KENYA: Maasai warriors swap spears for tracking devices in their new role as lion guardians

Record ID: 360910

  • Title: KENYA: Maasai warriors swap spears for tracking devices in their new role as lion guardians
  • Date: 12th October 2009
  • Summary: WOMEN AT MAASAI HOMESTEAD SINGING TO WELCOME LION CONSERVATION PROJECT WOMEN SINGING CHILDREN WATCHING
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVADYJB8NOLIX0K3RX2MHMLUH38N
  • Story Text: Once, they hunted lions on the plains of southern Kenya. Now, Maasai warriors are using their unique skills to help conserve Africa's big cats.
    On a granite massif overlooking parched land right out of Disney's "The Lion King", four traditionally attired Maasai stand, waving a device that looks like a TV aerial.
    Olubi Larambe, Bilenanke Sitieyo, Linkena Ngindau and Mokoi Lekanai, all "morans", or "warriors" in the Maasai age-group system, are Lion Guardians, and the tracking device they are using is their weapon of choice in a war to halt the rapid decline of the largest of Africa's "big cats".
    The Lion Guardians track a score of collared - and many more non-collared - lions across a swathe of a million acres of community cattle ranches at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, referred to as Maasailand.
    The area, with Mbirikani Maasai Community Ranch at its heart, lies between four national parks and is home to a clutch of conservation programmes, of which the Lion Guardians is the latest.
    Preventing lion killings outside of Kenya's national parks is a daunting task. Some 100 lions are killed in Kenya annually. In the past, those figures might have included ritual killings by Maasai warriors. These days, they reflect a conflict over resources between lions and people.
    If the trend continues, lions will be extinct in Kenya within 20 years, according to the website of Wildlife Direct, a Kenya-based organisation that facilitates the direct delivery of private donations to conservation groups like the Lion Guardians.
    "Those who killed lions had a right to kill them. They had to protect their cows from being eaten. So when they killed lions they celebrated, this was a good thing that had been done," said Lekani.
    "Now that there is no killing, it is like another good time has come. We are now employed as Lion Guardians and we're benefiting from the protection of lions. And the lions in the area are increasing in numbers," he added.
    By tracking lions across the Maasai ranges, the Lion Guardians are able to warn communities when lions wander too close to homes and cattle herds, helping to pre-empt conflict that could lead to cattle - and lion - deaths.
    "The problems are that these lions are coming into bomas, they're attacking livestock, goats and cows and the communities are getting angry about this and in the past they used to go out on hunting parties and try and kill the lions in revenge and also as a rite of passage for the warriors. So what we are doing is we are employing warriors here to conserve the lions. They go out and track them and tell their communities where they are so they know not to herd there. So we're tying to reduce the amount of conflict that we're getting between the livestock and lions," explains Amy Howard, a researcher with Living with Lions, who provides training on the tracking devices.
    "It's a change for the good. Before we were killing these lions and seeing it as a good thing. But now, starting to guard lions is a good thing too, we're trying to protect them and prevent them being killed," said Larambe, a moran barely out of his teens who killed seven lions before becoming a Lion Guardian. His body is covered with scars from lion incisors.
    The visual allure of traditional Maasai warriors guarding lions has not been lost on safari operators. The guardians have already become popular with lodge guests who can choose to track lions with a Lion Guardian as guide.
    It may seem odd but this new role as conservationists is not actually alien to the Maasai. While their warriors have a well-earned reputation as lion-killers, the crucial historical role of the Maasai in providing Kenya with a world-class wildlife legacy is often ignored.
    Traditionally, the Maasai do not eat game. So, for centuries as they roamed up and down the savannahs of the Rift Valley with their herds of cattle, they co-existed with (and by virtue of their fearsome reputation amongst other tribes, protected) larger herds of game - the food source for the predator.
    In the past two decades, population growth, land deals that have seen the Maasai lose huge swathes of land to greedy politicians and a switch from a cattle to cash economy have resulted in an increasingly hostile attitude to lions.
    For now, however, the Lion Guardians are a bright spot on the Kenyan conservation landscape, attracting media as well as tourist attention. While they are unlikely to dislodge lions and the rest of the "big five" as the country's top tourist draw, the Lion Guardians are reclaiming a place for the Maasai at the heart of Kenya's conservation efforts.
    END
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