LATEST NEWS
Lion Guardians Start Own Not-For-Profit Organization
The Lion Guardians have now split with Living With Lions to form their own not-for-profit organization. You can now follow thier work on their website at www.lionguardians.org. We wish the all the best with their future work.
Lion Guardians project expands again!
The Lion Guardians project has expanded again to Southern Olgulului Group Ranch. Five new Guardians have been hired and trained, bringing the total number of Lion Guardians employed in the Amboseli ecosystem up to 29.
Read the Lion Guardians blog here
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.
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 estimated 2,000 lions every year due to growing population, direct killing of lions and habitat destruction.
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 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 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 Dohrn, 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
For the latest news from the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project, the Mara Predator Project and the Lion Guardians please visit their blogs.
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