LATEST NEWS

Living with Lions in TIME

Farmers vs. Lions: A Battle to the Death in Kenya by Nick Wadhams describes the human-wildlife conflict issues that Living with Lions and projects like the Lion Guardians are working to mitigate.

Read the TIME article here

Erection of lion-proof bomas starts in Amboseli

Living with Lions have been experimenting with various designs for lion-proof bomas for years. Proven to be successful in Laikipia, Kenya Wildlife Service in partnership with the Born Free Foundation and the Kenya Wildlife Trust have started erecting LWL-designed lion-proof bomas for communities living adjacent to Amboseli National Park.

Read more by visiting the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation website

Wild lions may be gone in 10 years

In a recent interview Dr. Laurence Frank, Director of Living with Lions said that Kenya’s lions could vanish within 10 years, if action is not taken very quickly. This follows a press release from KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) which says that Kenya is losing an average of 100 of its 2,000 lions every year due to growing human settlements, increasing farming, climate change and disease.

According to KWS figures, there were 2,749 lions in Kenya in 2002 and their population dropped to 2,280 by 2004 and to roughly 2,000 today. They say that if the current decline rate continues, there won’t be a single lion surviving in Kenya in the next 20 years.

To learn more read the New Scientist and Telegraph articles

CBS 60 Minutes: Africa’s Lions Poisoned

The Living with Lions team and the Lion Guardians are very grateful to CBS for publicizing the devastating effects that Furadan poisoning has had on lions and other African wildlife. Until the Sixty Minutes program aired, the manufacturer of Furadan had consistently denied all the evidence of massive wildlife deaths due to its misuse. Immediately following the broadcast, they withdrew it from the Kenya market and farmers have switched to less dangerous products for legitimate pest control needs.

This was a tremendous victory for conservation, but carbofuran, the generic version of Furadan, is made by other companies and can be imported under different trade names. Carbofuran is banned in Europe, and in the process of being banned in the US. We and other conservationists insist that the governments of Kenya and other countries must take the essential further step of banning the importation and manufacture of carbofuran under any name. Wildlife in Africa is declining rapidly due to human population growth and lack of effective conservation measures. Banning lethal poisons is one simple step by which governments can protect their dwindling natural resources.

To learn more visit our lion poisoning page

Visit CBS's page on their 60 minutes lion poisoning program

Mara lions filmed at night

Sara Blackburn of the Mara Predator Project has been spending time with cameraman Martin Dohm, who has worked on ‘Mara Nights’ and ‘Big Cat Diary’, to investigate lion behaviour at night. Using state of the art thermal imaging cameras and a starlight camera Sara has been able to see lion behaviour at night, revealing a world totally different to the one we are used to seeing during daylight hours.

To find out more visit the Mara Predator Project blog

Amboseli Predator Project

Construction of the new Amboseli Predator Project and Lion Guardians camp on Eselenkei Group Ranch, near to Porini camp is now complete. The camp is fully powered by solar energy, which was set up by solar engineer Justin Downs of John Henrys Hammer and the amazing three-story tree house was constructed by Justin and general contractor extraordinaire Todd Oliver of TJames Construction, Berkeley, California, who both kindly donates their time and skills to the project.

Four Lion Guardians and Co-ordinator Eric have now been hired and have started work on Eselenkei. The 'Tara' pride of lions has been identified and so far 4 lions have been collared.

Laikipia Predator Project

LPP has employed, trained and equipped two Lion ‘Scouts’ - local men responsible for the collection of detailed predator incident data in the lion management areas.

Alayne has recently started a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford and will be using past data and new GPS data to identify adaptations in lion behavioural ecology developed in response to conflict with people. Detailed GPS data collected at night when the lions are most active is already giving us new insight into lion behaviour amongst people.

For the latest news from the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project, the Mara Predator Project and the Lion Guardians please visit their blogs.