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Samburu - Where A Lioness Adopted An Oryx

Category: Lions | Date: Nov 23 2008 | By: ewasolions

I just wanted to remind readers or inform anyone who did not know of this story - Samburu was the home to a very interesting and unusual lioness, called Kamunyak, who adopted a baby oryx antelope in 2001/2002 and continued to do so on 5 other occasions.

I only got to see Kamunyak (meaning “the miracle one” in the local language) once, in December 2002.  She soon disappeared and I spent many months looking for her in 2003, however was unsuccessful.  I hope that wherever she moved off to, she was able to have cubs and live a normal lioness’s life…

For photos and more information of this amazing and unusual story, click here.

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4 Responses to “Samburu - Where A Lioness Adopted An Oryx”

Omer, on 23 Nov 2008

How interesting. I watched that documentary ‘Heart of a Lioness’ and was amazed. Hope the lioness is doing well now and is safe and healthy.

paula, on 24 Nov 2008

It was an amazing and tragic story … Shivani, what do you think Kamuniak was up to? Why did she do this and what do you think happened to her? Is she still alive - can she be recognized?

ewasolions, on 24 Nov 2008

Hi Paula and Omer,

Thanks for your comments. It was an amazing story definitely. There were a few theories as to why Kamunyak behaved in such an unusual manner. One was that she may have been a depressed individual after something happened to the rest of her pride members. Also, she was very young, between 2-3 years, and sub-adults often do become obsessed with certain things. Her maternal instinct may have kicked in after she adopted the first oryx calf.

She can be recognised. Luckily we had one close up photo of her whisker spots. We spent much of 2003 looking for her. Any new lioness was compared to Kamunyak’s photos, but we never did find her.

If she is alive, she is an old female now - between 8 and 9 years. We rarely do see new old females in Samburu of that age, but I still hope that one day, we will see her again. I suspect that in 2003 she moved out of the reserves - her unusual behaviour may not have been tolerated by the resident Koitogor Pride and she most likely left the safety of the reserves.

Heart of a Lioness captures the sequence of events nicely of the first adoption. She did adopt 5 more times after that with oryx specifically.

Shivani

Oscar, on 26 May 2009

It would be great to know that Kamunyak was successful in living in the wild. However, most probably she was killed in the year 2003. One fact is that nearly 90% of the lions living in Africa have been exterminated in the last two decades. Many lions are being poisoned by farmers, and other are killed by male indians as a way to show their manhood to the world.

To make things worse, the woman that directed the documentary The Heart of the Lioness, Ms. Saba Douglas-Hamilton, had the opportunity of saving Kamunyak and the first baby oryx, but she preferred to have them starve for 15 days, and never lifted a finger to help the two desperate animals. If Ms. Douglas-Hamilton had not intervened, most probably the outcome had been much better.

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