Ewaso Lions

Category: West Gate | Date: Jan 25 2009 | By: ewasolions

A few days after the 3 lions killed 3 cows, I was driving in the Conservation Area in West Gate Community Conservancy, when I met the Head of Security patrolling on the main road. He said he had just heard from a herder that a lioness had killed a donkey a few minutes ago.

We drove to the scene approaching slowly so as not to scare away the lioness.  We found her hiding in the bushes very scared and nervous.  She eventually came out and got used to my presence, and then eventually started feeding on the donkey as it got dark.

Lioness nervously hides in the bushes and watches

Lioness coming out slowly. Notice the donkey at the bottom of the photo.  

My first good look at the lioness as she approaches the donkey to start feeding

This was the second incidence in a week where unguarded livestock were killed by lions. Donkeys are rarely herded and are left to move wherever they want.  In this instance, they had wandered across the river into the Conservation Area and one got killed.  The herder across the river with his cows had heard the commotion and crossed over quickly, chasing away the other donkeys.

Tags: conflict, Kenya, Lions, Livestock, Samburu, wildlife

6 responses so far

Category: Other news | Date: Jan 22 2009 | By: ewasolions

Kenyan Kids on Safari is a great programme where Kenyan children are provided with the opportunity to join tourists and other visitors on a safari experience in Kenyan reserves.  Most Kenyan children have never had the experience of a game drive and they miss out on viewing wildlife due to the high cost of safaris.  Many rangers and employees’s children who live at the safari camps and lodges have also never been on a safari.  The Kenyan Kids on Safari programme encourages visitors on safari to invite one or two local children, from either nearby schools or villages, to join them on various safari game drives for the day.

The programme has successfully started in Maasai Mara and more recently in Samburu, where I am very proud to be a volunteer to help get the programme going.  In December 2008, Todd Cromwell who started this programme and is also a friend and donor for Ewaso Lions,visited us in Samburu to network with the tourist establishments and provide selected lodges/camps with digital cameras and print stations for the children to use when they accompany tourists on a game drive.  At the end of each game drive, the children would go back to the lodge where selected photos they took would be printed, giving them the chance to remember this memorable safari and the wildlife they saw.

Teaching the kids how to use the cameras

Children watching and taking photos of the elephants 

During Todd’s visit we arranged for children from Samburu Intrepids Camp to be taken out on a game drive.  6 children were taken out and were taught how to use the cameras.  The drive was fantastic!  We were fortunate to see Nabo, one of the main Samburu lionesses, and lots of elephants including a mating pair!  The kids were taught about wildlife and conservation and overall, they had a great experience.

Below are a few photos that 2 of the kids, Saruni and Elvis, took during their game-drive experience

My name is Saruni Lesabouwa. I am 16 years old and go to Kipsing primary school, where I am in class 7. Our school is located in Isiolo District. It was my first time to be in a car! Not only to be in a car, but also to be on a Safari where we managed to see the following animals: elephants, gazelles, buffalo, lioness, impala and ostrich.

It was my first time to hear the lion roar and also be that close to a lioness and elephants. I know that a buffalo is the most feared animal in Africa, but today I was happy to have seen it very close that I can even take a picture. I love Stephen, Todd and Doriana for the guiding and above all for the camera which made me feel special. Thank you all again and my thoughts will be with you.

My name is Elvis Lenamunyi from Gir Gir primary school. I am 9 years old and in class two. While I was playing with other kids, I received good news from Doriana of Intrepid that I was selected to be among the children who will be taught how to use the cameras and later to go for game drive! I am extremely happy. I never believed what I heard; I thought it was a dream! The session of Camera Handling started and I was very excited since I have never even handled a camera any other day. Doriana was my teacher but first I thought I will not know anything. I was shown how to put the camera on and off and from there I could see some people who were in front of the camera on the back of the camera display.

The game drive started. On the way, Stephen, the Intrepid naturalist, kept on talking about plants and birds which seemed to me impossible for a person to know them all by their names! I manage to know the Kenyan Green Hart Pepper Bark tooth brush tree in English, which is called Enkikee Ngige in Samburu, and some birds. After a few minutes, we saw lioness, elephants, guinea fowl, antelopes, buffalo and even dik diks. I managed to take 111 pictures of all the animals I have seen. Later I found that I was the only one who took more than 100 pictures. It was very interesting, and I wish I could do this every day. I loved the whole trip and I am very happy with the Kenyan Kids on Safari program.

To date, 16 cameras have been distributed in Samburu at 3 different camps, Samburu Intrepids, Samburu Serena and Sasaab Lodge.   Kids are being taken out often and are getting to see what Samburu has to offer!

For more information on Kenyan Kids on Safari, please visit their website.

Tags: Conservation, Kenya, Kids, Lions, Photography, Safari, wildlife

6 responses so far

Category: Lions, West Gate Community Conservancy | Date: Jan 16 2009 | By: ewasolions

During my regular monitoring of the Conservation Area in West Gate Conservancy,we saw a Samburu elder in the distance who appeared to be walking around keenly searching for something.

I turned off the engine and we walked towards him asking if there was any problem and the reason he was in the Conservation Area at 6:15 am.  He said that during the night, 15 cows had wandered across the river into the Conservation Area.  Three of those cows had been killed by lions at 5:30 am - not long before we arrived.  He was in the process of looking for the other lost cows.

I alerted the community scouts via the security radio and they soon arrived to assist with looking for the cows and also to investigate the lion killings.  We walked around and the elder showed us the 3 cows that the lions had killed.

Cow killed by lion

It was clear from the tracks and the layout of where the lions had killed the cows, that there were 3 lions who had killed the 3 cows.  They had dragged off most of the first cow and we were unable to find the remains initially. Later on, we found the head and body stashed in a thick bush.   The second cow had been eaten partially, mainly at the rear and it was clear that the lions had eaten most of the third cow.

Ricila, Ewaso Lions tracker, looks at the remains of the eaten bull

Eventually the community scouts and the Samburu elder found the lost cows and they were herded back across the river.  The elder was not happy at all as he had lost approximately Kenya Shillings 100,000 ($1300) as a result of this incidence.   Two of the cows killed also had young calves back in the village and he was concerned about their survival.

The scouts monitored and patrolled the Conservation Area for the rest of the day to ensure that livestock did not wander in again and also to ensure that the lions were protected in this small area.

That evening the elders from the village where the cows had come from, returned to cut up the remains of the cows and roast the meat.  Donkeys arrived late in the night to transport all the meat back to the village.

I returned the following morning and all that remained from this conflict incidence, were many vultures and marabou storks feeding on the few remains of the cows.

Tags: conflict, Conservation, Ewaso Nyiro, Kenya, Lions, Livestock, predators, Samburu, wildlife

8 responses so far

Category: Other news | Date: Jan 14 2009 | By: ewasolions

I want to take this opportunity to write about a recent trip I made to the US and the wildlife programme I was involved in.

I traveled to Washington DC in early December 2008 to graduate from the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders (EWCL) programme.  The EWCL process is guided by a Board of Directors comprised of established wildlife professionals who offer training, lectures, career advice, and guidance on the group projects.

EWCL is jointly funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Defenders of Wildlife, White Oak Conservation Center/Howard Gilman Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Network and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

This was a 2- year programme  which included 1 week in the US in April 2007 (click here for a summary of the first training session) and 1 week in April 2008 (click here for a report from this session) at the White Oak Conservation Centre near Jacksonville, Florida, and then a few days in Washington DC to wrap up and graduate from the programme.

The training during the 2 sessions at White Oak included formal lectures, discussions, and exercises taught by seasoned wildlife conservation professionals as well as trainers in the field of leadership development and personal growth. Session topics included leadership skills, monitoring and evaluation, fundraising, team building, international campaigning, marketing, integrating media, building collaborations, public speaking, negotiation, networking and more. We also had the opportunity to gain advice on career goals and next steps during one-on-one mentor sessions with EWCL Board Members and EWCL Alumni from the previous class.

The 2007/2008 EWCL class

Our class of 21 conservationists selected four conservation topics that were addressed in strategic projects over the two years using skills acquired through EWCL training.  I was part of the Okapi Conservation Education Project.  We worked on this project for 2 years, in collaboration with Gilman International Conservation and their team in Epulu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (see their blog with WildlifeDirect  -click here).

With an okapi at the White Oak Centre

The EWCL Okapi project group assisted  in the creation of a conservation education video focusing on the importance of invaluable, and increasingly exploited, wildlife and natural resources in the DRC’s Okapi Wildlife Reserve (OWR) - using the Okapi as a flagship species.  To date, our project group raised over $7,000.00 to assist in training Gilman International Conservation’s (GIC) Education Director based in the OWR to compile and edit video footage gathered in the field.

EWCL okapi project group members from left to right: Kate Eschelbach (US Fish & Wildlife), me,  Nilanga Jayasinghe (Defenders of Wildlife) and Coffy Bennis (Busch Gardens)

The last training session in Washington DC included presentations on communications, foreign assistance reform and climate change.  We were also given the opportunity to present our respective projects to EWCL friends, board members and invited VIP guests.  The training ended with a graduation ceremony.

Receiving the graduation certificate (Photo credit: Melissa Normann)

It was a fantastic and rewarding 2-year experience and I was very honoured to be one of the first international participants.  For me personally, it was great to get a different perspective of conservation and experiences that all the US participants had to offer and I hope that I was able to offer a small insight into conservation issues faced in Kenya.  The training received has been so useful and the timing perfect as I set up the Ewaso Lion Project.

2 responses so far

Category: Other news | Date: Jan 12 2009 | By: ewasolions

Dear readers,

I found the following 2 papers on leopard feeding habits which talk about leopard cannibalism:

This paper describes leopard food habits in a National Park in Gabon, where leopard remains were found in a leopard scat analysis study.

This second paper also describes prey selection of leopards in the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Thanks to everyone for your comments on my last blog on leopard cannibalism!

Shivani

Remains of the leopard killed and eaten by another male leopard in Samburu, N. Kenya

Tags: Africa, Cannibalism, Kenya, Leopards, predators, Prey, Samburu, wildlife

3 responses so far

Category: Donors | Date: Jan 11 2009 | By: ewasolions

Dear Sauwah, Wanda, Madeliene and Artie,

Thank you so much for the recent donations made in December towards the Ewaso Lion Project.  Your support is going a long way in helping secure a future for this unknown lion population in Northern Kenya. Thank you again!

I hope you enjoy the next few blogs I’ll be posting.  A lot has been going on here including a fantastic sighting of the Samburu females with their cubs.  To give you a taster of whats to come, I have included the photo below.

Thank you again!

 Shivani

Nabo and her cubs

Tags: Africa, Conservatio, Kenya, Lions, Samburu

No responses yet

Category: Other news | Date: Jan 11 2009 | By: ewasolions

A few days ago, I was in camp mid-morning when I received a radio message from the community scouts informing me that an elephant was dying and had lay down.  Two days prior to this I had seen a young female elephant looking very thin in the Conservation Area of West Gate Conservancy.  Her 2.5 year old calf was with her at the time and was happily feeding whilst her mother stood in the sun without moving, looking very thin and unwell.

Sick female elephant a few days before dying

I couldn’t help but think that maybe this was that very same young female who was dying.   I had alerted Save the Elephants a few days before that and their researchers came out to look for the female.  The female was not found then and the urgent radio message about the dying elephant was received the following day.

I rushed out of camp and headed towards the end of the Conservation Area.  After communicating with the community scouts about the elephant’s location and the scouts whereabouts, we drove into the dry river bed of the Ewaso Nyiro River.  I left Gypsy here and we proceeded on foot and crossed the river.

The female was laying down about 30 metres away from the river bank.  Her calf stood by her, wandering into the bushes at times to feed.  This was indeed the very same female I had seen a few days ago.

We sat with the elephant for sometime waiting for the security personnel and Save the Elephants researchers to arrive. The scene attracted many Samburu warriors who were herding their livestock and bathing in the river.  They were curious to know what had happened to this poor elephant and also worried about what would happen to her calf.

Warriors watch the elephant

The young female didn’t move much but we knew she was alive because each time many flies irritated her eyes, she would blink slowly to remove them. She was very thin and her face was sunken in.  It was unclear as to what had affected this elephant to make her so sick before she lay down to die.

The sick female

By 4 pm,  the scouts and researchers arrived.  They decided to wait a while to see if the female would eventually stand up.  She could not be approached too close because of her young calf and we did not want to scare the calf away.

Calf stays with dying mother

I left after 6 hours of watching this poor female.  The community scouts stayed with her during the entire night.  I arrived back at the scene at 6 am and the scouts informed me that the elephant had died during the night. We could hear the calf somewhere in the bushes nearby but I didn’t see her.

During the day, the rangers and security personnel arrived to remove her tusks.  I returned in the evening but still had no sighting of the calf.  I visited the carcass again the following morning and found hyena tracks all around her but strangely, the hyenas did not touch her.  I will be heading back there later today and will keep you posted.

It was unclear as to what killed this elephant.  No obvious wounds were seen and she most likely died of an illness.  Her calf has not been seen since then.  It is my hope that she joined other elephants who were in the vicinity of the area.

Tags: calf, Community, Douglas-Hamilton, elephants, Ewaso Nyiro, hyenas, Samburu, Save the Elephants

7 responses so far

Category: Other news | Date: Jan 07 2009 | By: ewasolions

I monitor and patrol the Conservation area in West Gate Community Conservancy on a daily basis, recording all sightings of not only predators but wild prey too and even livestock, who at times encroach into this small area in the middle of the conservancy.

A few days ago, during my morning drive, I saw a huge leopard just about to cross the road in front of me. I turned off the engine and waited as the leopard, as most animals in West Gate are, was very nervous. The leopard sat on the road and watched me nervously and it was then that I realized it was actually holding onto something.  It was hard to see what it was but as I tried to get closer the leopard moved off with it.  It was then clear what was being dragged – another leopard.

Male leopard watches me

The leopard dragged the other one across the road holding onto its prey and moved off into the nearby bushes.  It disappeared from sight as it hid in the thick Salvadora bushes on the side of the road.

The leopard dragged its prey and disappeared into the nearby thick bushes

I was confused  -what was going on? Was this a female with her dead young one? Did the lions kill this leopard (3 lions were in the area the previous night) and another leopard found it and was dragging it away? Or did this leopard actually kill this other one?

It became clear that this was indeed a male leopard and not a female one.  A few hours later we returned with the scouts from the conservancy and went into the bushes on foot.  The scouts spotted the dead leopard hidden deep in the Salvadora thicket.  It was a younger male leopard and it had been clearly suffocated by the older leopard.  The killer had eaten a large chunk of the stomach but left the rest.

Remains of the leopard’s prey

The younger leopard had been suffocated

The killer leopard was seen again the following morning in the same area but there were very few remains of the younger dead leopard.

I was and still am pretty shocked.  About a year ago I saw a leopard kill and eat a cheetah in Samburu, but this was the first time I had heard of a leopard killing and eating another leopard.  The reasons are obvious – territoriality, competition.  However, eating it was what shocked me.

The scouts of the conservancy are all intrigued by this occurrence and Stephen, the Head of Security of the conservancy, said “Anything is possible here in West Gate”.

It sure is!

Tags: Africa, Cannibalism, Community, Kenya, Leopards, predators, Prey, Samburu, West Gate, wildlife

17 responses so far