Conservation Program Update - April Lion Collaring

Earlier last week, the Conservation Program set out on their second lion collaring expedition! The purpose of this exercise was to replace the collars of the 2 male lions collared in early December 2013. Unfortunately, these collars had stopped transmitting the GPS function to track the lions location - so the team received new collars, and scheduled the week to locate these lions using the telemetry capabilities (pictured below) and replace their collars with the properly functioning ones. 

MWCT Simba Scouts using the telemetry tracking device to locate the lions prior to the collaring exercise

The team was out for 3 full nights last week. The first night two big males approached the car, but they were much too far away for the vet to dart them. The second night had four lions approaching the cars (two males and 2 females). They also did not come close to the car! 

On the final night, no lions showed up (only an elephant and a ton of hyenas and jackal), although they did hear some roaring in the distance. 

The positioned car, camouflaged, ready to begin the calling station

So unfortunately, it had been three long days and nights without success. However, we think that the reasoning of this was due to the very bright moon, and the animals did not dare to come close. It was nearly a full moon so it was very bright at night - the lions could not only see the team more clearly, but were aware that the team could also see them due to the light, so they were very cautious in coming closer, despite our calling station and effort to camouflage the cars! 

Working to camouflage the vehicles!

Fortunately, the vet has agreed to come back for another 3 days at the end of May. The moon will not be as bright during this time, so we are incredibly hopeful for positive results as these functioning collars are incredibly crucial for our efforts to protect this incredibly vital lion population in Kuku Group Ranch! 

One of the aspects of tracking lions deep in the wilderness - punctured tires! 

Conservation News - Simba Scout Training

The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust's Simba Scouts are a special group of eight Maasai warriors paid to patrol Kuku Group Ranch.  As they traverse the Ranch they record animal sightings and locations, especially lion sightings, and they report this data at the end of every month.  This data is extremely useful to the Trust's Conservation program, allowing our staff to develop better population estimates, wildlife movement patterns, and much more.  

The Simba Scouts study MWCT's new wildlife monitoring protocol during our recent training in Iltilal.

When the Simba Scouts were initially employed by MWCT, they were illiterate because they never had an opportunity to attend school.  In fact, without MWCT they would likely have never been able to find a paying job.  In the early stages of the program the Trust provided our Simba Scouts with basic training in writing their names and simple numbers, so that they knew the basics and could aid in data collection.

A Simba Scout demonstrates how to properly identify and count various animals found on Kuku Group Ranch.

A while ago we gave our Simba Scouts further training, building upon their initial data collection skills.  Seeking to further standardize the Simba Scout's data collection, MWCT worked with the Zoological Society of London to develop a new wildlife monitoring protocol.  We proceeded to teach the Simba Scouts this new protocol, as well as giving them training on how to properly use GPS systems on their walks to provide more accurate location data and allow us to make more effective management decisions.

Our Simba Scouts are now better equipped and prepared to go into the field and return with valuable information.

Finally, we provided the Simba Scouts with user-friendly wildlife data recording sheets, showing pictures of each animal so they are able to collection information on animal population and distribution using the most scientific and relevant methods.  Teaching the Simba Scouts GPS operation and systematic data collection was quite the challenge, but the training went very well and was a huge success - we are proud of our newly empowered employees!