Living with Lions

Dr. Laurence G. Frank, Project Director

Laurence has been a research associate at the University of California, Berkeley since 1984, first as part of the Berkeley Hyena Project and currently in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. He spent twenty years studying the behavioural ecology and endocrinology of the spotted hyena before turning to conservation research. Laurence directs the Laikipia Predator Project, and the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project in Kenya.

Alayne Cotterill, Project Biologist, LPP

Alayne has an MSc in Tropical Resource Ecology from the University of Zimbabwe where her thesis was a cost benefit analysis of keeping lions on a commercial wildlife ranch. She has been trained in the chemical and physical capture and restraint of wild animals, and has extensive big cat field research and expedition experience in Africa. She is currently focusing her research on determining which factors are most important in the development of livestock depredation behaviour in lions.

Séamus Maclennan, Project Biologist, KLCP

Séamus has a Diploma in Nature Conservation (Cape Tech, South Africa). His research focus is the analysis of livestock depredation and lion biology on the group ranches between Amboseli and Tsavo. Séamus has always wanted to be a lion conservationist, and honed his skills on other species when he was younger. He is now an academic associate of the Wildlife and Conservation Research Unit, Oxford University.

Leela Hazzah, Carnivore Conservationist, KLCP

Leela is the Director of the Lion Guardian program. Leela obtained her Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently working towards her PhD. Her research focuses on understanding the motivations behind lion killing in Maasailand and overall perceptions and attitudes of Maasai towards carnivores. She has a Biology degree from Denison University, is fluent in Kiswahili, and has previously worked as a GIS analyst and field researcher in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Click here to read Leela's Masters thesis.

Stephanie Dolrenry, Carnivore Conservationist

Stephanie is obtaining her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on lion and spotted hyena conflict in Maasai communities. She particularly looks at the link between carnivore predation on livestock and retaliatory poisoning, documenting its effect on carnivore populations. She is also analyzing lion and hyena movements and foraging ecology around Maasai homes. She has a Wildlife Conservation and Management degree from Missouri State University and has spent the past ten years as a field biologist in the western United States, the Caribbean, Hawaii and Kenya.

Steven Ekwanga, research assistant, LPP

Steve’s main area of expertise is community relations and predator-problem troubleshooting, as well as lion captures. He has been with LPP for several years and is highly competent at most aspects of the running of LPP.

Amy Howard, website administrator

Amy has a BSc in Zoology from Edinburgh University and an MSc in Biological Photography and Imaging from Nottingham University, UK. She wrote, designed and developed this website for LPP and KLCP, also providing much of the photography. She continues to work with the team to update and manage the site.

Antony Kasanga, Assistant Director of Lion Guardian program

Antony oversees all the day to day logistics of the Lion Guardian program. He is a Maasai murran who achieved a secondary education. Antony keeps the project running by coordinating monthly meetings, having weekly visits with the Guardians in their home areas and, most importantly, dealing with any and all issues which may arise. Antony, with the help of others, is teaching the Guardians new things, like using radio telemetry to track collared lions, using GPS units and how to read and write, which they can now do to fill out forms for their work as Guardians.

Click here to meet the Lion Guardians

Lion Guardians, KLCP

The Lion Guardians represent KLCP’s first significant foray into applied conservation. The concept has been developed in collaboration with the Maasailand Preservation Trust. Many of the ideas behind the Lion Guardian program arose from Leela’s work with communities on Mbirikani. The murrans are all of the Ilkiponi age-group which is the youngest age-group in Maasai society. They are without exception motivated, enthusiastic and qualified to perform their duties. Generally their tasks are to monitor the lions in their respective areas of Mbirikani and to assist their communities in dealing with carnivores.

Back to top