Ewaso Lions

Category: West Gate Community Conservancy | Date: Mar 22 2009 | By: ewasolions

A few nights ago I woke up at 3 am to hear hyenas all around my tent at the Echo Lima Camp in West Gate Community Conservancy.  They were whooping and running around everywhere. This went on for about an hour and then suddenly stopped.  I went back to sleep and awoke the next morning to discover that 2 donkeys had been killed by the hyenas just on the other side of the camp.

Raphael and I went to look and investigate the conflict incidence.  Basically the 2 donkeys had strayed and were wandering  the area when the hyenas found and attacked them.

Raphael recording the conflict incidence

Remains of the second donkey

Donkeys are often not looked after or herded properly.  They stray and are killed by predators.  Magilani, the lioness, killed a donkey earlier in the year and I suspect that is not the first time she did that.  Donkeys are useful animals here - they are used to transport goods (especially when people are moving homes) and also to carry water.  But, their value is not really regarded and they are often left alone.  During our community meetings, we emphasize the need for better herding practices and how this will reduce livestock loss to predators.

Tags: conflict, Donkeys, hyenas, Lioness, predators, West Gate Community Conservancy

2 responses so far

Category: West Gate Community Conservancy | Date: Mar 15 2009 | By: ewasolions

I moved to West Gate from Samburu National Reserve in May 2008, and set up the Echo Lima (Ewaso Lions) Camp here.  West Gate is a community owned and managed group ranch, where local communities, their livestock and wildlife all live together.  It is a stunning area and is adjacent to Samburu.

View of West Gate

The goal of West Gate is to “… develop a platform for the Samburu pastoralist community living within the Group Ranch to reduce poverty levels through integrated eco-friendly tourist activities and conservation” (taken from the Northern Rangelands Trust website).

Within the conservancy, there is a small Conservation Area.  Every morning and evening I  drive in the area, recording all wildlife that I see along set routes along the river.  The Conservation Area is only 2 years old but wildlife numbers have increased as a result of the dedicated West Gate scouts who put so much time and effort into working here.  It is a small area - but there is much to see.  Over the past few months I have been delighted to record lions, leopard (this is where we saw leopard cannibalism), hyenas and even a caracal!

Scanning the Conservation Area 

More views of the Conservation Area

There are many challenges here though…the area surrounding the Conservation Area has a lot of livestock especially across the river in Isiolo District.  The Conservation Area is under intense pressure from the livestock and local communities who are seeking new pastures especially now with the drought.  The area is a small paradise for wildlife…the bush is thick, there is wild prey, there are plenty of places to hide and it is a place where animals now feel safe.

The West Gate community scouts and the Ewaso Lions team are working hard to ensure that animals continue to feel safe here and are well protected.

There is a special animal who calls this little Conservation Area her home.  Do read my next blog to find out who she is…

Tags: Community, Conservation, hyenas, Leopard, Lions, Livestock, Samburu, West Gate, wildlife

5 responses so far

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

A few weeks ago, whilst we were in camp we heard that a bull elephant had died about 1 km away.  This big bull is a known individual, called Esidai, and has been studied for many years by the Save the Elephants researchers.

I used to see him often here in West Gate, hanging out with other big bulls.  The bulls like this area; there is plenty of shade, food and water.  When the bulls come into musth, they leave the area and head for the reserves, where they look for females to mate with.

Esidai fell on the river bank and died a few hours later.  We went to see him, together with the researchers from Save the Elephants.  The cause of death could not be established and to this date, we do not know what happened to him.  There were no visible wounds on him.  This is now the second elephant to have died in the area for unknown reasons.

Esidai’s death attracted a lot of interest from the local people

Researchers from Save the Elephants measure his tusks and take various samples

I have gone back a few times to see Esidai after his tusks were removed by the Kenya Wildlife Service.  The hyenas have eaten a small part of him and dragged his trunk to the middle of the river.  But he is pretty much still there, sloped on the river bank…

Esidai - A great loss to West Gate

These are tough times for the residents of Samburu. The local communities, their livestock and the wildlife are struggling now.  The area is terribly dry and there is not much food remaining.  The Ewaso Nyiro river has been dry for months now and elephants are digging into the dry river bed for water, helping the other animals too.

We are all hoping for rain soon.  We did have a huge thunderstorm last night.  I hope this is the beginning of the much awaited for and desperately needed rains…

Tags: elephants, Ewaso Nyiro, hyenas, Samburu, Save the Elephants, West Gate Community Conservancy

3 responses so far

Category: West Gate Community Conservancy | Date: Mar 04 2009 | By: ewasolions

Exciting news!  Although we hear hyenas almost every night from the Echo Lima Camp in West Gate Community Conservancy, it is always hard to see them and so far we’ve only managed to get quick glimpses at night.  However, finally a few weeks ago we had 2 superb sightings of spotted hyena.

I was driving through the Conservation Area when we saw 5 cross the road in front of us.  A few days later, we saw 7 spotted hyena in the same area!  This is the first time that such a large spotted hyena grouping has been recorded in this area.

(Photo above taken by Steve Kendrot USDA)

Spotted hyenas in West Gate

Hyenas are rarely seen in both the reserves and in West Gate.  Tracks are seen from time to time - mainly striped hyena tracks in Samburu and spotted hyena tracks in West Gate.  They do cause a lot of conflict in West Gate and often raid bomas at night.  We are currently gathering data on the conflict in West Gate between the various predators and livestock.

A few days after the hyena sighting, we were driving along when we came across this little predator…

Caracal feeding on dik dik

I have seen caracal twice before but rarely got a good look.  This caracal had just killed a dik dik when we came across it and he proceeded to feed on the dik dik for close to an hour right in front of us.  It was an amazing sighting and such a beautiful animal to watch.

This seems to be the month for my first proper sightings of these incredible predators; first the hyenas,  followed by the wild dogs and then the caracal!

Tags: caracal, conflict, hyenas, predators, Samburu, Spotted Hyenas, West Gate Community Conservancy

5 responses so far

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: West Gate | Date: Nov 07 2008 | By: ewasolions

I have just returned from a tough week in the field in West Gate Conservancy.  The rains have finally arrived in Samburu which is great.  I unfortunately chose the wrong time to move back to Echo Lima Camp for a week (its been sunny and blue skies since I left!).

I had scheduled to work at night during this week which meant ground-truthing during the day and driving at night.  During the day, most of the roads were washed away and we came across many road blocks - either elephants had knocked over trees or the Ewaso Nyiro river had brought in lots of debris.  We spent hours clearing away the debris to get through and driving through a lot of water!

Raphael and Ricila clearing away the debris

I am quite excited - I think I have just figured out how to upload my first video onto YouTube and on this blog. Lets hope this works. Click on the video below to see me driving through probably the smallest amount of water during that week.

After that, Gypsy was literally swimming through much more water.  I was especially proud of Gypsy when I was returning to camp one night at 11 pm and had to drive through the Pukur lugga (sand river) which was flowing and the sand was very soft. I walked across to make sure I could do it and decided to give it a go.  I drove through with no problems; sand and water covering the tyres.  I heard the next day that a Landcruiser had got stuck there a few minutes after I had gone through.  Very unfortunate for the Landcruiser, but Go Gypsy!!!  She continues to be a fantastic car for this type of terrain.

The rains were amazing. The Kipsing river was full off water for the first time in months and flowed into the Ewaso Nyiro.  However, unfortunately, our tents are not totally waterproof and every night, rain would leak into them.  One night, I woke to find my back totally wet after rain came through and soaked through the mattress.  We didn’t see sun too much during this week and if there was any sun, the mattresses and blankets would be spread out and our little camp looked like a bush laundromat.

The Ewaso Nyiro River is full

With just a little bit of rain, the Echo Lima Camp and surrounding areas transformed.  It is green everywhere and looks so different to when we left in August.

The Echo Lima camp in October - Gypsy and the tents are in the distance

The hardest part of the week was working at night (I have got very used to sleeping at 8pm!).  One aspect of my research is to estimate the density of lions and hyenas in the community areas, so this required me to work at night.

However, the recent arrival of the rains and using spot lights attracted an enormous number of bugs - the most I have ever seen.  All sorts of flying and crawling bugs and beetles flew into our faces, into the car and however much we tried to cover up, they ended up all over us.  Gypsy currently looks like a bug graveyard.  The beetles seemed to have an interest in my hair and often they would nestle in my hair, only to come crawling out over my face when I returned to camp and was asleep (or trying to sleep) in my tent.  I think I need a genet cat to sit on my head and sieve through my hair picking out the bugs. One thing is for sure - the genet cat would definitely have a feast:)

A rare dry moment  - Francis and I enjoying a cup of tea (trying to keep warm!) whilst out ground-truthing one day

So, although I had the toughest driving experience, was soaked 24-7 and am still removing bugs from my hair, I am glad the rains have finally arrived in Samburu.  It was a long, dry spell and the people, their livestock and the wildlife have really suffered over the past few months.  The cows are returning home, the Ewaso Nyiro is still flowing and it is green everywhere.

The reserve is green once again

Tags: cats, elephants, Ewaso Nyiro, hyenas, Lions, rains, Samburu, wildlife

2 responses so far