[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]May 6, 2021

By Stephanie Carnow[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It wasn’t long after daybreak when Sintiwan Lekilia left her home, the sun still hung low in the sky casting a warm honey-colored tint over the open savanna. It’s a 45 minute walk to the Grevy’s Zebra Trust (GZT) camp and Sintiwan wanted to get there early. When she arrived, she settled into the workshop amongst an array of zebra-striped cloth, thread, and recently sewn facemasks. Across the hills, Jisana Tampushi is hammering loudly—adding the finishing touches to a ‘tippy-tappy’, a hand washing station operated by a foot pedal. The contraption has attracted a group of curious children, eager to learn from Ewaso Lions (EL) how to properly wash their hands to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Throughout 2020, the collaboration between local people and conservationists at GZT and EL, have helped the communities and wildlife populations in northern Kenya stay healthy in the face of a destructive pandemic.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7922″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]GZT and EL have worked together before. They both operate in the same area and employ many of the same conservation techniques. This year, the pandemic forced both groups to adapt. Meetings they once held with locals to reduce conflict with lions now happened in smaller groups and at a safe distance. GZT’s Nkirreten Project, a women’s empowerment project that Sintiwan participates in, typically makes sanitary pads, but has expanded to include facemasks. Together, EL and GZT set up hand washing stations and disseminated healthcare information to boost community safety. As a result, their partnership and the community-led nature of their work has made this area particularly resilient to the health impacts of the pandemic.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7923″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”right”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Because their community work supports the local pastoral economy, GZT and Ewaso Lions were also able to withstand the worst financial downturns of the pandemic. As the travel industry grinded to a halt in 2020, it heavily impacted many conservation organizations that rely on tourist dollars. Although GZT and EL faced their own unique funding challenges, tourism and conservation are not linked where they operate. Untethered from tourism, their conservation work with locals to protect livestock from hungry lions and manage rangeland habitat for the highly endangered Grevy’s zebra was able to continue with relatively minor adjustments.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7924″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”right”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Community engagement is the cornerstone of conservation for GZT and Ewaso Lions, and it cannot function without trust. This trust is strong due to years of working together to help wildlife and people coexist. Additionally, the bond between conservationists and locals is close because these conservationists are not outsiders, they are from the same communities where they operate. Because they are so rooted in the area, conservationists weathered the pandemic right alongside their communities, strengthening trust even more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7925″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When people are hungry or sick, caring for wildlife, understandably, cannot be their priority. This is why humanitarian efforts and protecting wildlife go hand-in-hand. In this unprecedented year, GZT and Ewaso Lions banded together and worked with local people—producing masks with Sintiwan and strengthening health services with Jisana—to ensure their communities were safe and that their efforts to protect wildlife never wavered. In doing so, they demonstrated the truly resilient nature of community-led conservation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Source: https://wildnet.org/the-resiliency-of-conservation/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]WILD ELEMENTS

For Immediate Release: April 27, 2021

WILD ELEMENTS Foundation Launches With Unprecedented Approach to Investing in Women Conservation Leaders

New Community-Focused Funding Model Disrupts Male-Dominated Philanthropy Dollars.

LOS ANGELES, CA (April 27, 2021) – Today, WILD ELEMENTS is launching its mission in action, the WILD ELEMENTS Foundation. The brainchild of social entrepreneur Nikki Eslami, WILD ELEMENTS consists of three unique organizations accelerating conservation efforts and scaling global environmental change by protecting humankind, animalkind, and plantkind. WILD ELEMENTS Foundation, a purpose driven non-profit, is investing in global conservation efforts through advocacy, philanthropy, and charitable activities—but in a wild, new funding model infusing resources into planet saving efforts led by women, indigenous individuals, and people of colour.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Far too often marginalized in the environmental space, women-led efforts only receive .02 percent of total global foundation funding[1]. To change that trajectory, WILD ELEMENTS Foundation is launching with an initial investment of $3 million in sustainability and conservation organizations, which are predominantly female-led. Heeding the United Nations urgent call to action on fully implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), WILD ELEMENTS Foundation will invest at least $10 million by the 2030 SDGs deadline and prioritize funding for women-led and community-focused work that has the most impact. WILD ELEMENTS Foundation is flipping traditional philanthropy on its head and disrupting giving models in an effort to decolonize it. With more women in decision-making roles, we can more quickly shift power and resources to scale change.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“We are wildly different by design,” said WILD ELEMENTS Foundation Board Member and CEO of WILD ELEMENTS Nikki Eslami. “Women are on the front lines in the fight to save our planet. We can and must disrupt the status quo by finding ways to feed into their work which is directly impacting local communities for the better. Plus, by partnering women innovators with women advocates, we can elevate solutions through education, inspiration, and activation.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]WILD ELEMENTS Foundation will use the power of storytelling to raise the voices of women pioneers paving their own sustainable path forward, changing the world one brilliant program at a time. Deemed WILD Innovators by the Foundation, ten women-led projects from across the globe will be partnered with WILD Advocates (artists and influencers) who will utilize their digital platforms to bring much-needed awareness to new audiences. Together, they will accelerate change by sparking conversations, forming the foundation of a conscious community, and building a movement. Each WILD Innovator is receiving a two-year, $100,000 grant for her work. Each WILD Advocate is donating her time and voice to raise awareness. (See below for the inaugural list of WILD Innovators and WILD Advocates.).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Beyond these initial investments, WILD ELEMENTS Foundation is also making grants to six conservation programs at world-renowned organizations pursuing narrative, cultural, and policy change. Initial partners include MIT Solve (2021 Resilient Ecosystems Global Challenge), National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)’s Rewrite the Future Program, One Earth’s Project Marketplace, The Recycling Partnership, the Rodale Institute, and Wildlife Conservation Network.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The WILD ELEMENTS Foundation is led by President and Board Member, Heidi Nel, alongside its Board of Directors which includes WILD ELEMENTS Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Nikki Eslami, WILD ELEMENTS Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Rob Sebastian, National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP) President and CEO, Nick Tedesco, and WestRock Company Chief Sustainability Officer, Brandi Colander.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For more information on the WILD ELEMENTS Foundation, including planned charitable activities, visit foundation.wildelements.com, and visit WILD ELEMENTS on social media @wildelements.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]WILD Innovators and WILD Advocates:

• Innovator: Richelle Thomas, United States (Protect Medicinal Plants at the University of Arizona)

Advocates: Nathalie Kelley and Blu Hunt

• Innovators: Abigail Williams and Jayne Goss, United Kingdom (Farm Urban)

Advocate: Radhi Devlukia Shetty 

• Innovators: Erika Allen and Laurell Sims, United States (Urban Growers Collective)

Advocate: AnnaSophia Robb

• Innovator: Krithi Karanth, India (Centre for Wildlife Studies)

Advocate: Stefanie Giesinger

• Innovator: Genesis Butler, United States (Youth Climate Save)

Advocate: Leona Lewis

• Innovator: Sheila Funnell, Kenya (Grevy’s Zebra Trust)

Advocate: Marisol Nichols

• Innovator: Rosamira Guillen, Colombia (Proyecto Titi)

Advocate: Isabella Gomez

• Innovator: Resson Kantai Duff, Kenya (Ewaso Lions)

Advocate: Elizabeth Gillies

• Innovator: Adriana Verges, Australia (Operation Posidonia at UNSW Sydney)

Advocate: Jamie Chung 

• Innovator: Dominique Goncalves, Mozambique (Gorongosa National Park Elephant Ecology Program)

Advocate: Ashley Park

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]About WILD ELEMENTS FOUNDATION:

The WILD ELEMENTS Foundation, a conscious catalyst for change, accelerates efforts to restore our global ecosystem. The Foundation is fueled by the Power of Three—a symbiotic union between Animalkind, Humankind, and Plantkind, because one can’t thrive without the other. 

Intentionally designed to disrupt philanthropy, the Foundation aims to shift power and vital resources to women, indigenous communities, and people of colour on the frontlines of conservation. By diversifying funding and leveraging creative storytelling, the Foundation makes every grant exponentially more impactful–advancing and scaling environmental change.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]November 30, 2020

By Stephanie Carnow[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Despite being a muscular 300 lbs., Naramat moved as discreetly as a cat burglar. She was precariously close to people, so she kept hidden in daytime, emerging after sundown to hunt warthogs in the dark. Together with her three cubs, she steadily moved north. The foursome had been away from Westgate Conservancy for eight months and the Ewaso Lions team was anxious about this absence. Naramat is a bold lion with a nomadic spirit and a predilection for living close to people, which could be dangerous if she went after their livestock. At last, on a bright October morning, the Ewaso Lions team sighed with relief as they spotted Naramat nearby, her trio of cubs in tow.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Naramat means “the caring one,” which not only captures the lioness’s qualities, but also that of the conservationists who have monitored her and the communities who have embraced her for 12 years. She is a special lioness because rather than living inside the government designated protected area, Naramat is a “community lioness,” spending most of her time near villages. Her choice to live alongside people is evidence that the Westgate communities are deeply conservation minded; they have truly made the area a place of human-lion coexistence.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7938″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Naramat is a special lioness that prefers to roam independently from a pride. She and her three cubs have safely returned to Westgate Conservancy together, much to the delight of local communities and Ewaso Lions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A few years ago, it seemed as if Naramat may have lost her taste for being Westgate’s community lion when she left and settled 21 miles south in Il Ngwesi Conservancy. The Ewaso Lions team didn’t know if Il Ngwesi was suitable habitat for lions, but Naramat seemed to sense she would find more water and prey there. After seeing her success in Il Ngwesi, Ewaso Lions followed suit, helping to build tolerance for lions amongst the communities in Naramat’s second home. Naramat has since traveled back and forth between Westgate and Il Ngwesi several times, moving through some dicey territory along the way—unfamiliar areas where people may not want a lion for a neighbor. Each time she makes this pilgrimage, it puts the Ewaso Lions team on edge until they know she is in a safe area.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Recently, Ewaso Lions was reminded that even close to home, addressing conflict between communities and lions requires persistence. Not far from Westgate, in a nearby village, Naramat made a meal out of a herder’s livestock. The community was up in arms. This inspired Ewaso Lions to set up a mobile camp close to the conflict hotspot, where they actively monitor the movements of both Naramat and the livestock. This way they can alert herders if a lion is nearby, stopping conflict before it starts.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7942″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]After Naramat killed some livestock in a nearby village, Ewaso Lions set up a mobile camp there to stop any additional conflict.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Naramat has shown Ewaso Lions that real coexistence in community areas is possible. She is famous in Westgate where the local people are equally as invested in her well-being as conservationists. In fact, Ewaso Lions sees no distinction between communities and conservationists when it comes to protecting lions. As Naramat moves between Samburu and Il Ngwesi, she continues to be a symbol of Ewaso Lions’ success in integrating communities and conservation, helping people and lions share the landscape.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Source: https://wildnet.org/a-community-lioness/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Commentary by Resson Kantai Duff (Kenya) on 19 November 2020

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the harsh deserts of northern Kenya, prides don’t make sense. So lions have figured out another way to survive.

By Christine Dell’amore

Published August 9, 2019[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]They named her Magilani—“the clever one”—because she had to be smart to live alone here, in the harsh deserts of northern Kenya.

Not only did she eke out an existence, the big cat successfully raised cubs while sharing the land peacefully with the Samburu people, a tribe of semi-nomadic pastoralists.

“I kept wondering, How did this lion do this by herself? She survived to perfection,” says Shivani Bhalla, founder and executive director of Ewaso Lions, an organization that promotes coexistence between humans and wildlife who live along the Ewaso River.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When Bhalla moved to the Samburu region in 2002, “I kept expecting to see large prides of lions. Growing up, my dad would take me on safari at Masai Mara [National Reserve],” she says.

Instead, she learned from the local people that population of about 50 lions, which move between community and protected lands, live alone—the first such solitary population to be scientifically described.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Everyone keeps labeling lions as the only social cat, but they’re not really social here,” says Bhalla, whose research was published in her Ph.D. dissertation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In other words, living in a pride is not necessarily the default for lions.

Bhalla’s findings dovetail with existing research that shows lions are “surprisingly flexible,” says Meredith Palmer, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University studying interactions between lions and their prey.

That ability to adapt to human landscapes adaptability is going to be crucial for the species’ future, Palmer notes—the African lion has disappeared from 94 percent of its historic range, in large part because of habitat fragmentation, loss of prey species, and conflict with humans. There may be as few as 20,000 left in the wild.

“In East Africa especially, if lions are going to survive, they’ll need to learn to live with people,” she says. Living a solitary life is one thing that may help them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]R-e-s-p-e-c-t

In addition to imagine, who likely died in 2011, Bhalla has collared two other female lions, Nadala and Naramat. Her research area covers about 1,200 square miles of lion habitat in Samburu, Buffalo Springs, and Shaba National Reserves, as well as five community conservancies, in which local people benefit from protecting wildlife, such as from ecotourism.

Naramat, who raised three litters of cubs in this study area, now lives about 65 miles south, in another community conservancy, where she’s raising a new set of cubs.

By tracking Naramat’s movements over the years, Bhalla and colleagues have learned that she knows her habitat well, leaving areas quickly in which she feels unsafe and figuring out how to navigate human settlements and protected areas.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Samburu moms are also very resourceful. For instance, in lion prides, females leave their cubs with “babysitters,” but these lionesses take their cubs with them everywhere, even on the hunt, Bhalla says. In fact, Magilani taught her three-month-old cub to take down a small antelope, a “remarkable” feat, she says.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]You won’t see male lions lazing about much, either. They’re also solitary, very active hunters; males and females come together briefly to mate.

“If you brought a Masai Mara lion to Samburu, it wouldn’t survive a day. They’re fat and spoiled,” she adds, laughing.

“You have to give the Samburu lions a lot of respect.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”7947″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”right”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Family dynamics

Most people think “prides define what it is to be a lion,” Palmer says, but that’s because the first long-term studies of lions took place in East Africa, namely in the Masai Mara National Reserve and in Serengeti National Park, Palmer says.

On these prey-rich savannas, life is good—so good that real estate is at a premium. Living in groups allows male lions to defend their territories against invading males hoping to snatch their little slice of heaven, and the tight-knit group structure also protects cubs, according to research by the University of Minnesota Lion Center, where Palmer did her Ph.D.

This research also has found a “great degree of flexibility in lion behavior under extremely different kinds of environmental and social conditions,” Palmer says.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For instance, smaller prides tend to carve out big territories across the more barren East African plains, where they have to cover more ground to find food. Larger prides defend smaller, but higher-quality, territories around valuable water sources with lots of prey.

In fact, there are many reasons not to form prides at all, as most of the world’s big cat species have already figured out. For one, you don’t have to share food—especially if there’s not a ton of it, as is the case in the arid Samburu.

It would also be hard for a lion pride to maintain a defined territory in a patchwork of community lands and protected areas, which is another reason why the big cats fly solo.

Their loner lifestyle obviously works, Bhalla adds: “Some [Samburu] lions survive up to 16, which is amazing for such a challenging landscape.” In comparison, a Serengeti female can live up to 19 years.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Win-win situation

Many Samburu people are protective of the big cats that live among them—they named Naramat “the caring one” because of her excellent mothering, according to Bhalla.

Such appreciation gives these lions a greater chance for survival, she says.

“The more people that know and name the lions, the more ownership they have toward them,” she says. Two lions died in conflicts with people in the region in 2018, down from five deaths in 2017.

Palmer says the Samburu lions’ success bodes well for populations in East Africa and South Africa, where the predators are being squeezed out of parks and into human-occupied lands.

“If lions can live in the community and the community can live with the lions,” she says, “that’s a win-win situation.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/solitary-lions-kenya-samburu[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

This is the only place on Earth where lions live alone

By Christine Dell’Amore

They named her Magilani—“the clever one”—because she had to be smart to live alone here, in the harsh deserts of northern Kenya.

Not only did she eke out an existence, the big cat successfully raised cubs while sharing the land peacefully with the Samburu people, a tribe of semi-nomadic pastoralists.

“I kept wondering, How did this lion do this by herself? She survived to perfection,” says Shivani Bhalla, founder and executive director of Ewaso Lions, an organization that promotes coexistence between humans and wildlife who live along the Ewaso River.

When Bhalla moved to the Samburu region in 2002, “I kept expecting to see large prides of lions. Growing up, my dad would take me on safari at Masai Mara [National Reserve],” she says.

Instead, she learned from the local people that population of about 50 lions, which move between community and protected lands, live alone—the first such solitary population to be scientifically described.

“Everyone keeps labeling lions as the only social cat, but they’re not really social here,” says Bhalla, whose research was published in her Ph.D. dissertation.

In other words, living in a pride is not necessarily the default for lions.

Bhalla’s findings dovetail with existing research that shows lions are “surprisingly flexible,” says Meredith Palmer, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University studying interactions between lions and their prey.

That ability to adapt to human landscapes adaptability is going to be crucial for the species’ future, Palmer notes—the African lion has disappeared from 94 percent of its historic range, in large part because of habitat fragmentation, loss of prey species, and conflict with humans. There may be as few as 20,000 left in the wild.

“In East Africa especially, if lions are going to survive, they’ll need to learn to live with people,” she says. Living a solitary life is one thing that may help them.

R-e-s-p-e-c-t

In addition to Magilani, who likely died in 2011, Bhalla has collared two other female lions, Nadala and Naramat. Her research area covers about 1,200 square miles of lion habitat in Samburu, Buffalo Springs, and Shaba National Reserves, as well as five community conservancies, in which local people benefit from protecting wildlife, such as from ecotourism.

Naramat, who raised three litters of cubs in this study area, now lives about 65 miles south, in another community conservancy, where she’s raising a new set of cubs.

By tracking Naramat’s movements over the years, Bhalla and colleagues have learned that she knows her habitat well, leaving areas quickly in which she feels unsafe and figuring out how to navigate human settlements and protected areas.

Samburu moms are also very resourceful. For instance, in lion prides, females leave their cubs with “babysitters,” but these lionesses take their cubs with them everywhere, even on the hunt, Bhalla says. In fact, Magilani taught her three-month-old cub to take down a small antelope, a “remarkable” feat, she says.

You won’t see male lions lazing about much, either. They’re also solitary, very active hunters; males and females come together briefly to mate.

“If you brought a Masai Mara lion to Samburu, it wouldn’t survive a day. They’re fat and spoiled,” she adds, laughing.

“You have to give the Samburu lions a lot of respect.”

Family dynamics

Most people think “prides define what it is to be a lion,” Palmer says, but that’s because the first long-term studies of lions took place in East Africa, namely in the Masai Mara National Reserve and in Serengeti National Park, Palmer says.

On these prey-rich savannas, life is good—so good that real estate is at a premium. Living in groups allows male lions to defend their territories against invading males hoping to snatch their little slice of heaven, and the tight-knit group structure also protects cubs, according to research by the University of Minnesota Lion Center, where Palmer did her Ph.D.

This research also has found a “great degree of flexibility in lion behavior under extremely different kinds of environmental and social conditions,” Palmer says.

For instance, smaller prides tend to carve out big territories across the more barren East African plains, where they have to cover more ground to find food. Larger prides defend smaller, but higher-quality, territories around valuable water sources with lots of prey.

In fact, there are many reasons not to form prides at all, as most of the world’s big cat species have already figured out. For one, you don’t have to share food—especially if there’s not a ton of it, as is the case in the arid Samburu.

It would also be hard for a lion pride to maintain a defined territory in a patchwork of community lands and protected areas, which is another reason why the big cats fly solo. (Read how “living walls” have stopped lions from killing livestock in Tanzania.)

Their loner lifestyle obviously works, Bhalla adds: “Some [Samburu] lions survive up to 16, which is amazing for such a challenging landscape.” In comparison, a Serengeti female can live up to 19 years.

Win-win situation

Many Samburu people are protective of the big cats that live among them—they named Naramat “the caring one” because of her excellent mothering, according to Bhalla.

Such appreciation gives these lions a greater chance for survival, she says. (Read how Samburu warriors are pledging to protect lions.)

“The more people that know and name the lions, the more ownership they have toward them,” she says. Two lions died in conflicts with people in the region in 2018, down from five deaths in 2017.

Palmer says the Samburu lions’ success bodes well for populations in East Africa and South Africa, where the predators are being squeezed out of parks and into human-occupied lands.

“If lions can live in the community and the community can live with the lions,” she says, “that’s a win-win situation.”

You can read the original article posted to the National Geographic website here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/solitary-lions-kenya-samburu

Article by Kenya Buzz’ Omani Joy

Ewaso Lions is dedicated to the conservation of lions and other large carnivores by promoting co-existence between people and wildlife. Their scope spans across Northern Kenya’s Samburu and Isiolo counties, which comprise one contiguous ecosystem; covering about 3,000 km2 of lion habitat, including National Reserves (Samburu, Buffalo Springs, and Shaba) and Community Conservancies (Westgate, Oldonyiro, Kalama, Nasuulu and Nakupurat Gotu).

Samburu warrior Jeneria Lekilelei is the Field Operations & Community Manager at Ewaso Lions. He talked to us about his foundation Warrior Watch, his duties at Ewaso Lions, his favourite cats and how we can all help with lion conservation:

KB: How did you first get interested in lion conservation and how long have you been doing this?
JL: When Shivani [Bhalla, the founder of Ewaso Lions] came to Samburu National Reserve and started looking at lion threats outside the park, she met with the warden at Samburu Conservancy and asked if she could hire three guys to work with her. That’s when I first got interested in lions. Before that I didn’t know anything about them. I’ve been working in lion conservation for ten years now.
KB: Tell us a bit about Warrior Watch and how you got the community Morans to be part of it.
JL: Although we were aware about the human-lion conflict, I first (directly) encountered this situation with the Morans. We knew that to protect lions from being killed we had to bring the community into conservation. We started with six warriors and discovered that being involved in lion conservation directly changed attitudes. When the Morans give their livestock water they can still talk to non-warriors not involved in the Warrior Watch program and tell them where the lions are and what areas to avoid. They also talk about the importance of lion conversation.
KB: What does your job at Ewaso Lions entail? What does a typical day at the ”office” look like?
JL: Most of the time I’m out in the field monitoring the lions so I can tell the community where they are when the people are out in the bush with their livestock. Second, I run community meetings and workshops – maybe four a month, sometimes more -because if a lion moves to a certain area, I need to initiate a community meeting to make sure everybody is vigilant and doing careful husbandry.
I also attend conflict situations when lions kill livestock. I drive very quickly to that area before the warriors or anyone can take action (to act as a mediator). I always empathize and tend to first talk about the culture – within our culture we believe if you have ten cows one will be killed by a lion. And culturally, people also think lions are a good sign of hope – lions mean healthy ecosystems, and heathy landscapes mean healthy livestock. I also talk about tourism and that people come from all over the world to see lions and we’re so lucky to have them in our homeland. Finally, people like the scholarship program through Ewaso Lions that helps send kids to high school. They know if you had 100 cows, you can’t send ten cows to sponsor kids for school; only the lion program can do that. Wildlife helps everyone. People ask how many lions are in Kenya. It’s important for them to know there aren’t that many – fewer than 2000 in Kenya. Every year about 100 lions are lost and if we continue to lose that many, we won’t have any lions in 20 years.
KB: What’s the most exciting part of your job?
JL: I like seeing the lions, sitting with them when I’m in my car, building trust with them and knowing that unless they feel threatened lions aren’t as bad as people think. After all these years seeing them is still the most exciting part for me. Witnessing them raise cubs is also very exciting for me because I can see we’re making a difference. Also seeing them in the community area and seeing that the community has accepted them. Hearing them in the community at night is a way of knowing that the community has accepted them and the lions feel safe now. If they were threatened in the community they wouldn’t be there.
KB: How do you go about naming the lions the organization tracks?
JL: With the lions who live in the community, we look to the community to give them names. This makes them feel connected to the lions, the project and part of lion conservation as well.
KB: How do you tell these magnificent cats apart without using any fancy tech? How do you know who is who?
JL: Two things. First, whiskers are very unique, like a thumb print. Once you are around them and know the whisker spots, they can go away five years and come back but their whisker spots remain unchanged. Second is their markings. When they hunt, they go through bushes and get cuts on their ears, or if they get in a fight, they get cuts. So, you can use ear notches and other scars to tell them apart, but that’s not the best way because they can get new cuts so we don’t use that the most.
KB: Any scary encounters you’ve had with a rogue lion?
JL: I’ve never been attacked by a lion but there was one lion who had a broken leg. He couldn’t hunt by himself and went across the river to a village and jumped into a boma and killed 15 goats. In the morning he couldn’t run to escape the people so we wanted to get him away from the village. He was really scared. We had to use a different approach after we saw the lion was stressed. I got my warriors and we formed a big line of people and made noises so he could hear people coming and walk away by himself without being harmed. That’s the one scenario I’ve ever had with a lion.
KB: You recently lost an Ewaso cub; our sympathies go out to the Ewaso family. Your response to her plight was quick. How did you get to know about her suffering without a ”cub distress” hotline in the park?
JL: We got a report from the guides at one of the lodges. They found the lions at 9 am and one of the guides saw a big lion grab the cub by the neck and shake it. He called me up immediately about the injured cub. We rushed to that area and found the young cub dragging half her body on the ground, trying to drag herself into the bushes. We immediately called the KWS vet -luckily, he was in the park and came right away. There were broken bones in her back and we agreed to monitor her and see if she could recover. We guarded her day and night for five days and we saw she wasn’t going to survive. It was very hard for us to watch the cub suffering. She couldn’t go with her mom or drink water or anything. We called the vet again to come and see if there was any chance of recovery, but we saw she wouldn’t make it and, together with Samburu National Reserve rangers and the vet we agreed to put her down. So, we do have a hotline in the park because we’re all communicating with each other. We all work together – the guides, the park management, Kenya Wildlife Services, the community, Ewaso Lions.
KB: You’ve been nominated for the Tusk Conservation Award, the Wildlife Warrior Award from the Houston Zoo and recently been featured on Citizen TV’s Wildlife Warriors in Kenya. How did they find out about your work and how did winning these awards impact you?
JL: Winning the awards makes us know we’re not forgotten in northern Kenya. It means a lot to my team as well because of how much we put into lion conservation. It motivates us to see people recognize the work. It’s an award for all of us – the team and our partners working together.
KB: Are you mentoring future Jenerias in the local schools?
JL: Yes. I take the young generation to see lions up close and that helps build and mentor future Jenerias. With our Lion Kids camps there are so many of them that want to do conversation in this area as a career. One boy, Junior, first came to Lions Kids camp and said “I need to be like Jeneria. I need to go to school.”
KB: What are some of the ways we can help you and your team conserve these beautiful cats?
JL: One of the best ways is to join us in lion conservation – help spread the word. Tell your friends, tell your family. That will really help my team, the lions and with lion conservation. We can’t do anything without financial support to hire people, so we always appreciate that kind of support too.
KB: Before we wrap it up, who’s your fave Ewaso cat? We know you love them all but you’re allowed to be biased.
JL: My favorite cat is a female called Nanai – which means “my own” in Samburu – because she was among the first lions I saw as a cub and I studied her litter a lot. She was so cute and was always the last of the litter – she walked slowly and was never in a rush. She’s fearless now – looks at the car and wonders what it is. She doesn’t know about threats in the world, so if her pride gets in trouble she could be in trouble. She just means a lot to me. That female built something in my heart. Now she’s has had two litters of her own so that’s good.

The Africa-wide picture for lions is worrying. Lions are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. According to conservationists, their numbers have dropped across Africa by nearly half in just the last two decades, with estimates suggesting there are as few as 20,000 animals left in the wild, and less than 2,000 in Kenya. It is estimated that Kenya continues to lose around 100 lions each year, many as a result of conflict with man.

Conservation groups point out that lions need large territories, but more and more of these are being squeezed, as human populations continue to grow. Increasingly Africa’s savannah grasslands, on which lions depend, are being used for livestock grazing, or being transformed completely to build homes or grow crops. This leads not only to conflict with humans, often when lions take livestock or move through human areas, but the pressure for space can also lead to an increased level of conflict between the lion prides themselves. The most common outcome of conflict with humans is that lions are killed, often through poisoning and shooting.

Conservationist Dr Shivani Bhalla (who featured in the Dynasties: on location section of the film) leads one of a number of organisations in Africa working with local people to promote coexistence between their communities and lions. The ongoing struggle for space is a very complex problem, and one that affects not only lions, but almost all wildlife across the continent. As Dr Bhalla points out, there are no easy solutions because both the animals and people need space.

Dr Bhalla and her Ewaso Lions team in Northern Kenya have worked for over a decade to try to return the balance between wildlife and the pastoralism that existed in the past. Measures include: altering grazing regimes (for example not grazing cattle at night, when most lion attacks take place), engaging people from those communities to become wildlife guardians and offering children a wildlife education experience. Where these practices have been adopted, herders are losing fewer of their livestock to lions, and lions have begun to return to places where they had previously vanished due to persecution.

So far this work has been carried out on a relatively small scale. The challenge they and other conservation bodies face is to find ways of applying this approach right across the huge swathes of this continent where Lions used to thrive.

If you want access to the original article posted to the BBC’s Dynasties page, you can access it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5N0HHRs9lrGyhZtKlZClpq0/the-future-for-lions-across-africa