I spent a few days in Samburu and Buffalo Springs between the 7th and 10th of August monitoring the resident lions and checking up on Nashipai, Nabo, her cubs and the others. It was a good few days and I also found some new lions near Ngare Mara.

I returned to Echo Lima camp in the evening of the 10th and received a message from the manager of the nearby lodge that their driver guide had seen 4 lions that evening in the Conservation Area! But the lions were nervous and kept hiding so he did not get a good look at them. I was excited by this sighting and decided to leave early the following morning to see if I could find them; hoping they hadn’t moved away.

I left camp at 5 30 am and entered the Conservation Area. I followed the main road all the way along the river but did not see anything. We saw the previous nights tracks of where the lions had been sighted. I continued to the end of the Conservation Area and turned back thinking these lions had left the area.

As I came round a corner, I bumped into a lion! He was sitting on the road and at the same time another lion who had been sitting there with him stood up and disappeared. Gypsy is a very quiet car and I think I surprised the lions as much as they surprised me. This male was huge and almost looked like a female as he had no mane. He watched me keenly and we didn’t move a muscle as I really did not want him to run away.

Eventually he stood up, walked off and joined the other lion who I noticed was sitting and hiding in some bushes. They sat together as I tried to take some photos. I tried drawing their whisker spots but the second male was nervous and wary of my movements. They got up and walked off and I then realized that about 20 metres away, another male had been watching me. This was a coalition of 3 males! The big one who seemed a bit more relaxed then the other 2 sat down on the road again however the other 2 kept their distance and watched me through the bushes. The males then wandered off and disappeared in the thick Salvadora.

The big male

The two nervous lions keeping a watchful eye

This was amazing. I had finally had my first proper sighting of these community area lions. I then realized that I had actually seen 2 of them before on the elephant carcass and was sure that it was the same 2; the big male and the smaller male who was beginning to grow a mane. I saw female tracks on the 12th and 13th of August and this lioness may have been the 4th lion that the lodge driver had seen. I also saw a lot of livestock across the river and also some on this side. We went to speak to the herders to inform them of the lions presence and they were grateful for the information and advice and quickly moved off away from the thick bushes.

A bit of information on male coalitions; they are formed after males from the same litter stay together after leaving their pride. They operate as a team whilst they are competing for a territory. Male coalitions also have a reproductive advantage with pride females and this often forces unrelated males to join together.

So I hope there will be many more Real Lions blogs because that would mean I have seen many more lions out here in West Gate!

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After spending one night in the reserve monitoring the resident lions, I returned to Echo Lima camp on the 24th of July. Jeneria and Joseph greeted me and immediately told me that 4 lions had killed a young elephant in the Conservation Area that morning. The calf had been lost or abandoned and was roaming the area alone until the lions came across it. I decided to quickly head for the area knowing that since this was a large kill, there were greater chances that the lions would still be there.

I was fortunate to have the GPS location of the carcass as some community scouts had been there that morning. I realized later that if it hadn’t been for that GPS I would never have found the carcass because of the thick impenetrable bush.

I drove quickly to the Conservation Area with the guys. When we got close to the location where the carcass was, I slowed down and headed for some thick Salvadora bushes. The GPS stated that we were 60 metres away however I could get no closer. I turned off the engine and waited and listened. We sat there for about 20 minutes and then heard a sound. It was the crunching of a bone. The lions were there!

Thick Salvadora persica bushes in the Conservation Area

I decided to try another route to get to the carcass. I went round the area towards the river and then back in again through the thick bush. Again, we waited and listened. The GPS now stated that we were 30 metres away from the carcass. We were in a small clearing where I hoped the lions would eventually emerge through as they headed down to the river. However, it was getting dark and we didn’t see or hear anything.

Jeneria noticed a small gap in the bushes and indicated that we should try go through there. I creeped slowly through the bushes and then we saw him. There was a huge male lion, maneless, standing on what appeared to be a mound (which was actually the elephant) staring at us. I couldn’t believe it. With the sound and sight of the car and us, he did not run away. He stood his ground and just looked at us. It was pretty dark by now and all we could make out was the faint outline of his head which was covered with blood.

I was thrilled to see him but did not want to disturb him on the carcass. I turned around in a very small space and we then saw another male. He was smaller and appeared to be growing a small mane. He also just stared at us.

I left the scene, very excited by what we had just seen. Jeneria was also thrilled. This was the first time he had seen lions properly and so close. These lions were definitely bolder and not as nervous as the female I had seen a few weeks before. I really hoped I would see them again…

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Towards the end of June, everyone was hearing lions at night; the nearby lodge staff to our South, the community headquarters staff to our North and the Sasaab village people a few kilometers away. However, for some reason all of us at the Echo Lima camp were not hearing anything! Every morning, people would walk by the camp and ask us “Did you guys hear the lions last night?” and our answer every morning was “No!” I think we are all very deep sleepers and we would sleep through anything.

Finally on the 2nd of July, at 5 am, Joseph heard lions calling out and came rushing out of his tent and woke us all up. We jumped in the car and headed into the Conservation Area. However just as I came to the Ewaso Nyiro River Gypsy got a flat tyre on a very steep rocky hill. It took a while to change the tyre and it was getting light by the time we proceeded.

I continued to the interior of the Conservation Area in West Gate. Lekuraiyo who was standing out of the roof hatch said “Ninaona nyayo” meaning “I can see tracks”. I slowed down and he began to track what turned out to be tracks of 3 lions. They had clearly walked on the road a few hours ago but had now wandered into the thick Salvadora bushes. Lekuraiyo told me which way to go and we managed to find an opening heading to the river. He told me the lions were definitely within a 50 metres radius of us in some very very thick bush. We sat at the river for a while and then decided to leave that spot and try going around the area.

As I was turning Gypsy, I suddenly heard Lekuraiyo say “Shivani! Simba!”. I turned off the engine quickly and froze as Lekuraiyo came down from the hatch slowly. And then I saw her. A female popped her head out of the Salvadora bushes and was in a narrow opening. She saw us and froze. No one moved – neither us nor the lioness. I knew that any movement on our part would make her disappear. She stared at us for about 10 seconds…frozen. And then she was gone. She vanished so quickly that I barely knew what had happened.

She was a young female and still had spots on her. She was clearly very nervous and Gypsy may have been the first car she had ever seen. I drove to where she had stood and measured and took a photo of her tracks (see below). She had disappeared into the thick bushes along the river and I knew it would be impossible to see her again. Most likely she had joined the other 2 lions we had been tracking.

Tracks of the first “Real Lion”

Lions in community areas are very nervous of people, vehicles, sound and generally spend most of their time hiding in thick bushy areas. West Gate Community Conservancy is such a place where wildlife, people and their livestock live together in the same area. Within this conservancy, there is a Conservation Area which is situated about 1km away from the Echo Lima camp. There are no villages here and livestock is excluded from the Conservation Area. I spend most mornings driving here along the main road near the river. The bush is very thick and it is hard to see much however wildlife is increasing here which is great to see. The main habitat is Salvadora which is a thick evergreen bush, also known as the “toothbrush tree”.

A view of the Conservation Area in West Gate Community Conservancy

Anyway, back to “Real Lions”. Less than a month in West Gate and I had seen my first lion outside of a protected area. I really couldn’t and still cannot believe it. The first words that came out of my mouth a few moments after seeing the female, were “Now this is a real lion”. I couldn’t wait to find more and hoped that I would see either this young female again or others.

And the good news is that I have! Stay tuned to this week’s blog for part 2 of “Real Lions”.

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On the 29th of June, I received word from one of the resident driver guides in Samburu that he had seen 3 little lion cubs 2 days ago! Some background: The last time we had cubs in Samburu was in May 2006. Since then, Nashipai, Nabo and Uni have mated often with the 3 resident males but no cubs. I was getting a little worried about the situation especially since I have recorded a drop in the resident lion population. So, when I received this news, I was sooo excited and couldn’t wait to see the cubs and identify which female had given birth.

Ntito’s 2 cubs in 2006 -the last time there were cubs in Samburu

On the 4th of July, I headed out to try my luck at finding the cubs. They hadn’t been seen since the 27th of June. At about 2pm, we spotted Uni and Nashipai in the river, looking very full and content lying in the dry river-bed. I looked around hoping to see more signs of lions, but nothing. After a few minutes we did see a fresh impala carcass. It was clear that the lions had killed in the morning. We also passed a resident driver from one of the nearby lodges who said that he had seen the female and 3 cubs with 2 other lionesses feeding on the impala earlier that day. We continued our search for the other lions…

As we headed towards the main hill of Koitogor, we saw tracks of a female. I backtracked and suddenly realized I was not only seeing tracks of a female, but also smaller ones! These were the 3 cubs. I whooped with excitement and followed the tracks until we came to an area of thick Salvadora bushes on the tip of Koitogor hill. My Samburu friends whispered “the cubs are in here for sure”. We waited for a while and then saw many Superb Starlings congregate and chirp away on top of one of the Salvadora bushes. The birds were seeing something that we were unable to see and as had happened on many previous occasions, I wished I was a bird to hover above and see what was there. We left the area as I did not want to disturb the cubs too much, with the hope that I would catch a glimpse of them the following day.

We left camp at 5 45am on the 5th of July and headed straight for the Salvadora thicket. I turned off the engine and listened. We heard crackling of bushes and at one point it sounded as if something was being eaten. We poked our heads out of Gypsy’s roof hatch and then we saw them! 3 tiny little ones aged at approximately 8-9 weeks, playing in the Salvadora bushes. At first I wasn’t sure if the cubs were alone or not but then we saw the cubs pull at what appeared to be an adult lion’s tail. The mother was there. We then saw her ears and at this stage I knew immediately this was Nabo. I hadn’t seen Nabo since March and had already suspected that she may be the mother. It appeared that Nabo was chewing on something; possibly something she had killed during the night. The cubs were playing and running around each other. We could hear them nursing and every few minutes one of the cubs would come tearing round the bushes chasing another. We left the cubs and Nabo after a while.

First glimpse of the cub

Nabo coming out of the bushes

This was a very special moment. I was so relieved to see that Samburu finally has cubs once again. Watching Nabo look after them and witnessing their playful behaviour was definitely the highlight for me and I couldn’t be happier.

Since then I have seen the cubs a few more times. The wardens, rangers and resident drivers are all so excited and stop me each time on the road to say “Have you seen the cubs?”. Also, a few days ago I received a text message from another resident driver that he had seen another female with 2 cubs! I am currently in Nairobi doing some administration but am so excited to head back tomorrow to see who else has shown up with cubs. The lions of Samburu are back….and we couldn’t be happier.

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Two days after I saw Nashipai, Nabo and Uni, I was leaving camp at 5:45 am when I suddenly heard lions. I drove out of camp quickly knowing that lions were nearby. I saw tracks immediately and followed in pursuit. I drove round a corner and 5 metres ahead of me was a lioness sitting on the road. I had my intern at the time, Jerenimo, who whispered “she is so white”. And that was exactly it. This was Naibor (meaning white in Samburu), the new young female. Naibor was staring intently in one of the bushes at the side of the road and that’s when we realized that there was another lioness there.

Naibor stood up and at the same time we saw another female walk through the bushes. It was Nashipai. This was only the second time I had seen Naibor and I don’t know where she came from. The Koitogor Pride females (Nashipai, Nabo and Uni) all returned recently and I did wonder whether Naibor would show up with them?

Nashipai walked off into the bushes quickly. 15 metres away, Naibor followed in pursuit. Each time Nashipai stopped, Naibor stopped and would peer through the bushes at Nashipai. This walk-follow-stop went on for a few minutes. Naibor did not approach Nashipai too close and Nashipai did not turn around. Eventually Naibor began to run towards Nashipai who turned around and growled her at. Naibor retreated and sank back into the bushes.

There were many impala around at the time. Both females disappeared then and over the next hour tried to hunt the impala. At one point, Naibor (still 15-20 metres behind Nashipai) sat in some grass and waited. Nashipai saw impala in the distance and went round but in the process went running and clashed into Naibor. She jumped over her and disappeared.

Both females disappeared (again!) and I couldn’t see them for hours. I headed back to camp and returned a few hours later to find both females sitting together (side by side!) along the river. It was a beautiful sight to see both girls together.

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Sorry for the delay in writing this post! The good news is that Nashipai is finally back! Last week, whilst out lion monitoring, I was in Buffalo Springs when I got a radio message that 3 lionesses had been seen in Samburu hunting an elephant calf (they did not succeed). I drove over to Samburu and as I approached “Lion Highway” (one of the main roads where I see lion tracks and sightings often) I suddenly saw them walking down the road. I stopped the car and waited for them to walk down. I recognized her immediately. Nashipai was back and she was together with Nabo her sister and Uni, the older female in the pride. They walked past me as I had a big grin on my face.

I stayed with the lionesses for a few hours. They settled down at the river and watched everything that came down to drink. Nashipai went down and drank in the river, but jumped back on the riverbank and by noon, all 3 were sleeping in the nearby bushes.

The girls are back, looking healthy and I am thrilled.

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