Ewaso Lions

Category: Lions | Date: Oct 19 2009 | By: ewasolions

Amidst this terrible drought, the lions have done great!  Together with the other predators, they are probably the only animals to have benefited from the arid conditions.  The Koitogor pride came together a few months ago and started bringing down larger animals - giraffes, buffalo, zebra - which became their main prey.  Nashipai and Nabo’s cubs have grown and often leave their mothers, hunting alone.  I have been fortunate to have a number of great sightings of them; feasting on giraffe, climbing trees, or sleeping and playing out in the open.

Happy, healthy lions

One of the cubs on a fallen Acacia tree

The pride in Ngare Mara have also done well.  The two young females in that area, Jabdu and Korti, have not ventured far from Ngare Mara River and the swamps.  A few weeks ago, Jabdu gave birth!  I saw her the day after she gave birth - she had blood all over her legs and she was quite nervous.  It will be weeks before we see her cubs as she has them hidden well.  Kofafeti and her 2 cubs have also done well over the past few months, and Loirish and Lguret, the 2 resident males, have been moving between the 2 prides.

Jabdu, a day after giving birth

Loirish and Lguret feast on a giraffe

Lastly, Magilani. I have not seen her since August.   There is no sign of her at all. I haven’t seen any tracks or heard of any sightings from either the community or the scouts.  It has been long and I worry about her safety.  With lion numbers in Kenya declining in most areas, each and every individual lion is so important.  I have monitored Magilani for months as she wanders through West Gate Community Conservancy alone.  I hope she is still alive.

The rains have now begun and things will begin to change for the lions and other predators.  They have had an easy year so far, however this will now change as the prey moves away from the Ewaso Nyiro river and into the hills.  The lions will follow and leave the safe confines of the reserves.  I hope they survive this crucial period.

Tags: Cubs, drought, Ewaso Nyiro, Kenya, Lions, predators

3 responses so far

Category: Other news | Date: May 27 2009 | By: ewasolions

Here is another blog from guest blogger Nina Fascione- Click here for 1st blog

One day, Steve and I accompanied Shivani when she gave a presentation to the 25  West Gate Community Community scouts who patrol the conservancy monitoring wildlife, enforcing security in the area, preventing illegal grazing in protected core areas, and sensitizing communities to the importance of wildlife.

Working in the bush can be difficult, and giving a PowerPoint talk presented its own unique set of problems. First, we had to borrow a generator and projector to show the PowerPoint images. However, we quickly realized that the village rotunda where Shivani planned to give her talk was far too light from the bright African sun for the pictures to show on the screen.  So, we gathered shukas (traditional, colorful wraps) and hung them around the rotunda to try to block out the light.  No luck.

Setting up the equipment - projector, screen, generator

We then moved the equipment into a near-by office at the Conservancy Headquarters and covered the windows with blankets.  It worked to block out the light, but quickly became a sauna with so many bodies crammed into such a small and airless place.  Nonetheless we persevered, and Shivani gave her presentation. She focused on conflict with wildlife and led a discussion on how to prevent it.  She also showed images of various wildlife tracks and worked with the scouts to identify the various paw prints.  It was a very productive talk.  Interestingly, the suggestions from the scouts as to what tools might work to prevent conflicts with lions, hyenas and other African predators were identical to the methods used in the United States, such as guard dogs and compensation programs to reimburse for livestock killed by predators. One interesting idea was the suggestion from one scout that they practice “natural selection of livestock” to breed livestock that would be more resistant to predators.

Raphael and Shivani going through tracks of different predators

After lunch, I gave a presentation on my work at Defenders of Wildlife.  I was struck by the similarities with Shivani’s talk: human-wildlife conflicts, habitat loss, the problem of pesticides such as carbofuran hurting the environment in both countries and so on.  The topics were the same, the species different.

Explaining about human-wolf conflict in the US

The scouts were fascinated by my slides of North American wildlife – most of them had never seen images of our animals before.  While they thought that wolves were interesting – we explained they were like wild dogs – they thought that grizzly bears were really cool. I had never had such a rapt audience in my life.  I had also never given a talk where every audience member carried a gun!  It was a little disconcerting but without a doubt the most enjoyable presentation I have ever given.

Scouts listening intently

Upon returning to work back in Washington, DC, it was fun to then give a presentation on the wildlife and people of Samburu to my co-workers, completing the sharing of information across continents.

As someone who has maintained both a personal and professional interest in wildlife conservation for years, I cannot praise Shivani’s work enough. While her main focus is on the lion population in West Gate Community Conservancy and the nearby Samburu National Reserve, Shivani knows that any successful conservation program must be comprehensive, incorporating both biological and sociological components. The relationships she’s building with the Samburu people, along with the outreach and education she provides, will clearly help Northern Kenya’s lions and other wildlife for years to come. I encourage all of you who care about Africa’s predators to support her work. And by all means, plan a visit to see this wonderful country and these magical creatures with your own eyes.  Steve and I were sad to leave Shivani and her staff, and we can’t wait until our next trip!

Tags: Conservation, Kenya, Lions, Samburu, West Gate Community Conservancy, wildlife, Wolf

7 responses so far

Category: Other news | Date: May 25 2009 | By: ewasolions

I was thrilled to have Nina Fascione and her husband Steve Kendrot come and stay with us at the Ewaso Lions camp a while back.  Nina is the Vice President for Field Conservation for Defenders of Wildlife and a renowned human-wildlife conflict expert.  Today we have a special guest blog written by Nina!

After looking for her intently for so long that my eyes strained, I wasn’t actually expecting to see her when we did come upon her. Lekuraiyo, standing next to me with our heads sticking out of the top of the jeep (his head sticking out much farther than mine!), gently tapped me on the shoulder and said “lion.”  And there she was, standing partially hidden in the brush and still as a statue, staring at us without moving a muscle, the better to remain unseen.  In my excitement, I leaned down, punched Shivani on the arm and hissed “lion!”  Shivani was thrilled to see Magilani, the lioness she had been monitoring for several weeks, but not as much as I was, as this was my first wild lion. Indeed, it was my first trip to Africa.  Despite having worked with animals and in the conservation world since 1980, I had never before made this journey to the epitome of wildlife meccas.  My husband Steve, also a wildlife biologist, and I traveled to Northern Kenya to visit Shivani and learn more about her work.

Nina with Francis (Ewaso Lions Scout) and Lekuraiyo (Ewaso Lions tracker) standing in Gypsy

I met Shivani when she became a student in the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders (EWCL) class, a leadership training program that I co-founded and teach.

Shivani’s large carnivore conservation resonated with me because it parallels the work I oversee in North America as vice-president for field conservation for Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders has successfully worked to restore wolves, grizzly bears and other endangered species to parts of the United States, and the challenges we encounter while doing so are similar to the challenges Shivani faces in her work studying and protecting lions in Kenya: primarily, conflict with humans, including direct conflict as well as human-caused habitat loss and fragmentation.

Conflicts between humans and wildlife can seem like overwhelming obstacles to successful conservation programs.  In the United States, some ranchers and hunters object to the restoration of large carnivores, as they view them as a threat to their livelihoods.  Defenders has helped ameliorate these conflicts through several successful programs, such as our livestock compensation trust, in which we reimburse ranchers for verified livestock losses to wolves and grizzly bears.

We also maintain a proactive program, through which we work with ranchers to take steps to prevent livestock losses.  Defenders will fund the purchase and implementation of tools to keep wolves and bears away from livestock. These methods include livestock guarding dogs, fencing, employing range riders to monitor livestock and so on.

These programs have gone a long way in preventing conflicts, as well as reducing the animosity some local residents feel toward large carnivores and, presumably, the legal or illegal killing of carnivores. Through the Ewaso Lion project, Shivani is similarly working with local people – the Samburu – to understand the causes of and find solutions to prevent conflict and animosity towards predators and other wildlife in Kenya. For example, Shivani is working with local villages to ensure that bomas, the pens made out of brush where the livestock are housed at night, are strong enough to deter predators.

Biological studies are increasingly demonstrating that predators are essential to a healthy ecosystem. In addition, they bring vital economic benefits to regions through ecotourism. And perhaps most importantly, carnivores provide us with deep-rooted cultural and aesthetic values. Whether working to protect wolves in Yellowstone National Park in the United States or lions in the Samburu ecosystem in Kenya, we should all care about their conservation.

Tags: Africa, Conservation, Ewaso Lions, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Kenya, Lions, Samburu, wildlife

2 responses so far

Category: Team | Date: May 20 2009 | By: ewasolions

I am very excited to let you know that I am the recipient of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Africa Section Young Women Conservation Biologist of the Year award!

More information that was announced recently is below:

Young Women Conservation Biologists Award
won by Kenyan Lion Researcher Shivani Bhalla

The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Africa Section Young Women Conservation Biologists Awards Panel has unanimously selected Shivani Bhalla as the winner of this year’s Young Women Conservation Biologists Award – the third year that the award has been presented.

In addition to Ms. Bhalla’s academic excellence, her breadth and depth of activities in the conservation and community awareness arenas was second to none.  Dr Phoebe Barnard (SCB Africa Section Award Panel Chair 2007 and 2009) said that “We in Africa are really fortunate to have conservation biologists with such passion and energy in our midst.”

Ms. Bhalla is currently attaining her PhD through the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology.  Working with pastoralists in Samburu, Northern Kenya, Ms. Bhalla is working to reduce livestock loss to predators, tracks lions movements in and out of the protected areas (Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba National Reserves), and monitors habitat changes and prey numbers. Africa’s lion population has been dramatically reduced in recent years primarily from habitat reduction and human-lion conflict. Ms. Bhalla states, “If local communities are not engaged as part of the solution, lions will disappear from the landscape.”

The Award certificate will be presented at the 2009 SCB meeting, to be held in Beijing from 11-16 July, 2009. This year’s mainstream SCB awardees (for the SCB LaRoe and Distinguished Service Awards) include Joel Berger, George Schaller and Kamal Bawa, and Shivani will be attending the conference to receive her award personally.

The 2007 winner of the YWCB Award was Margaret Aanyu, freshwater biologist from Uganda, and the 2008 winner was Kristal Maze, chief director of biodiversity planning and mainstreaming from South Africa.

Click here:

http://www.conbio.org/2009/awards

Tags: Kenya, Lion, Samburu, Society for Conservation Biology

9 responses so far

Category: Donors | Date: Feb 19 2009 | By: ewasolions

Dear Karie,

Thank you so much for your donation to the Ewaso Lion Project.  The donation will go directly towards field costs. Your  support is really appreciated and again, thank you!

With my best wishes,

Shivani

This little cub is one of the latest additions to the Ewaso Lions!

Tags: Conservation, Kenya, Lions, Samburu, wildlife

One response so far

Category: Lions | Date: Feb 16 2009 | By: ewasolions

We have our first radio-collared Ewaso Lion!  On Thursday the 28th of January, I managed to locate Lguret at 6:36 am.  Lguret was one of the Real Lions – a maneless male who I first saw in July 2008 in West Gate Community Conservancy (WGCC) with 2 other males.  The coalition of 3 moved to Samburu National Reserve (SNR) in September 2008 and have been resident in the reserve since then.

Lguret was spotted in the Ewaso Nyiro river with the other male – Loirish.  I stayed with them until the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) vet arrived, Dr Stephen Chege.  The two males did not move much from the dry river-bed and only stood  to drink from a nearby elephant waterhole and to change position each time the sun was on them.

The two males prior to darting

After Dr Chege arrived, we made plans and decisions of how the lion will be darted and from what position.  I drove into the Ewaso Nyiro and Lguret was darted a few minutes later.  Both males jumped up after Lguret was darted and moved up the river-bank into the saltbush.

Driving into the Ewaso Nyiro finding the right position to dart from

Approaching the 2 males (lions are on the right of the photo)

Lguret darted (see dart near shoulder)

Lguret eventually sat down a few minutes later and we were able to come out of the vehicles.  Dr Chege worked on the health of the lion and took necessary samples, Raphael (Ewaso Lions) and David from Save the Elephants worked on attaching the collar whilst I took all the required measurements.  Lguret was down for a bit under an hour.  Rangers from SNR kept an eye on Loirish, the other male and reinforced the security within the area.

Attaching the radio-collar

Taking required measurements

Eventually the antidote was administered and Lguret came fully round under an hour.  We stayed with him to make sure he was in good condition and not affected by the collar and the operation overall.

Lguret recovering well after the radio-collaring

The radio-collaring operation was a success and we now have the first Ewaso Lion collared! This is the first time that movement data from a lion in Samburu is being gathered and this information is crucial for lion conservation and the management of the ecosystem.  I hope that he will move to WGCC and we will be able to learn this key movement between the reserves and the community area.

Many thanks to Paul Thomson for these great photos

Special thanks to the team from Save the Elephants and Paul Thomson from the African Wildlife Foundation for their assistance with the radio-collaring operation.

Tags: Conservation, Ewaso Lions, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Kenya, Lions, Samburu, Save the Elephants, wildlife

5 responses so far

Category: Lions | Date: Feb 14 2009 | By: ewasolions

Hello all!

I am so sorry for not writing in a few weeks.  We have been super busy here in Samburu and it has been non-stop for us.  I have much to report on, but first wanted to share with you some images taken last week of the 5 Samburu cubs in a tree.

I had a great sighting of them.  They played, slept, jumped, watched and generally just hung out in this dead Acacia tree.  3 of the cubs are Nabo’s and 2 of the little ones are Nashipai’s.  All cubs are healthy and doing really well.

The river is totally dry and all prey are congregated along the river.  This is good news for the lions as they wait and ambush their prey almost daily.  However, it is not great news for the rest of the animals and also the people and their livestock.

I also have some great news to share with you, and will write about this soon!  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the images below of the cubs from the Koitogor Pride in Samburu.

Shivani

Tags: Conservation, Kenya, Lions, Samburu, wildlife

5 responses so far

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

5 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