November 2017 – Ewaso Lions

The Warriors Need You

On a dry and dusty night, the night sky of Kenya rises above Jeneria and his team of Samburu warriors on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro River. They are relaxing after a hard day of tracking lions in their Landcruiser 4×4, collaring one, and checking on the health of two young cubs. Suddenly, the radio crackles with anger and panic. A lioness has killed a cow. The villagers are furious and heading out to kill her.

Jeneria, his fellow Warrior, Yesalai and others in the Warrior Watch team jump into the vehicle and head for the far away village. They are greeted by angry warriors who are ready to track the lion. As Jeneria tries to reason with them, shouts fill the arid landscape. Calmly, a few Ewaso Lions Warriors listen to the villagers’ story, and Jeneria assesses the strength of the cattle boma (livestock enclosure). The lion has taken a prime cow: money in the bank to her owner. The community is vengeful and fearful. The Warrior Watch team listens for hours. As the sun rises high, the team and the community discuss alternative solutions to killing the lion. The lioness lives. As the team returns to Ewaso Lions camp, victorious after saving another lion, and happy to have helped the villagers rebuild their cattle compounds stronger, Jeneria goes over plans for the next day: community meetings to attend, new areas to explore for lions, and a collared lion that needs tracking. There is no day off when saving lions.

This story is getting harder to achieve. The 4×4 vehicle that Jeneria and the other Warriors depend on is old. It breaks down frequently and cannot be relied on to get them to surrounding villages in a hurry. Even the daily work of tracking lions and exploring landscapes is proving difficult. More and more time is spent fixing the vehicle, rather than protecting the species they have dedicated their lives to save.

You can help them. Our goal to is raise $80,000—the amount needed to replace the vehicle and cover new collars and field costs for Warrior Watch—by the end of 2017. We hope you will help us reach this goal by supporting Ewaso Lions. The Warrior Watch programme is a formidable force in lion conservation in Samburu. The lions need the Warriors. And the Warriors need YOU.

Please DONATE today to help Ewaso Lions reach this goal.

It’s Raining in Samburu!

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We are very happy to announce that it is raining in Samburu! The rains began in October in a few locations and had spread across the whole region by November. The vegetation is finally growing bringing much needed relief to the wildlife in the area. As the heavy rain collects, dry river beds have flowed frequently, including the Pukur lugga near our camp. Although it is spectacular to see the rivers fill so quickly the frequent flooding is sadly a sign of severe land degradation in the area.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96yGodgI2FQ&ab_channel=EwasoLions”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGi31Jd7-40&ab_channel=EwasoLions”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]We have had some stunning sightings of the lions including the new males that arrived in April. Other wildlife are enjoying the new grass and vast open areas of water. This is a beautiful time to be in Samburu and we can feel the relief among humans and wildlife alike as everyone in the region is hopeful after what has been a severe drought this year. We have already received over 250mm of rain, and although more rain is needed to allow the land to heal and recover fully, this is a great beginning.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYQg-Uy-da4&ab_channel=EwasoLions”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7185″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7186″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1602274193872{margin-top: 25px !important;margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7187″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7188″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7189″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7190″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1602274230107{margin-top: 25px !important;margin-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7191″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7192″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7193″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7194″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Shivani & Jeneria Speak at Wildlife Conservation Expo

Shivani & Jeneria visited the US in October on their annual tour. Following a lovely visit with their friends and supporters in Newport, Rhode Island, they had the privilege of speaking at Goldman Sachs in New York, National Geographic and WWF in Washington DC.

They were very excited to attend the annual Wildlife Conservation Expo in San Francisco in October and for those of you that missed the talk, it can be watched here. This was Ewaso Lion’s 6th annual attendance at the Expo.

Thank you to all our friends and supporters in the US who looked after us, hosted and fed us, travelled with us and supported our conservation and research programmes in Samburu. We are very grateful!

Mama Simba on safari in the Mara – Ewaso Lions

Warrior & Mama Simba Adventures

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In September, our team of Warriors visited the Maasai Mara in southern Kenya – for some – this was their first time leaving Samburu. The objective of the trip was to learn about conservation in a new landscape. In the Mara there is less human-predator conflict than in other areas because of the larger amount of grazing land available to support large wild herbivores. The presence of these populations of herbivores means lions have enough natural prey and do not turn to killing livestock out of desperation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7629″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Our team drove down across Kenya and spent 1.5 days in the Mara. The team saw over 30 lions in that short period and new animal species they hadn’t seen before such as topi, rhino, hippo and thousands of wildebeest who were moving through the Mara. Lebasha, one of the warriors said, “I wish I could bring my lioness Nadala here for a week so she could get healthy and fat, and then take her back to Samburu“. The lions seen were very healthy and hunting daily, sometimes twice a day because of the availability of food everywhere. It was a real eye -opener for the warriors to see plentiful prey for lions everywhere!

Our Mama Simba ladies also had an adventure of their own in September. They travelled to Samburu Reserve on their first ever “Bush Bus” safari together with other women from the village, followed by an exciting team building adventure to climb Lolokwe, the Samburu sacred mountain north of Samburu. This was the first attempt to climb the mountain for our entire group of ladies and they completed the climb in less than 5 hours, and sung their way to the top.

We are very grateful to the Whitley Fund for Nature for the funding for our Warriors to visit the Maasai Mara and World Women Work for all the support provided for the Mama Simba programme. Thank you for enabling the Samburu communities to experience new landscapes and wildlife.

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