Staff – Ewaso Lions

Using Technology in Lion Conservation

Ewaso Lions has helped to grow and maintain a stable lion population within our conservation landscape since our work began in 2007; however, lions worldwide and in Kenya face a significant decline. In the last two decades, their numbers have plummeted by 43%, leaving only about 20,000 remaining. In Kenya, where lions are culturally and ecologically vital, approximately 2,500 lions persist across protected and communal lands. This decline stems from habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, prey depletion, among other issues. With lion habitat shrinking by 90%, human-lion encounters increase, necessitating ongoing monitoring for informed conservation measures.

Fortunately, technology has emerged as a powerful tool in lion conservation efforts. Telemetry tracking, camera trapping, remote sensing, and the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) have revolutionised the way we monitor and protect lion populations.

At Ewaso Lions, we utilise GPS-enabled collars and the SMART platform to monitor lion movements and mitigate potential human-lion conflicts. SMART provides essential analysis tools for collecting and analysing data. Through SMART, we gather valuable data on patrol efforts, conflict incidents, and lion sightings, enabling us to identify areas requiring additional conservation efforts and create conflict and habitat preference maps.

Naramat with her collar in 2020

We have customised the SMART app to include icons and pictures for our team of Warriors and Lion Governors, making data collection more accessible and efficient. In 2023 alone, we conducted 277 patrols, covering approximately 4,138 km, and identified new critical lion corridors and habitat preferences, enhancing our understanding of lion ecology in the region.

Jeremiah, Letupukwa and Lebasha out tracking lions (c) Alfred Simatwa

Patrol data collected on smart phone (c) Alfred Simatwa

Patrol efforts and wildlife observations in 2023

Moving forward, our goal is to expand our coverage, increasing both distance and awareness of critical lion habitat areas, while striving to mitigate lion-human conflicts. With technology as our ally, we are committed to protecting Kenya’s precious lion populations for generations.

In March 2024, Google published an article on how we use Google Earth to protect lions. Click here to read the article.

Matthew and Toby analyse downloaded lion tracks

Our Lion Kids Camps – How Do We Know They Work?

How do we know we are having a positive impact on the children that attend our Lion Kids Camps? To evaluate the impact of each of our camps, all attendees complete a pre-camp and a post-camp quiz. The quizzes contain a series of multi-choice questions aimed at assessing changes in attitudes and knowledge. We also conduct a short pre-camp and post-camp questionnaire containing open ended questions. Our education team are highly skilled at conducting the quizzes and questionnaires.

Our Lion Kids Camp team who conduct all evaluations (c) Lucy Maina

To date we have held 35 Lion Kids Camps with almost 1000 children from across 4 counties in northern Kenya. Some of the highlights of our latest Camp held in October 2023 include:

– 96% of the children who attended went on their first ever safari
– The average number of threats that lions face that the children stated post-camp compared to pre-camp increased from 2.3 to 6.6
– 77% of the children said that it was possible for their community to live alongside carnivores peacefully, compared to 58% before the camp
– Before the camp, 76% of children considered themselves as responsible for protecting their livestock from predation. Following the camp, this increased to 100%
– 96% of the children would like to learn more about wildlife and conservation following the camp.

For the full impact report of our last Lion Kids Camp in October 2023, click here. We thank Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Kampur Safaris for their support in this year’s Camps.

For more information on our Lion Kids Camps, click here.

To help us hold a Lion Kids Camp and increase the impact we are having, click here to make a donation. Each Lion Kids Camp costs us $2500. Thank you so much!

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Receiving the Whitley Gold Award

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RECEIVING THE WHITLEY GOLD AWARD

We are thrilled to announce that Ewaso Lions was recognised with the prestigious Whitley Gold Award, presented by HRH Princess Anne at a spectacular ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London in April. Sir David Attenborough narrated a short video on Ewaso Lions, which can be watched here.

Seven of our team members took to the stage to address the 500-strong audience of supporters, donors and country Ambassadors to share in the power of community-led conservation, rounding out the milestone 30th Whitley Awards ceremony with a Samburu blessing for all conservationists worldwide. Our keynote speech can be watched here.

We are so honoured to receive this award that celebrates our community-led programmes and all our communities who live alongside wildlife in northern Kenya. Through the Gold Award 2-year project, we will be developing a community-led toolkit that can be applied anywhere around the world. It is separate to our day-to-day Ewaso Lions work but connected in an exciting way. Using our learnings and experiences from the past 15 years, and together with 25 global conservation leaders whom we will bring to Samburu, we will collectively develop this toolkit.

Here are some of our celebratory photos:

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Community-Led Conservation: Exploring the PARTNERS Principles for Conservation

Community-Led Conservation: Exploring the PARTNERS Principles for Conservation

Community-led conservation is more than just working with communities; it’s about empowering them to drive conservation decisions and actions. That was the key takeaway from a recent workshop held by Ewaso Lions in collaboration with the PARTNERS Conservation Alliance. The workshop, which took place on February 5th and 6th in Samburu, Northern Kenya provided an opportunity for conservation practitioners to share ideas and experiences on community-led conservation.

Led by Dr. Shivani Bhalla, Director of Ewaso Lions, Dr. Justine Shanti Alexander, a Senior Conservation Scientist at the Snow Leopard Trust, and Jeneria Lekilelei, the Director of Community Conservation at Ewaso Lions, the workshop drew upon their collective experiences from Ewaso Lions’ 15 years in conservation, experience in snow leopard conservation across High Asia and the PARTNERS Conservation Alliance workshop held in Kyrgyzstan in 2022.

Participants explored what community-led conservation entailed across different settings. One group visualized the community as the rain and the roots of any conservation initiative. Their culture, opinions, and thoughts are the rain, the roots are the community making decisions, management, and actions in conservation, and the leaves represent the concerted efforts from all stakeholders and partners in conservation, including the government, conservationists, the private sector, and the media, among others.

Jeneria Lekilelei, Director of Community Conservation at Ewaso Lions, shared the essence of community-led conservation;
“Community-led conservation is a process where the community is in charge, they make the decisions, and have ownership of the conservation activities. When the community faces a challenge, they come up with their way of figuring things out, and always respecting their culture.”

During the workshop, the PARTNERS Principles – Presence, Aptness, Respect, Transparency, Negotiation, Empathy, Responsiveness, and Strategic Support – were utilized as the framework to explore how to effectively and ethically conduct conservation. Developed by Charudutt Mishra and his partners from the Snow Leopard Trust in the High Asia region, these principles were integral to the discussions held during the workshop.

The workshop was interactive, and the team worked with Ewaso Lion staff who were also community members to define the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of community-led conservation in their own words. Team members highlighted the need for conservation initiatives to be rooted in local culture and build on indigenous knowledge. They also emphasized the need to engage the next generation as they were the guardians of their culture and ways of life.

Overall, the workshop provided participants with a platform to enhance their skills, reflect on challenges and opportunities encountered in conservation, and strengthen their ability to engage with communities in conservation.

“The manner in which the PARTNERS training was held was superb and a true way of working together with the community (in this case – the participants). The way the two facilitators, Justine and Shivani, did the training was in such a way that the participants were fully engaged and the ideas and thoughts came from them – as opposed to the trainers giving out long endless presentations. The training was a true way in which all community led-conservation work should be done (with the communities (and the trainees in any training) at the center).” Toby, Operations and Impact Director, Ewaso Lions

Our Team is Growing!

We are excited to have 9 new staff members join Ewaso Lions since January 2017. Based between Nairobi and Samburu, this expansion of our team has strengthened Ewaso Lions in our capacity to do more for lion conservation. Meet our new team members here.

Resson Kantai Duff – Deputy Director
Resson joined our team in February 2018 as our Deputy Director. She holds an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining Ewaso Lions, she also worked for our long-term conservation partners, Save the Elephants, as their Head of Awareness. Resson hit the ground running by being elected as the youngest member of the Board of the Conservation Alliance of Kenya, giving Ewaso Lions a voice in the national conservation agenda. “Joining Ewaso Lions is a dream come true for me. Having understood how important, and yet how difficult community conservation is to achieve, it is incredible to join a team that is in every sense achieving this illusive concept,” she said.

Ben Lejale – Ewaso Regional Lion Coordinator
Ben is from Donyo Lengala in Kipsing, south of the Ewaso Nyiro River. Ben joined our team in early 2017 and his key responsibility is coordinating the warriors activities. His other roles include: teaching the warriors how to read and write, helping in training the warriors on data collection, attending community meetings and functions on behalf of Ewaso Lions, taking a key role in collecting sociological data including community attitudes and perceptions on conservation/lions, manyatta and livestock mapping, and people census within our area of operation. Occasionally, he is also involved in vehicle transect surveys. Ben has a passion for conservation and is interested in involving the community in the conservation of lions and other wildlife. He has an educational background on Community Development.

Peter Lenasalia – Lion Kids Camp and Youth Coordinator
Peter, who is from Sereolipi village in Namunyak Conservancy, is our Lion Kids Camp Co-ordinator. He joined Ewaso Lions in early 2017, having previously completed his Bachelors Degree in Wildlife Management at The University of Eldoret. Peter is especially passionate about engaging youth in conservation and has a natural aptitude for teaching and mentoring children. As well as organising and delivering all our Lion Kids Camps, Peter supervises students sponsored through the Jeremy Lucas Education Fund and, together with Ben, runs the weekly Warrior Watch school, where he teaches the warriors basic English, Kiswahili and numeracy. Currently, Peter is working closely with the management team to expand our Lion Kids Camp programme and provide children from across Kenya with an immersive wildlife education experience.

Semees Lembagani – Security Supervisor
Lembagani is a pastoralist who comes from Sukuroi village in Westgate Conservancy. He joined our team in August 2017 as Security Supervisor. Prior to working with Ewaso Lions, Lembagani worked for the British Army. We are grateful to have him join our team as he provides additional security for camp and our team, and assists Francis & Lpuresi in many aspects of camp work, including keeping an eye on our puppy Nanyori who is famous for vanishing.

Lengaina & Leluata – Warriors, Meibae Conservancy
Two new warriors joined our Warrior Watch programme in late 2017. Lengaina and Leluata come from Meibae Conservancy and support Jeneria and other warriors in conflict mitigation, monitoring lions and being the first responders any time conflict with lions occurs. We are thrilled to have them join our team and strengthen the Warrior Watch programme as we continue to grow the network of warriors engaged in conservation in Northern Kenya.

Evelyn Oduor – Operations Officer
Evelyn is based in our Nairobi office (which was established when she begun in March 2017) and coordinates all operations and logistics for the project. Evelyn, who is from Nairobi, has over 15 years experience in administration and logistics, and holds a Diploma in Business Management. In her free time, Evelyn loves to read and travel, and she often comes up to Samburu to connect with the team and work on improving camp operations.

Evanson Kariuki -Conservation Programmes Assistant
Evanson, who hails fromNairobi, joined Ewaso Lions as our Conservation Programmes Assistant (CPA) in November 2017. Evanson has a wealth of experience leading and coordinating wildlife conservation and community development projects across Kenya, including in the Tsavo and Maasai Mara ecosystems and Marsabit County. He holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Wildlife Management and is currently finishing a Master of Arts Degree in Environmental Planning and Management at the University of Nairobi. As CPA, Evanson works closely with our Conservation Manager, Heather, and the wider team to develop, deliver and expand our conservation programmes. He is also an accredited safari-guide and avid birdwatcher, who also enjoys spending his free-time tending to the camp Shamba (vegetable plot) and playing with Nanyori, one of our camp dogs.

Moses Cheruiyot -Bus Driver
Moses, who comes from Laikipia County, joined the team as our Bus Driver in September 2017. He has over 25 years driving experience and is a graduate of the National Youth Service, holding a Grade II Motor Vehicle Mechanic certificate. As our Bus Driver, Moses is responsible for driving and maintaining our Bush Bus, which he is adept at navigating through the challenging Samburu terrain, whilst taking community members on educational wildlife safaris within the National Reserve. Moses is also a key member of our Lion Kids Camp team and supports our Coordinator, Peter, with delivery of this immersive wildlife education programme. When not running exposure tours and Kids Camps, Moses provides logistical support to our Field Team and puts his mechanical skills to the test helping with general vehicle maintenance and repairs.

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.

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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Video: Our Expedition Up Mount Kenya for Lions

In January, we organised a team expedition up Mount Kenya. The five day trek was an unforgettable experience as we climbed to 3,985 meters (16,300 ft). In doing this, we were able to drew attention to the dramatic decline of lions in Africa, and we raised $20,000 for lion conservation.

We put together this fun video showing highlights from the expedition. Enjoy!

Our Rangers Capture Data on Lions and Livestock

Every day, our Ewaso Lions rangers put on their uniforms and head into the bush on patrol. The three rangers bring an important research element to our conservation work. By collecting baseline data and monitoring long term lion and wildlife population trends, we can measure the progress of our work and design new activities that ultimately promote lion conservation.

Rangers are trained on all aspects of wildlife conservation including conflict mitigation, carnivore ecology, the importance of carnivores, GPS tracking and more. Rangers monitor lion and wildlife movement, gather data on abundance and distribution, and serve as wildlife ambassadors by spreading the conservation message to their communities.

Meet the rangers
The Ewaso Lions rangers team consists of Francis Lendorop, Jeremiah Letoole, and Jackson Lenakae. All rangers reside in Westgate Conservancy in northern Kenya and have worked with Ewaso Lions since 2008. They have completed training at the Kenya Wildlife Service Manyani Field Training Centre to help with their field responsibilities and attend numerous trainings conducted by the Conservancy Warden of Westgate on security, radio protocol, and more.

On Foot With Lions

The rangers, on a monthly basis, conduct a total of 24 fixed transects (each 3 km long) distributed across Westgate Community Conservancy (400 km2). Along the transects, they record numbers/sightings of lions and other carnivores, ungulates, and livestock. From 2011 to 2014, the rangers surveyed the transects for a total of 2,750 days, with each spending an average of 172 days per year doing the transects. This is a huge effort in terms of monitoring carnivore and prey abundance and movement, and hugely complementary to the efforts of Westgate Conservancy.

Apart from the transect surveys, the rangers also do patrols within Westgate Community Conservancy on the days they are not conducting the transects. During patrols they record sightings of lions and other carnivores, livestock, and also incidences of human-wildlife conflict.

These data, altogether, help in estimating and monitoring wildlife and livestock abundance and also in measuring the health of the ecosystem.

Rising Livestock
Toby Otieno, Ewaso Lions Research Manager, recently analysed data collected by rangers from 2011 to 2014. We recorded a decline in both carnivore density and herbivore density in Westgate Conservancy from 2012 to 2014. Interestingly, as livestock numbers increased sharply between 2013 and 2014, we saw a decline in carnivores and herbivores at the same time. We will continue to explore the relationship between livestock and wildlife as we continue our ranger data collection and analysis.

Going Forward
The analysis revealed areas where our data collection can improve to increase accuracy and coverage. Looking ahead, we plan to digitize our rangers data collection and patrols through the use of a smartphone data collection app called CyberTracker and the data management app called SMART. These are tools that are designed for recording rangers and scouts’ patrols and data collection; including patrol efforts, wildlife sightings, conflict data and almost any other kind of ecological data.

We Did It! Ewaso Lions Summits Mt Kenya. [Photos]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For five days, our team climbed Mt Kenya for one purpose: protecting lions. What began as an adventure to strengthen our team turned into something much more. Thanks to many of you, we were able to raise nearly $20,000 for our lion conservation programmes. And at the same time, we used our expedition to raise awareness among people around the world that Kenya’s lions are in serious trouble.

Updated: We did it! We completed our goal of raising $20,000 for lion conservation. Thanks to everyone who contributed!! Video available here:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/LEJTLcJiFjk”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The team consists of 18 members: 14 Ewaso Lions staff, 1 of our sponsored students, 1 board member, and 2 friends of the project. We started from the Sirimon Gate of Mt Kenya National Park.

After months and months of trip planning, gear sorting, and packing — the day had finally arrived. Everyone was really excited, and there were quite a few nerves too. This was a big moment for the Samburu warriors and scouts, who have never had such a unique experience. They were perhaps more anxious about the cold than any other aspect of the trip.

The trail up provided endless views that forced us to stop and take it all in. We hiked slowly so that we could acclimate to the thin air and stay hydrated. We were amazed by the unique and bizarre flora of the mountain, like this Lobelia telekii, which is found only in the alpine zones of Mt Kenya. After two days of long treks, we reached Shipton’s Camp at 4,200 m. We spent each night in small camps along the route. All 18 of crammed into cozy bunk beds. Here, we enjoy much needed tea which helped combat the cold temperatures.

On the day we summited, we set out before dawn. It took us 5 hours from Shipton’s Camp to reach the peak. A strong, freezing wind was blowing. The path was loose and steep. Several of us felt the effects of altitude and became sick with headache and nausea. But none gave up. Our excellent guides from Alpine Adventures took great care leading us to the top. We proudly hoisted the Ewaso Lions and Kenyan flags at the top of Point Lenana (4,985 m / 16,355 ft). Making it to the top was one of the proudest moments for all of us. We couldn’t have done this without help from people around the world.

A panoramic view from the top. To the left is Batian, the highest peak of Mt Kenya, which requires technical rope climbing and major courage — above our level! We were lucky enough to be treated to a clear view of Mt Kilimanjaro whose peak broached the clouds to the south (out of the frame). We took the Ch0goria route down the mountain. It was absolutely stunning — for most of us, it was our favourite scenery of the entire trip. Parting shot: We return to Samburu with tired feet, but feeling energised about the accomplishment of climbing Kenya’s highest mountain for lions.

> Watch the video from our trip: https://youtu.be/LEJTLcJiFjk

> Visit our Facebook page for more photos

> Visit our campaign page at http://bit.ly/ClimbForLions

> Share this page using the hashtag #ClimbForLions

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