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.
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.
