KENYA: A teenaged Masai inventor has come up with an inexpensive way to keep livestock safe from lions.

Record ID: 362317

  • Title: KENYA: A teenaged Masai inventor has come up with an inexpensive way to keep livestock safe from lions.
  • Date: 16th July 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF STUDENTS IN CLASS LION LIGHTS INVENTOR, RICHARD TURERE IN CLASS VARIOUS OF BROOKHOUSE STUDENTS OUTSIDE CLASSROOMS
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA3HZFLDLCBE2DDL0I5IZ1F3R6V
  • Story Text: A 13-year-old Kenyan cattle herder has inadvertently helped the fight to conserve his country's lions by inventing a lighting system to scare the big cats away when they approach his family's livestock.
    Conservationists believe that Richard Turere's invention will reduce the killing of lions by farmers, eager to protect their herd from the hungry beasts.
    Richard, whose family lives on the border of Nairobi National Park, took LED bulbs from broken flashlights and strung them together between four poles on the corners of the roof of the open-air enclosure which houses his family's cattle.
    The schoolboy had noticed that lions avoid ranches when somebody walked outside with a flashlight. This gave him the idea of designing a lighting system to mimic the irregular flashes of a herder checking on his cattle.
    Richard then wired the lights to the solar-powered car battery that also powers his family's television. The lights flash in sequence during the night, giving the impression that someone is walking around the stockade.

    "We lost many cattle, the lions were eating our cattle at night so it made me very annoyed and I thought I have to come up with an idea of making bulbs, because I knew that the lions were afraid of something moving. When someone wakes up at night and moves with a torch, they are afraid. So I made the bulbs which flash at night and keep away lions," Richard explained.
    Over the past decade the lion population in Kenya has declined from 15,000 to just 2,000, according to the Big Cats Initiative, a conservation group led by National Geographic Explorers. Fellow conservationists Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) say Kenya has been losing 100 lions a year for the past seven years. They say that climate change, habitat destruction, disease and conflict with humans could see the population wiped out within two decades.
    A major cause of those dwindling numbers is killing by farmers, desperate to protect their livestock. Nairobi National Park, home to lions, hyenas, elephants and other wild animals, is the only game park of its kind in the world to be located in the city, so residents near the park's unfenced southern border often lose livestock - and their lives - to lions and other wildlife, resulting in many choosing to take the fight to the lions.
    Paula Kahumbu, of Wildlife Direct, a conservation organisation, says the number of lions being killed by farmers has accelerated in recent months.

    "In this particular location the people are incredibly tolerant. Since October 2011, we documented 169 killings of livestock by lions in that location. And nobody harmed the lions and now they did kill this lions," Kahumbu said.
    Richard's rudimentary system, which cost just 10 US dollars to implement, offers an alternative.
    Since installing his system, the Turere family hasn't lost any cattle to night attacks. Six neighbouring families have called on the boy to install his invention on their farms and regional environmentalists brought the young inventor to the attention of Nairobi's prestigious Brookhouse International School. Part of the school's mission is conservation. They have now offered Richard a full scholarship. The teenager, who developed his system without access to any technical education, hopes his enrolment will help him fulfil his dreams of becoming a pilot or aircraft engineer.

    "There was this time, the people who were working with the big cats came to our community and were wondering how we survive near the parks. And the lions are here so how do they keep their cattle here. And then they saw my idea of the lion lights. They asked me what I want to be in life and I told them I wanted to be a pilot or aircraft engineer," he said.
    Richard's tutor Raymond Wyngaard is full of praise for his student.

    "Listening to him talking about the lion lights, it seems he has a passion for it, a passion for nature and things that are good, which in terms of the school is a good addition. So it is really good having him here. I think also for the other students who have been here a while, sometimes they take things for granted and then someone like Richard comes in and he sees things in a different light," said Wyngaard.
    Lions are one of the so-called Big Five animals, along with elephants, buffaloes, leopards and rhinos, all major tourist attractions in Kenya's game parks.
    Human-animal conflict throughout Kenya has been an issue of concern for a long time now, with government and other stake holders attempting to introduce measures such as fencing of parks to prevent such occurrences, but complementary innovations such as Richard's 'Lion Lights' could go a long way in restoring harmony between human beings and the wild animals that are such a big part of the country's national heritage.
    ENDS
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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