.  The rain has made the luggas almost impassable but we just made it through.  I checked in with all the guys in camp who are doing well and keeping busy with trying to keep camp dry from the huge amounts of rain we keep getting.  We were fortunate – our camp is located about 1 km away from the river.  However, others were not so fortunate – and we are trying to assist as much as possible.

It is hard to think about next week or even tomorrow at this stage.  We are just thinking of now and planning for the hour.  Samburu Reserve will take many months to recover and I hope it wont be too long before tourists will resume coming here.  I will be doing my first game drive today to see how the reserve has been affected and to see if Pixie, Nabo, their cubs and the rest of the lions are ok.

I used to love to hear the sound of the Ewaso Nyiro River flow… however now when I hear it at night, I begin to panic and worry that it will come up again.

Thank you to Red Cross, AWF, Tropic Air (who were amazing and came to evacuate tourists and drop water just when we really needed it) and so many others who have assisted us.   Many donations are also coming in and we are so grateful for this.  This will go directly to getting Samburu back on its feet once again. Thank you and please share your comments.

The 1,200 kg of maize-meal donated to Ewaso Lions for Samburu flood victims.

More photos showing the wreckage caused by the massive flood in Samburu on March 4.

Samburu National Reserve after the Ewaso Nyiro River burst its banks.

This used to be the Uaso Bridge, a main bridge connecting Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves.

David Daballen of Save The Elephants stands where camp used to be.

The destroyed sign that welcomed visitors to Samburu National Reserve.

A vervet monkey killed in the flood.

The wreckage at Save The Elephants research camp.

Debris lying out to dry at Elephant Watch.

The kitchen of Elephant Watch.

Samburu County Councilors visit the destroyed camp.

A dik dik, like so many, killed in the flood.

One of the destroyed bedrooms at Elephant Watch.

The British Army provided this tent for Elephant Watch staff to have some shelter.

Ewaso Lions is helping provide food and supplies to those who lost their lodges, camps, homes, jobs, and personal possessions in the flood. Please donate to help, or email paul at ewasolions dot org

All donations will go directly to Samburu.

Thank you!

I’ve just received these photos from Shivani who is in the reserve dealing with the aftermath of yesterday’s massive floods in Samburu.

Photos above: Flooding at Save The Elephants camp.

A helicopter helps evacuate people.

Save The Elephants expects the damages to their camp to be in the hundreds of thousands of US dollars.

Shivani with a dying baby waterbuck.

Virtually no wildlife has been seen in the reserve since the floods. Many drowned dik dik have been found. Small and young animals were unable to escape the flash floods or have died of exposure, while many larger animals like elephants have disappeared; presumably they’ve gone up into the hills.

We are very concerned for the lions, several of whom had young cubs and were last seen close to the river. We will keep you updated.

Please help Samburu. We are collecting food and shelter items as well as donations for a relief effort. Many people are now homeless and without food and clean water. To help, please donate through this blog. If you are in Nairobi and want to donate food and other goods, call Paul at 0722454494 or  paul at ewasolions.org  Thank you!

Samburu has been hit by a massive flood which has destroyed six lodges and the Save The Elephants research camp. The wreckage is unbelievable. There have been no reports of casualties and the Ewaso Lions team is ok.

Around 5am this morning, a giant flashflood came down the Ewaso Nyiro river, washing away lodges and camps. Our friends at Elephant Watch and Save The Elephants managed to reach high ground, but the camps were wiped out.

Elsewhere, people were on treetops and roofs waiting for help. The British Army, Tropic Air, and others spent the day evacuating people out of the area.

Our camp is far enough from the river so that it survived. Several people from the reserve, who have nowhere else to go, have come to our camp for the night. I don’t know what will happen next.

What’s especially frightening is that a lot more rain is expected.

The drought was bad, but this is truly devastating. Samburu will need a lot of help. Please keep watching the blog; we’ll post more soon. For more updates, see our Twitter page: http://twitter.com/EwasoLions

One of the lodges in the flooded Ewaso Nyiro river. Photo by Heritage Hotels Kenya.

We’ve just completed a grueling but successful lion collaring operation in the reserves. The four-day operation was sponsored by Save The Elephants (STE) and involved putting tracking collars on eight elephants and one lion. To be efficient and utilize the time of the visiting Kenya Wildlife Service vet, decided to re-collar Lguret, the male lion we collared a year ago.

Lguret and his brother Loirish spent most of the time hiding in deep bush, in a river that made getting to him impossible. On a few occasions they emerged, and we frantically radioed the vet to come, but as soon as the vet came, the lions disappeared back into hiding. It was frustrating and exhausting work.

On the last day, just when we were starting to lose hope, we tracked for hours and then Jeneria spotted the lions lying under a bush. The vet and an STE car arrived and we prepared ourselves. The anxiety and tension was palpable: it was now or never.

We carefully approached the lions, and the vet successfully made the shot, anesthetizing Lguret while his brother ran off. We jumped into action to remove his old collar, affix his new one, take his measurements, and collect samples. He eventually entered a deep sleep and we finished our tasks quickly.

After administering the antidote, we stayed with the lion to make sure he recovered well. Not bothered by his collar, he eventually walked away to sleep off his wooziness.

The tracking collar will provide valuable data on the lion’s movements in and out of the reserves. The collar does not harm the animal, nor does it even seem to bother him.

After the vet anesthetized Lguret, we waited for him to fall asleep.

Shivani and Jeneria take measurements.

My what big teeth you have!

The Ewaso Lions team and the vets with Lguret. His head is covered to protect his eyes from the sun.

A bit groggy, Lguret woke up and recovered nicely.

This has marked the end of a long attempt to collar Lguret. It has been no easy task: a total of 60 field days over the past 8 months, averaging 12 hours each day, and driving nearly two thousand kilometers! Now we can breathe a sigh of relief that the search is over and now we will be able to capture valuable data that can help ensure the long-term conservation of these incredible animals.

Please share your comments. We love hearing from our readers!

We’ve just ended our 16th day looking for Lguret, the male lion we GPS-collared to track his movements. After a year, it is time to de-collar him and we have been searching endlessly for him so that a KWS vet can safely anesthetize him and attend to the collar.

It has been an incredible struggle looking for this elusive male who is generally seen with his brother Loirish in either Samburu or Buffalo Springs National Reserves. He seems completely set on hiding from us. When the vet is ready and on standby, Lguret goes missing. When we get news from our friends in the reserves that Lguret has been spotted, we race over, only to find that he has just slinked off again. It’s frustrating and exhausting. A total of 16 field days spent looking for him means driving hundreds of kilometers in Gypsy, bouncing around until our backs ache, baking in the sun, and getting dusty beyond belief.

Finally, we found him today. He lay under a Salvadora bush with his brother, feeding on some kind of carcass. We soon figured out what it was. The two males got up and walked a short distance from the bush. Just then, three baboons which were hiding in the bush above them began shrieking. The lions circled back and began climbing the thick bush. The baboons were completely trapped at the top of the bush with a hungry lion climbing their way. One of the baboons leapt from the bush and literally ran for its life. Lguret also leapt from the bush and took off for the baboon, which ran right by our car. They both darted up a tree and Lguret swiped, barely missing the baboon. Defeated, he climbed down the tree and wondered off. The baboon must have had the fright of its life. Fortunately, Stacey, a great friend and supporter of Ewaso Lions, took this video of the chase:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuf3UbvwU6Y

Sadly, by the time we located Lguret, it was too late in the day for the vet to come to the reserve to safely dart him to attend to the collar. We’ll have to keep trying.

Above: Lguret runs after a baboon.

Above: Lguret chases the baboon up a tree.

Watch the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuf3UbvwU6Y

We’ve had a couple nice surprises in the last 24 hours. First, at about 11pm last night, we were roused awake by a group of elephants passing right through camp. I peeped out my tent window and saw the giant black silhouettes only feet from Shivani’s tent. Their footsteps were barely audible, but we could certainly hear the crack of tree branches as they browsed and the deep rumbling vocalizations they made to each other. Just when I was worried we would have to shoo them away (our scare little shade trees in camp are far too valuable to end up as elephant snack) they moved on into the night.

The second surprise came at dawn. Lately, morning patrols through the Conservation Area have yielded very little. But this morning we came around a corner and Shivani spotted something brown and cat-like run between some bushes up ahead. We drove quickly up the road and then saw them unmistakably: four cheetahs! A mother and her three cubs had a kill that they were carrying into the bushes. In the 2+ years working in West Gate this was Shivani’s first sighting of cheetahs here – and our first sighting in the Conservation Area. This is especially remarkable since these cheetahs were found on community land, outside the parks. They were clearly shy and unaccustomed to vehicles. In fact, we might have been the first vehicle the cubs – about 20 months old – had ever seen. The cubs sat watching us curiously, but the mother was hidden deep under an Acacia tree. We snapped some photos, recorded the GPS coordinates and time, and then let them be. A great morning!

Two of the three cheetah cubs spotted in the Conservation Area. They are about 20 months old and appear very healthy.

Thanks to Panthera, we now have two camera traps to assist us in documenting night visitors. Camera traps are digital cameras equipped with motion sensors, which take photos automatically when an animal (lion, leopard, hyena, etc.) passes by and sets off the camera.

I’ve never used one before, but I’ve been intrigued for some time, having followed the adventures (and often the misadventures) of fellow camera trappers like Nakedi Maputla, who studies leopards in the Kruger, and the “Camera Trap Codger” who has turned his interest in trapping into an art form.

We hope that our camera traps will give us close-up photos of animals that we normally couldn’t get close to. They’ll help document the numbers and types of species which are not always easy to spot from a vehicle or during the day time. Plus, the candid photos of wildlife in the absence of humans may give us insight into some of their natural behaviors.

The other night we set up a camera trap in the Conservation Area near camp here in West Gate. After fiddling with the settings, tying it to a tree trunk with several ropes, and giving it a blessing that no hyena shall eat it, we left the trap to do its thing.

A key part of the camera trapping process is the anticipation leading up to checking your camera to see what it may have captured. This morning on our dawn patrol through the Conservation Area, we came across three hyenas plodding down the road. We were both excited that they may have passed our camera and terrified that our brand new camera may have become hyena chow.

The camera had some slight scratches from a hyena tooth, but luckily, the camera was still in one piece. Back at camp we downloaded the images and were thrilled to find that some curious hyenas passed by the trap and posed nicely.

This is just the beginning. We will continue to use the camera traps in various areas around Samburu and see what other photogenic wildlife we can “capture”.

This photo caught a bull elephant, clearly showing he is in musth.

A curious hyena stops to inspect the strange object.

The camera got a close-up of the hyena’s belly as it took a bite of the casing, but left no lasting damage.

Today, I am excited to announce a new addition to the Ewaso Lions team. Paul Thomson arrived in camp yesterday and has joined the project full time to help it grow and expand in new ways. Paul is no stranger to Ewaso Lions. He first visited the project in 2008 and has assisted in the collaring of Lguret, monitoring of lions, call-ins, screenings of wildlife films for the communities, scat collection (his favourite!), and even served in Jeremiah’s wedding.

Paul and I first met through the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders, a two-year fellowship program where we received training in leadership and campaigning skills, as well as networking and mentoring opportunities from an advisory board of respected environmental professionals. I blogged about it here. Our experience from this excellent program will certainly enable us to make Ewaso Lions a strong and successful conservation project.

Paul got to know Ewaso Lions further when he came to report on the project for one of our funding organizations, the African Wildlife Foundation. Paul was with AWF for five years, working in both Washington DC and Kenya, where he oversaw the organization’s communications and marketing activities.  He started the AWF blogs, so some of you might even be familiar with him.

He definitely loves Samburu, its wildlife and people and is happily settling into life here at camp. He’ll be helping run camp, assisting in our research activities, expanding on our community education projects, and will be doing some blogging – so stay tuned.

Karibu Paul!

Paul and Joseph.