Lguret – Ewaso Lions

Will This Mystery Lion Be the Next Dominant Male?

A new unidentified male lion has appeared suddenly, bringing with him a potential change to the make-up of the lion population in our Samburu study area.

For the past three years, Lguret has been the dominant male in our Samburu study area. Since 2008, he and his brother Loirish held territory, mating with the females and siring dozens of cubs. When Loirish was killed in late 2013, it left only Lguret to defend the territory. And Lguret is already near the end of his prime – he is 11 years old; the average male begins to weaken around age 10.

Usually, younger and stronger males will enter an area and challenge the dominant male, but that hasn’t happened yet. This new mystery male brings a host of possibilities. Being younger and more fit than the aging and battle-scarred Lguret might mean he can easily take his spot at the top. If that happens, the new lion will bring in new genes to the population and possibly impact the pride dynamics.

So who is this new male? Is he one of the young males, like Lentim, who disappeared years ago? Is he entirely new to the area? If so, where did he come from? And if he challenges Lguret, what will happen to him?

Thanks to Michael Parker and Elephant Watch Camp for the photos.

Lions and Crocodile Battle Over Elephant Carcass

A young bull elephant died of natural causes in the middle of the Ewaso Nyiro River, in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. As is protocol, the Kenya Wildlife Service came and removed the elephant’s tusks immediately – to prevent poachers from collecting them.

A dead elephant is a potentially huge meal for lions, and we knew they would come. But were unsure which lions would come first – lions from Samburu or the ones from Buffalo Springs.

Lguret, the dominant male in the area, was first on the scene and stayed close to the elephant carcass, guarding it from crocodiles and marabou storks. Eventually, Nanai, Nabulu and their 5 cubs arrived and all lions stayed close to the elephant.

Nanai and Lguret were the most aggressive and fought huge battles with crocodiles, as Nabulu usually stayed back with the cubs.

Joshua, our Lion Watch guide from Larsens Camp sent this message:

“The fight was so brutal such that the lions pounced on the crocodile and overpowered it. It took about 10 minutes and the crocodile dragged slowly in the deep end. It was amazing. I noticed that Nanai is more fierce than Nabulu. The five cubs were at a distance watching and praying. It was wonderful”.

Working in the field is always full of exciting surprises!

Lguret notices a crocodile near the elephant carcass. The elephant appears poached but it died of natural causes. KWS removed the tusks so poachers wouldn’t take them.

Lguret approaches the crocodile.

The crocodile whips back into an aggressive stance when it sees the lion.

Lguret stares down the crocodile.

Over the course of the next few days, many lions – both adults and cubs – faced off with crocodiles over the elephant carcass.

Nanai snarls at the crocodile.

Lguret swats the crocodile with his paw.

A toothsome showdown.

The crocodile whips its tail and sends water flying in an aggressive display.

Nanai (left) and Lguret face off with the crocodile.

Visitor Kai Banks captured a great encounter between Lguret and some females with a huge crocodile. Watch the video below:

And watch this video by Jacob Leadura, Samburu Lodge naturalist and Lion Watch guide.

Loirish the Lion Killed by Gunshot

Warning: Graphic Photos Below

On Friday the 5th, a male lion was killed by gunshot within our study area in Samburu county. This marks the first time a lion in our study area has been killed by people since 2010. The lion was an 8-year-old male named Loirish, which we had been monitoring since 2008. It appears that a group of warriors happened to come across Loirish as he rested with his brother, and they shot him. Tracks indicate the brother, Lguret, is alive and unharmed. The Ewaso Lions team is still investigating the reasons for the unprovoked killing. We have experienced human-wildlife conflict in this area before, following incidents when lions attacked people’s livestock. In this situation, there seems to have been no livestock killed. An additional misfortune is that Loirish was one of our GPS collared lions that was providing important location data which we could use to help warn herders. The collar was found along with the lion’s severed head and remains in the remnants of a fire. Without the location data recorded by the collar we may never have learned of Loirish’s fate. We are extremely saddened by the loss of Loirish, a lion we came to know well over the past five years, especially as he is only one of 40 resident lions within the Samburu region of our study area. We are still actively working with the community and local officials to determine what course of action will take place. By working with the community to understand this event, and the motivations behind it, Ewaso Lions can help to ensure that losses like this are minimized. We will provide updates as soon as we are able.

The severed head of Loirish was burned by whomever shot him.

The lion’s paws were cut off and taken.

Finally Capturing and Collaring Lguret

We’ve just completed a grueling but successful lion collaring operation in the reserves. The four-day operation was sponsored by Save The Elephants (STE) and involved putting tracking collars on eight elephants and one lion. To be efficient and utilize the time of the visiting Kenya Wildlife Service vet, decided to re-collar Lguret, the male lion we collared a year ago.

Lguret and his brother Loirish spent most of the time hiding in deep bush, in a river that made getting to him impossible. On a few occasions they emerged, and we frantically radioed the vet to come, but as soon as the vet came, the lions disappeared back into hiding. It was frustrating and exhausting work.

On the last day, just when we were starting to lose hope, we tracked for hours and then Jeneria spotted the lions lying under a bush. The vet and an STE car arrived and we prepared ourselves. The anxiety and tension was palpable: it was now or never.

We carefully approached the lions, and the vet successfully made the shot, anesthetizing Lguret while his brother ran off. We jumped into action to remove his old collar, affix his new one, take his measurements, and collect samples. He eventually entered a deep sleep and we finished our tasks quickly.

After administering the antidote, we stayed with the lion to make sure he recovered well. Not bothered by his collar, he eventually walked away to sleep off his wooziness.

The tracking collar will provide valuable data on the lion’s movements in and out of the reserves. The collar does not harm the animal, nor does it even seem to bother him.

After the vet anesthetized Lguret, we waited for him to fall asleep.

Shivani and Jeneria take measurements.

My what big teeth you have!

The Ewaso Lions team and the vets with Lguret. His head is covered to protect his eyes from the sun.

A bit groggy, Lguret woke up and recovered nicely.

This has marked the end of a long attempt to collar Lguret. It has been no easy task: a total of 60 field days over the past 8 months, averaging 12 hours each day, and driving nearly two thousand kilometers! Now we can breathe a sigh of relief that the search is over and now we will be able to capture valuable data that can help ensure the long-term conservation of these incredible animals.

Please share your comments. We love hearing from our readers!

Students See Ewaso Lions and A Leopard – Part 2

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 Christmas!

Radio-Collaring An Ewaso Lion

We have our first radio-collared Ewaso lion! On Thursday the 28th of January, I managed to locate Lguret at 6:36 am. Lguret is a maneless male who I first saw in July 2008 in West Gate Community Conservancy (WGCC) with 2 other males. We called these the “Real Lions” because they came from outside the national reserves, and were truly wild and not habituated to tourist vehicles like the lions in the Reserves. The coalition of 3 lions 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 the African Wildlife Foundation for their assistance with the radio-collaring operation.

Mystery of the 3 Lions Solved

So yes, these are the same males! I was able to identify them by looking at the whisker spot patterns, nose pigmentation and scarring on the photos of both lions. It was a bit hard comparing the photos, but have a look at these below:

West Gate male lion nose (Lpatpata)

Nose of male lion in Samburu (Lpatpata as well!)

Since establishing the fact that these are the same lions, I have chatted to many people trying to paint a picture of the lions movements.

So, after seeing them in West Gate (Real Lions 3), they disappeared from the community area almost immediately. I spent days looking for them in the conservancy but there was no sign of them. A few days later, there was a report that 3 males had killed 10 goats near Kiltamany which is North East of West Gate. Soon after, the manager of a lodge in Kalama Conservancy said he saw 3 males at the lodge waterhole. A couple of days later, the lions were seen in Samburu. So basically, they had made a giant loop around the reserve and entered Samburu from the North.

This was exciting news for me. This is the first time that it has been proven that lions move from community areas into the reserve. When I saw the 3 males in West Gate, it was big news for everyone. There were lions in the community area and they had been seen properly. However, now these very same lions are now in the reserve and have become resident here.

They have been mating with all the resident females and I have been very worried about Nashipai and Nabo’s cubs. However, they have managed to stay alive thanks to some very smart behaviour from the females and now the 2 sisters have come together with their cubs. They have a better chance of protecting them now that they have teamed up.

Uni mating with Loirish

I now have proper identity photos of all 3 males. During their first few days in the reserves, they were incredibly aggressive and would snarl and growl at any car. Mating with the females was a slight distraction for them and they began to get a bit used to cars.

Lguret, one of the new males

I have named the 3 males after getting to know them a bit; Loirish (brave), Lguret (coward) and Lpatpata (bully). Lpatpata once crossed the river and started mating with a female from the Borana Pride in Buffalo Springs. Uni has been mating with all 3 males and keeps going back and forth from one male to another.

It seems like these males have taken over the Koitogor Pride and Baasi, Lope and Supukon have left. The lion dynamics have changed and different things are happening on a daily basis. These are definitely exciting times to be in the reserve.

I’ll keep you posted with more blogs…

Real Lions Part 3

I spent a few days in Samburu and Buffalo Springs between the 7th and 10th of August monitoring the resident lions and checking up on Nashipai, Nabo, her cubs and the others. It was a good few days and I also found some new lions near Ngare Mara.

I returned to Echo Lima camp in the evening of the 10th and received a message from the manager of the nearby lodge that their driver guide had seen 4 lions that evening in the Conservation Area! But the lions were nervous and kept hiding so he did not get a good look at them. I was excited by this sighting and decided to leave early the following morning to see if I could find them; hoping they hadn’t moved away.

I left camp at 5 30 am and entered the Conservation Area. I followed the main road all the way along the river but did not see anything. We saw the previous nights tracks of where the lions had been sighted. I continued to the end of the Conservation Area and turned back thinking these lions had left the area.

As I came round a corner, I bumped into a lion! He was sitting on the road and at the same time another lion who had been sitting there with him stood up and disappeared. Gypsy is a very quiet car and I think I surprised the lions as much as they surprised me. This male was huge and almost looked like a female as he had no mane. He watched me keenly and we didn’t move a muscle as I really did not want him to run away.

Eventually he stood up, walked off and joined the other lion who I noticed was sitting and hiding in some bushes. They sat together as I tried to take some photos. I tried drawing their whisker spots but the second male was nervous and wary of my movements. They got up and walked off and I then realized that about 20 metres away, another male had been watching me. This was a coalition of 3 males! The big one who seemed a bit more relaxed then the other 2 sat down on the road again however the other 2 kept their distance and watched me through the bushes. The males then wandered off and disappeared in the thick Salvadora.

The big male

The two nervous lions keeping a watchful eye

This was amazing. I had finally had my first proper sighting of these community area lions. I then realized that I had actually seen 2 of them before on the elephant carcass and was sure that it was the same 2; the big male and the smaller male who was beginning to grow a mane. I saw female tracks on the 12th and 13th of August and this lioness may have been the 4th lion that the lodge driver had seen. I also saw a lot of livestock across the river and also some on this side. We went to speak to the herders to inform them of the lions presence and they were grateful for the information and advice and quickly moved off away from the thick bushes.

A bit of information on male coalitions; they are formed after males from the same litter stay together after leaving their pride. They operate as a team whilst they are competing for a territory. Male coalitions also have a reproductive advantage with pride females and this often forces unrelated males to join together.

So I hope there will be many more “Real Lions” blogs because that would mean I have seen many more lions out here in West Gate!

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