Ewaso Lions

Our first Kenyan Kids on Safari trip in Samburu was a huge success followed by another one with human-wildlife conflict expert, Nina Fascione.  We recently took 11 school kids out on another drive in Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves.  Sasaab Lodge kindly provided their large vehicle and guide, Innocent, for the drive.  The children come from Lpus Leluai Primary School in West Gate.  Johnson the Headmaster struggled yet again to choose the kids however students that took part in the Simba Stories competition were all selected.  I was amazed at how some of them had drawn fantastic pictures of lions, yet had never seen a lion.

The game drive was fantastic.   I had driven around for 2 days prior to the student drive and had not seen lions or any of the cats.  But this time, we were soo lucky!  About half an hour into the drive, we saw Lguret, the collared maneless male lion.  Soon after that we bumped into more of the lions from the Koitogor Pride – Nashipai and her cubs.  And about 10 minutes after that, the students got to see a leopard!  The kids were thrilled!  They had 4 small digital cameras to use and take photos with – I will be giving them copies of their photos soon so they can remember their experience.  They watched and learned about the big cats.  At the end of the day, they even sat an exam which had questions on some of the topics they were taught.  The kids did great and it was clear that they had benefited tremendously from the drive.  One of the students, Samson, said to me “Now I will find it much easier to draw lions”.

Jeremiah and Legenas watch giraffes in the distance

James watches Lguret sleeping under a tree

Legenas and Jeremiah learn how to take photos

Watching a leopard

Group photo – some very happy kids!

Here are some of the photos that the students took themselves:

A male gerenuk browses

Lguret, the maneless male

Leopard sleeping on an Acacia tree

Jeremiah had this to say after his safari:

“I say thank you for the great tour we had with you yesterday.  I was very happy to use cameras and binoculars and to see many animals like lions, giraffes, gerenuk, and much more.  Thank you also for the biscuits and milk you brought us!  I learned so much from your tour and I was so excited because it was the first time for me to see the above animals. It was so enjoyable”.

Cynthia had this to say:

“We were 5 boys and 5 girls when we went on a drive.  We started seeing animals when we entered the park.  One of the animals I saw was a lion and it was interesting because we were told his name was “Lguret”.  I was very happy to see so many of these animals.  I wish again one day we will go again and see many others.”

A huge special thanks to Kenyan Kids on Safari for donating the cameras and starting this programme and to Sasaab Lodge for being so enthusiastic about the drive and providing their vehicle.  I am really looking forward to more drives with the students  -hopefully over Xmas!

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…

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

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!