Ewaso Lions

Introducing Paul

Category: Other news, Team
Date: January 27th 2010
By: ewasolions

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.

Comments (3)

Thank You 2009 Donors and a Christmas Wish

Category: Other news
Date: December 23rd 2009
By: ewasolions

This year has been one of the most difficult years in the field. I have been in Samburu since 2002 and I cannot remember such a tough period for the local people, their livestock and the wildlife. The drought has been terrible with wildlife and livestock dying in large numbers. In October we received some rain and again in December. Samburu is green once again and the area is beginning to recover slowly.

A green Samburu!

It was thanks to your support and donations through WildlifeDirect that we were able to get through the year. Sammy, Michael, Stacey, Lee, Madeliene, Stuart, Rhonda, Heather, Katherine, Sauwah, Norma, Paul, Kevin, Brenton, Edward, Kathy, Simon and Karie – THANK YOU SO MUCH! We have raised $5975 thanks to your donations in 2009. It was this that enabled us to continue monitoring the lions, work with the communities, hold workshops and meetings to ask people to tolerate predators, pay staff salaries, fuel Gypsy, purchase tents for camp, increase awareness on lions, take kids on game drives, train our staff, and so much more.

I am now asking all friends, supporters, donors of Ewaso Lions to help us during the Christmas period. Please consider making a donation to the project at this crucial time so we can continue with our efforts. A donation of $10 goes a long way! We urgently need:

1. A laptop for Joseph, data manager. Joseph has been using an old Dell laptop that was donated to us 4 years ago. It is on its last legs now and not a lot works! The battery, CD and USB port don’t work and we are struggling to back-up the computer. It has all the scouts data on it and Joseph really needs a new laptop.

2. A hard-drive for backing up data. I back up my Macbook often and now my 250GB hard drive is full after using it for 2 years. I am seeking funds to get another one. After losing a lot of data and photos last year when my Macbook hard drive crashed, I am being extra careful about this as I cannot afford to lose anymore again!

3. The Ewaso Lions Camp is looking better and more like a home as each day goes by. We need some funds for shelves, cupboards, desks and chairs. We are having 2 Samburu interns stay with us from January onwards and camp will be full!

4. Ewaso Lions has a new member of staff! Julietta has come on board as camp cook and is in charge of the kitchen and mess tent. This has freed up Joseph who is now focusing solely on data entry and office management. I am seeking funds to pay Julietta, who is a young Samburu girl from the village next to camp. Julietta did not have funds to go to secondary school and has been looking for a job all of this year. She is terribly sweet and already has learned the ways of working in a research camp. She is hoping to save enough money to go back to school and we will assist her as much as possible.

5. It is our hope that we can educate some children in 2010. Most Samburu people sell their cows to pay for their children’s education. However, this year they have lost everything to the drought. Almost no cows returned to the villages in October and there are none to sell. So many bright students are completing primary education this year and will be seeking funds for secondary school next year. We hope to assist them as much as possible and I am asking you to please make a contribution to help us do so.

The Ewaso Lions team wishes you all a very happy holiday season and all the best for the New Year. We look forward to sharing our experiences and stories with you in 2010. We have so much planned for next year including new projects that we will begin in January. Please do keep reading our blog!

Until then!

Shivani Lekuraiyo Jeremiah

Joseph Francis and Jeneria

Ricila Julietta

Tags: Christmas, Communities, drought, Ewaso Lions, Lions, Samburu, Wildlife Direct
Comments (2)

Samburu is Green!

Category: Reserves
Date: December 21st 2009
By: ewasolions

Samburu is so beautiful as I write this. Although the initial rains in October stopped for 4 weeks and everything began to dry up in November, we were fortunate to receive about 5 days of rain in early December. The land has transformed. It is so green, grass is everywhere and the Ewaso Nyiro River is still flowing. Impala and oryx are fattening up, elephants have slowly returned to the reserves and lions are moving far and wide in search of prey. The contrasts are extreme. From the dust, death and devastation of the year, the brown layer has finally been washed away.

Rain clouds in October

Buffalo Springs National Reserve in October after the first rain

The same view of Buffalo Springs in December

Samburu, the people, the wildlife and livestock, are all so fortunate to have received this rain. I hear from my friends and colleagues in the South that they have received no rain at all. Lets hope that some relief arrives for them.

We are busy setting up camp, locating the lions daily and meeting with the communities. Christmas is also round the corner and we are getting prepared for that too!

Elephants return to a green Samburu

Healthy oryx watch sleeping lions

More news coming soon!

Tags: Buffalo Springs, Ewaso Nyiro, Lions, Rain, Samburu
Comments (4)

Thanks Norma!

Category: Donors
Date: December 10th 2009
By: ewasolions

Norma, thank you for your donation to Ewaso Lions! It was lovely to see you in Samburu a few months ago. We are finally getting some rain in Samburu which is fantastic and it is finally becoming green.

Thank you again for your donation – it will go a long way in helping us achieve our goals of enhancing the survival of lions in the Ewaso ecosystem.

With my best wishes from Samburu,

Shivani

Here is a photo of the collared maneless male with one of the cubs

Tags: Cubs, Ewaso Lions, Lions, Samburu
Comments (0)

Training Porini Guides in the Maasai Mara

Category: Other news
Date: December 7th 2009
By: ewasolions

In November, I traveled to the Porini Camps in the Maasai Mara to train their guides on predator ecology and identification. I visited the Mara Porini Camp in Ol Kinyei Conservancy and the Porini Lion Camp in Olare Orok Conservancy. The objective of my visit was to train the guides at the camps and also to start profiling the lions in both areas. I spent 2 days at each camps, conducted presentations and talks with the guides, and spent time in the field identifying the individual lions and cheetahs.

Training at the Mara Porini Camp

Olbarnoti and Lolparpit, two brothers we identified in Olare Orok

Two guides at Porini Lion Camp sit an exam after the training

Since Ol Kinyei and Olare Orok Conservancies were created, wildlife numbers have increased dramatically. Lions, cheetahs and other wildlife move freely within the safe confines of the conservancies thanks to the efforts of the community members and the Porini Camps management. I was amazed to see lions everywhere! I saw more than 40 lions in 4 days which to put it into perspective, is double Samburu’s population! We would drive out of camp and a few minutes later see lions. Lions were heard every night and we got to see some interesting behaviour as well. We saw 2 prides fight against each other, 5 females kill a zebra literally about 100 metres away from the camp, young cubs being introduced to a kill for the first time, and so much more! I was really excited to see so much in such a short period of time.

Lolalai, male lion, in Olare Orok Conservancy

Females on a zebra kill near the camp

The Porini Camps were truly fantastic. The camps are the most eco-friendly camps I have seen. If the camps were packed up and moved away, there would be no sign at all that a camp even existed there. The Maasai guides are superb and some of the best I have ever worked with. They are so knowledgeable about all wildlife and passionate about the area. They recognise the importance of having these conservancies and have seen the benefits of them. They told me that years ago, there were manyattas (villages) everywhere and now, all we saw were vast plains teeming with plains game and dotted with predators.

A view from the Porini Lion Camp

My room at the camp (very different to my little tent in Samburu!)

I highly recommend these camps if you want to get away from it all, and have an exclusive experience with lions, cheetahs and much more. Whilst staying at these camps, you will be in the company of these fantastic guides and your stay at the camps will be supporting the Ol Kinyei and Olare Orok communities and will secure a future for the wildlife in these stunning areas.

John and Joseph, 2 great guides, who will share their wealth of knowledge with you

Gamewatchers/Porini Camps and I have just started a Lion Research Safari. Guests will stay at the stunning Joys Camp in Shaba National Reserve and Sasaab Lodge in West Gate Community Conservancy, where they will take part in research activities with myself and the Ewaso Lions team. Our first safari is in January and I am really looking forward to it! For more information click here.

Tags: Cheetahs, Community, Ewaso Lions, Gamewatchers, Lions, Maasai Mara, Porini Camps, Samburu
Comments (2)

Asante Kriselda!

Category: Donors
Date: December 4th 2009
By: ewasolions

Thank you Kriselda for your donation to Ewaso Lions! It really means a lot to us and goes a long way in enabling us to continue the work that we are doing.

I hope to show you some of the lions in Samburu this month and the effects of the recent rain. Samburu is finally becoming green!

With my best wishes and thanks again,

Shivani

Samburu becoming green!

Tags: Lions, Samburu
Comments (4)

Students See Ewaso Lions and A Leopard -Part 2

Category: Community
Date: November 12th 2009
By: ewasolions

Our first Kenyan Kids on Safari trip in Samburu was a huge success followed by another one with human-wildlife conflict expert, Nina Fascione. We recently took 11 school kids out on another drive in Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves. Sasaab Lodge kindly provided their large vehicle and guide, Innocent, for the drive. The children come from Lpus Leluai Primary School in West Gate. Johnson the Headmaster struggled yet again to choose the kids however students that took part in the Simba Stories competition were all selected. I was amazed at how some of them had drawn fantastic pictures of lions, yet had never seen a lion.

The game drive was fantastic. I had driven around for 2 days prior to the student drive and had not seen lions or any of the cats. But this time, we were soo lucky! About half an hour into the drive, we saw Lguret, the collared maneless male lion. Soon after that we bumped into more of the lions from the Koitogor Pride – Nashipai and her cubs. And about 10 minutes after that, the students got to see a leopard! The kids were thrilled! They had 4 small digital cameras to use and take photos with – I will be giving them copies of their photos soon so they can remember their experience. They watched and learned about the big cats. At the end of the day, they even sat an exam which had questions on some of the topics they were taught. The kids did great and it was clear that they had benefited tremendously from the drive. One of the students, Samson, said to me “Now I will find it much easier to draw lions”.

Jeremiah and Legenas watch giraffes in the distance

James watches Lguret sleeping under a tree

Legenas and Jeremiah learn how to take photos

Watching a leopard

Group photo – some very happy kids!

Here are some of the photos that the students took themselves:

A male gerenuk browses

Lguret, the maneless male

Leopard sleeping on an Acacia tree

Jeremiah had this to say after his safari:

“I say thank you for the great tour we had with you yesterday. I was very happy to use cameras and binoculars and to see many animals like lions, giraffes, gerenuk, and much more. Thank you also for the biscuits and milk you brought us! I learned so much from your tour and I was so excited because it was the first time for me to see the above animals. It was so enjoyable”.

Cynthia had this to say:

“We were 5 boys and 5 girls when we went on a drive. We started seeing animals when we entered the park. One of the animals I saw was a lion and it was interesting because we were told his name was “Lguret”. I was very happy to see so many of these animals. I wish again one day we will go again and see many others.”

A huge special thanks to Kenyan Kids on Safari for donating the cameras and starting this programme and to Sasaab Lodge for being so enthusiastic about the drive and providing their vehicle. I am really looking forward to more drives with the students -hopefully over Xmas!

Tags: Leopard, Lions, Samburu, School, Simba, wildlife
Comments (2)

Students See Ewaso Lions – Part 1

Category: Community
Date: November 9th 2009
By: ewasolions

This blog post somehow got lost and although it took place a few months ago, it is still very relevant and links in well with Part 2 which is coming soon!

Visiting renowned human-wildlife conflict expert from the US, Nina Fascione and her husband Steve Kendrot and I, decided to take 6 students from Lpus Leluai Primary School in West Gate, on a game drive in Samburu National Reserve. The headmaster Johnson selected 3 boys and 3 girls who he said deserved a special treat for doing really well academically. I am glad Johnson made the selection -I would have really struggled to chose the children -hoping to take them all!

We entered Samburu and after about 20 minutes or so, we began to see giraffe, tons of elephants close-up and were fortunate to see one of the Samburu lionesses, walk in the middle of the Ewaso Nyiro River. The students were thrilled. For most of them, they have never really seen animals close-up. They may have seen the tail of a lion disappearing when they were young children herding livestock, or elephants running away from villages. This time, the students got to see the animal’s behaviour and what they actually look like.

Edward and Moses learn how to use a camera with Ricila’s help

We stopped at about 10 am for some chai (tea) and a break. I also gave the students a talk on the lions of Samburu – why they are important and the need to conserve them. I also showed them how each one is identified individually and we went through the various lion IDs of the reserve. The students had many questions. One good question was had the numbers of lions changed over the years in the area. Our question and answer session went on for about 30 minutes by which time we headed back.

Explaining about the importance of wildlife

Showing the students lion IDs with Steve’s help

The students were really excited to have gone out on a game drive with us. We stopped at the Save the Elephants research camp on the way back and they were given a talk on elephants by the researchers. It was a fun time for them all and they chatted animatedly all the way back to school and relayed their experiences to the other students.

A few weeks later I happened to be reading some wildlife essays that the students of West Gate had written when I came across one written by Scholastica. She had written about her experience when she saw a Samburu lioness for the first time! It was a great essay and a step forward in getting the students to know some of the Ewaso Lions.

Tags: elephants, Ewaso Nyiro, Lioness, Samburu, Save the Elephants, wildlife
Comments (1)

Simba Stories

Category: Community
Date: November 2nd 2009
By: ewasolions

Ewaso Lions has recently joined hands with Lpus Leluai Primary School in West Gate Community Conservancy. To increase awareness of the importance of lion conservation, we are working with students and teachers at the school. Students are requested to write and/or illustrate stories about lions in English/Swahili/Samburu. The best stories and artwork will be put together and printed in the form of a booklet. These copies will be distributed locally and internationally to increase awareness of lions. Using these Simba Stories booklets, funds will also be raised for the school’s educational needs.

All art material has been donated by Shalini Bhalla of SB Management. Lindsay Morency, from Canada, has sponsored editing of the Simba Stories booklet and the Panthera Foundation has sponsored production and printing of some of the booklets.

The students have already begun working on their artwork and have produced some great drawings. Some of them had never painted before until they received boxes of paints and brushes.

Jeremiah working on his drawing

Samson learning how to paint

Some of the completed drawings

I will send an update on their progress soon!

Tags: artwork, awareness, Community, Conservation, Lions, School, West Gate Conservancy
Comments (4)

Camp Has A New Look!

Category: Ewaso Lions Camp
Date: October 29th 2009
By: ewasolions

The Ewaso Lions camp has a new look! We’ve lived here now for 16 months and it was definitely time for some improvements. Click here to see what camp looked like in 2008 when we first moved here.

Sasaab Lodge generously donated and constructed a waterproof shade in camp. Before this, we had a canvas sheet but unfortunately this got torn and destroyed in the sun and strong winds (click here to see blog on this). This is what we had before:

Ricila trying to tie the torn fly sheet

The carpenters from Sasaab built the frame for the new structure and we had some iron sheets put on top of it, after which we painted it green. Our next plan is to put “makuti” (thatch) on top of the roof.

Building the frame

Painting the iron sheets green

The completed structure

Our kitchen also has been renovated! Joseph worked hard to make it bigger and higher so we don’t have to crouch any more.

Joseph working on the kitchen

The new and improved kitchen

The bathroom and loo were also renovated. The walls are more sturdy now thanks to the thatching, although I’ve had to battle with the camels recently as they were trying to eat the makuti thatching! To remind you what it used to look like:

Bush bathroom in 2008

New bathroom

Lastly, we now have an office in camp! This was my old tent and has now become a store/office. Our old store had fallen apart and thanks to donations from WildlifeDirect blog readers we were able to get newer, more sturdy tents. We will eventually get 2 desks and chairs put in. I have a new tent now – its smaller than my old one (now the office) but still very cool and as I recently discovered, it is waterproof!

New office tent and store

A view of camp

A huge thanks to Sasaab lodge management, Madeliene Todd, Stuart McCullum, Chip Owen, Sammy Leleseita and Brenton H for funds to help us make camp look so much better!

Tags: Ewaso Lions, Lions, Sasaab
Comments (1)

Ewaso Lions

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

Blogroll

Introducing Paul

Thank You 2009 Donors and a Christmas Wish

Samburu is Green!

Thanks Norma!

Training Porini Guides in the Maasai Mara

Asante Kriselda!

Students See Ewaso Lions and A Leopard -Part 2

Students See Ewaso Lions – Part 1

Simba Stories

Camp Has A New Look!

MONTHLY

ONE TIME

About WildlifeDirect

Donations

My WildlifeDirect

Blogs

Participate

Wildlife Trackers

Multimedia

Resources

Press

Legal